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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 kind of world will a person live in without self respect?

2. What does Didion dismiss the center as?

3. In what city does Hughes live?

4. What do underage kids need to get married?

5. What is the title of this essay?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Center of Study of Democratic Institutions?

2. How has Las Vegas turned marriage into a big business?

3. What does Didion remember about the first movie in which she saw John Wayne?

4. How does Baez act in court?

5. Why does Didion think she wrote about the woman in a dirty wrapper?

6. How do people treat their marriages in Las Vegas?

7. Why did Didion choose Howard Hughes as her subject?

8. How did John Wayne react to the problems on set?

9. What conclusion does Didion come to about her habit of writing notes?

10. Into what does Michael give Didion an insight?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose one of the following subjects to base a 500-word essay:

1) The hippie cultural influence on Sixties and Seventies America.

2) The true definition of moral behavior.

3) The importance of an extended family.

Essay Topic 2

Write a critical essay about one of the following statements:

1) John Wayne was a force of nature, a man who could beat cancer and return to his life as if nothing had happened.

2) The free-thinking, 1960s California created an environment where a person like Joan Baez could thrive.

3) Michael Laski is a young man with warped ideals who hides in a group of radicals rather than take a chance to be who he is.

Essay Topic 3

Using only the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, write Joan Didion's biography.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 789 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample