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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 claims that no one has a right to which of the following?
(a) Sympathy.
(b) Happiness.
(c) Ignorance.
(d) Bliss.

2. Sontag cites the Japanese narrative "Chushingura" in which the protagonist stops to appreciate the beauty of cherry blossoms one last time before committing ritual suicide as an example of which kind of shocking art?
(a) The type which, through the narrative form of pathos, continually induces emotional reactions.
(b) The type which is only relative to a particular culture, and thus has little effect on outsiders.
(c) The type which is often underestimated for its emotional impact.
(d) The type which is perennially performed, but which achieves less of a reaction with each performance.

3. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?
(a) An accurate perception.
(b) An obnoxious overstatement.
(c) An illusion.
(d) A regrettable truth.

4. Which of the following works does Sontag site as containing the first recognition of the human fascination with mutilated bodies?
(a) Socrates' "Apologia."
(b) Homer's "The Iliad."
(c) Virgil's "The Aeneid."
(d) Plato's "The Republic."

5. Which of the following poets expressed concerns about the effect of national-scale events on human sensibility in 1800?
(a) Eliot.
(b) Wordsworth.
(c) Pound.
(d) Hemingway.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag claims in Chapter 6 that, despite historical evidence to the contrary, we have come to see which of the following as the natural state of being?

2. How many soldiers did Wall's photograph depict?

3. Sontag cites one of her earlier books published in 1977. Which of the following is it?

4. What is the primary message carried by images of atrocity?

5. "Without Sanctuary" was a book of photographs taken of which of the following atrocities?

Short Essay Questions

1. Sontag discusses the emergence of apathy and cynicism toward war. According to her discussion, what feeling underlies cynicism about war and atrocity? What is the purpose of this cynicism?

2. Discuss the significance of the photograph's intended purpose. If a photograph is intended to convey a message, but because of the context in which it is displayed does not, is the photograph still successful?

3. Sontag asserts that many people become frustrated by their inability to act on the images of suffering they see in the media. What does this frustration often become?

4. In her discussion of the emotional impact of artistic renderings of suffering, Sontag referrs to Kabuki or Bunraku plays. What are these plays? Why does Sontag include this example?

5. Why does Sontag say that "it is not necessarily better to be moved?" Discuss the negative aspects of sentimentality.

6. What is unusual about Wall's "Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986)?" Discuss two aspects of the work that separate it from others like it.

7. Although there are more images broadcast, Sontag suggests that the human response to suffering is relatively unchanged. Discuss Sontag's views on our capacity for dealing with suffering.

8. Sontag claims that a book is still the best medium for circulating images of atrocity. Name the three reasons she provides.

9. Sontag discusses Sebastiao Salgado's series entitled "Migrations: Humanity in Transition" and points out one very problematic effect of the series. Discuss this effect.

10. According to Sontag, how does Goya's "The Disasters of War" differ from most depictions of mutilated and tortured bodies?

(see the answer keys)

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