View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. For what does Sharpe search the city?

2. What is made for the volunteers?

3. What does Harper tell Sharpe about the Spanish volunteers?

4. What does Sharpe hear right before the cazadores enter the town?

5. What does Vivar see when Sharpe removes his shirt?

Short Essay Questions

1. How long do the troops march and what do the riflemen do to keep their movement a secret?

2. What happens when the troops arrive at a stream?

3. What does Vivar want the riflemen to do and what does Sharpe do?

4. What is the legend about the gonfalon?

5. What does Sharpe do with the sentry?

6. Why does Sharpe know the French who have appeared are not the real attack?

7. Where do the riflemen flee from the French pouring out of the palace and what do they see there?

8. What does Vivar tell Sharpe to do in the chapel and what does Sharpe find?

9. What do Sharpe and Louisa talk about and what is Louisa's idea? How does Sharpe feel about her idea?

10. What does the French colonel tell Sharpe and what is Sharpe's response?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in Sharpe's Rifles.

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of Sharpe's Rifles. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of Sharpe's Rifles. How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

Essay Topic 2

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would the novel be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Don Blas Vivar, Major Warren Dunnett, Colonel Pierre de l'Eclin, and the Count of Mouromorto. Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe and Harper or one in service to someone of wealth and/or privilege.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land/sea where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How do the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

Essay Topic 3

In any book centered around the military, leadership of the troops is often crucial with the better leaders able to command the respect and loyalty of their men. The men's willingness to follow a particular leader can have a decisive impact upon the success of a mission. Discuss the following:

1. Whose command style seems most effective? Analyze the elements of those effective leaders thoroughly and discuss the traits of the good leaders. What makes an excellent leader/commander? Give examples.

2. Whose command style seems most ineffective? Analyze the elements of those ineffective leaders thoroughly and discuss the traits of the poor leaders. What makes a poor leader/commander? Give examples.

3. Is disobeying a poor leader ever justifiable? Explain using details from the text, other books you have read and your personal experience. In times of war, disobeying an order can be punishable by death. Is this harsh sentence justifiable for such an act? Why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,175 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample