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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Havercamp confess to Sharpe?

2. What calms Fenner?

3. What happens to Lynch when he is sent out with Harper?

4. In Chapter 18, what does Simmerson do with the two account books?

5. What does Sharpe do when Girdwood flees?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens with Anne and Fenner after Lawford leaves?

2. What does Jane tell Sharpe about her involvement with the recruiting scheme?

3. What does Sharpe do when Girdwood runs?

4. What does Jane estimate is the kind of money the schemers are making off the recruits?

5. What does Jane tell Sharpe about her personally?

6. What does Sharpe decide to do in London and when that was unsuccessful what does he end up doing?

7. What does Anne tell Sharpe about him wanting to take Fenner and Simmerson down?

8. How does Jane's mission to obtain the accounting books turn out and how does she feel?

9. What does Sharpe do with the men at Foulness after he sets up the new command structure?

10. What does Sharpe do with the men of the second battalion?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Richard Sharpe is no exception. Sharpe's legendary powers of military strategy is juxtaposed with his reputation as a womanizer. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Sharpe demonstrates his prodigious powers of military strategy. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Sharpe's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Sharpe's admirable traits helped him obtain a high rank in the military despite his background as a child. Have his flaws impacted his career at all? Do any of those under his command seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 2

Girdwood is the primary antagonist in the novel and a completely deplorable character, although Simmerson and Fenner are indeed close seconds.

1. Why do you think Girdwood is still in the military? Discuss his motives and the military's motives for allowing him to stay. Use examples from Sharpe's Regiment to support your answer.

2. What do you think would happen to Girdwood if he served in the U.S. Army and still did the crimes he did? Compare the modern concept of criminals in the military with that of the era of Sharpe's Regiment.

3. Girdwood seems to be not only despicable, but pitiable. Discuss the concept of characters who though despicable can also be pitied. Use examples from Sharpe's Regiment to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

The conclusion of Chapter 19 finds Sharpe at his lowest ebb--he has "solved" the mystery of his missing men but has also fallen into the hands of his enemies, is under official arrest, and is powerless to effect change. At this point, he appears entirely subject to the whims of Fenner, who plans to send him away under official condemnation.

1. There is a saying in writing circles that for good conflict one needs to: "put a character out on a limb then keep making the limb weaker and weaker." Discuss this idea in relationship to the chronological events that puts Sharpe under arrest and powerless.

2. Discuss what you believe are the emotional, psychological and physical reactions to being powerless and how a person might mitigate some of those reactions. Include in your discussion the harm or benefit one might derive from being powerless.

3. Sharpe is powerless. Most people find themselves in situations in life in which they are powerless. Discuss some lessons one could learn from being powerless. Use examples from the text and your own experience to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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