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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 insists that images may be ineffective; however, they do serve one basic and significant function. What is that function?
(a) Images provide representation for the victims, no matter how flawed.
(b) Images remind us that humans are capable of causing great pain.
(c) Images inoculate us to the effects of atrocity.
(d) Images provide moral education.

2. Andy Warhol silk screened which of the following images of war as his only direct statement about the atrocity of war?
(a) The barren wasteland of trench warfare.
(b) The mushroom cloud of the a-bomb.
(c) The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.
(d) The death of the suspected Vietcong member.

3. Which of the following phrases does Sontag use to refer to items which allow us to remember or think on death?
(a) Memento mori.
(b) Emblems of suffering.
(c) Memorabilia.
(d) Photography.

4. Which nation's army was represented in Wall's photograph?
(a) Afghanistan.
(b) Soviet Union.
(c) Iraq.
(d) United States.

5. Concerned with the public health risk posed by cigarette smoking, officials in which country suggested that images of black lungs, damaged hearts or periodontal disease be included on the warning label for tobacco products?
(a) France.
(b) Canada.
(c) United States.
(d) United Kindgom.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag argues that which of the following effects keeps the television viewer's attention "light", "mobile" and fairly "indifferent" to the images on the screen?

2. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?

3. Which of the following terms does Sontag define as a commonly used term for those whose profession like journalists takes them into war zones?

4. 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?

5. Sontag notes that although museums remembering atrocities are common practice, there is no museum in the United States dedicated to which of the following atrocities?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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.

2. 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?

3. Sontag contrasts the perceived number of atrocities now with the number from years ago, and makes a specific claim about the rate of atrocity. Discuss this assertion.

4. 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?

5. Why is a museum, in Sontag's opinion, an inappropriate place to display atrocity photographs?

6. Describe the scene which Sontag refers to as the first description of bodies in anguish and identify the source of this description.

7. 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.

8. According to Sontag, why is there no museum dedicated to the victims of the slave trade?

9. 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?

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

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