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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sontag compares the desire for images of people in pain to which other recurrent type of image?
(a) Images of love.
(b) Images of nude bodies.
(c) Images of happiness.
(d) Images of natural disasters.

2. Which famous surrealist thinker does Sontag quote as saying "Beauty will be convulsive, or it will not be?"
(a) Salvador Dali.
(b) Andre Breton.
(c) Pablo Picasso.
(d) Virginia Woolf.

3. Sontag describes a famous photograph from the Spanish Civil War in which two things occur simultaneously. What are those two things?
(a) A soldier was shot and the commander surrendered.
(b) The photograph was snapped and the soldier was hit by a bullet.
(c) A shot was fired and a soldier fell.
(d) A boy died and a helicopter landed.

4. Sontag discusses the subtitle of "Here is New York" in some detail. What was this subtitle?
(a) "A Democracy of Images."
(b) "September 11th, 2001."
(c) "A Nation in Shock."
(d) "A City Mourns."

5. Sontag references an agreement in which the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan came together to renounce war. What is the name of this agreement?
(a) The Treaty of Brandenburg.
(b) The Non-Aggression Pact of 1937.
(c) The Treaty of Versailles.
(d) Kellogg-Briad Pact of 1928.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ultimately, Sontag claims that war is:

2. Fenton's "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" is unique for which of the following reasons?

3. Sontag claims that American journalists have always followed one tacit prohibition. What have American journalists always avoided?

4. Sontag notes that at the time Virginia Woolf wrote "Three Guineas," war journalism was different than it is now. How was it different?

5. Sontag calls for the reader's sympathy for the wounded Taliban soldier whose pain graced the cover of "The New York Times" by suggesting which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. Using the example of genocides and AIDS in Africa, Sontag argued that images of suffering in far-off places carry a double meaning. What is this double meaning?

2. What did Sontag mean when she claimed that the memory of war is mostly local? What does this mean for international news firms?

3. According to Sontag, how are standards for journalism determined in an era of tele-controlled warfare?

4. Discuss one way in which the development of technology during and after the Vietnam War has affected the veracity of photographs.

5. Explain the significance of Jacques Callot's 1633 series of etchings titled "Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerra" (The Miseries and Misfortunes of War). Why did Sontag discuss this work?

6. Explain how being a "spectator of calamities" occurring in far-off places is a "quintessentially modern experience."

7. According to Sontag, how does a photograph in the news media differ from a written account? How does the audience change?

8. Explain the purpose of photography collections such as Ernst Friedrich's "Krieg dem Kriege!" (War Against War!), and discuss how these works attempt to achieve this end.

9. Discuss the significance of "Here is New York," the exhibit of photographs taken on September 11th during the collapse of the World Trade Center.

10. Discuss the significance of Eddie Adams' photograph of the execution of a suspected Vietcong agent. What did Sontag say was particularly striking about this image and the circumstances of its creation?

(see the answer keys)

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