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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. Although Sontag is pessimistic about the broad effects of atrocity photographs, she did mention one positive outcome. What was it?
(a) The individual may come to a deeper understanding of the evil people may inflict.
(b) The victims of atrocities may soemtimes feel that their suffering is not in vain.
(c) Some people may still be persuaded by images of suffering.
(d) Images continually educate people in how to behave humanely.

2. Sontag discusses another common belief regarding media coverage of an event, and suggested that it may seem to contradict the first common belief she addresses. What is this second idea?
(a) Limited exposure diminishes the impact the images have on an audience.
(b) Repeated images in the media exhaust our ability to prevent new atrocities.
(c) Overexposure to images in the media makes people callous.
(d) The media sensationalizes stories of atrocity.

3. Which work of literature does Sontag cite as evidence that war was once seen as part of a man's life?
(a) The Iliad.
(b) The Aeneid.
(c) The Odyssey.
(d) The Republic.

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

5. Sontag suggests that it is still possible to "feel the pulse of Christian iconography" in much war photography. Which famous work of art does she suggest can be seen in W. Eugene Smith's photograph of the woman in Minamata cradling her child?
(a) The Passion of Christ.
(b) The Pieta.
(c) Descent from the Cross.
(d) The Last Supper.

Short Answer Questions

1. _______ is a classic use for the camera.

2. Sontag criticizes American portrayals of U.S. military strategy, saying that war museums do not emphasize which of the following?

3. In order to take pleasure in suffering, Sontag argues that one must necessarily have which of the following?

4. According to Sontag, people are less responsive to images of violence in which of the following contexts?

5. Diorama, tableaux and wax exhibits served which of the following purposes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss Sontag's assertion that some images serve as memento mori. What does she mean? How do they serve this purpose?

2. Ultimately, Sontag notes that to discuss the desensitization of all television viewers is a provincial move, at best. Why does she argue this?

3. How does Sontag refute claims that photography is somehow inherently more voyeuristic than other forms of observation?

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

5. Sontag suggests that Wall's work affirms the normalcy of war. How so?

6. Sontag discusses two widespread ideas about the influence of photography. Sontag notes that the second idea might seem to be the converse of the first. What is the second idea? Discuss the second idea using support from the book.

7. Sontag suggests that there is a rise of sadism in contemporary culture. Discuss this assertion using specific examples.

8. Sontag discusses two widespread ideas about the influence of photography. What is the first idea? Discuss it including one example.

9. 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?

10. What does Sontag mean when she said that photographs transform?

(see the answer keys)

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