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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. Kurt Vonnegut tells Mary O'Hare that he is going to call his book:

2. Which college did Vonnegut attend?

3. How did Vonnegut once write an outline for a book?

4. Where is Billy when he wakes up from his dream?

5. How did Billy Pilgrim learn to swim?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to the army scouts who left Billy and Roland behind?

2. When does Billy Pilgrim first experience being unstuck in time?

3. According to the aliens in Kilgore Trout's book, what is the flaw in the story of Christ?

4. Why does the author keep reminding the reader that Edgar Derby will die in Dresden?

5. What does Billy extrapolate happening after the end of the war movie he is watching on the night before his daughter's wedding?

6. Why does Billy keep a framed copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office?

7. How do the Tralfamadorans answer Billy's question about being kidnapped?

8. Why does Vonnegut say this book will be "jumbled and jangled?"

9. Why did Roland Weary start to beat and kick Billy?

10. What does the story of Sodom and Gomorrah have to do with Vonnegut's book about Dresden?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Tralfamadoran views of life and death with different religious philosophies.

Essay Topic 2

Howard J. Campbell appears in another novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, called Mother Night. Compare the character as depicted in that novel with the Howard J. Campbell that appears in Slaughterhouse-Five.

Essay Topic 3

Compare Vonnegut's story structure with conventional novels. How does his free associative writing affect the story that he is telling?

(see the answer keys)

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