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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. In Chapter 5, who attempts to silence de Grazia and Mailer as they squabble onstage?

2. In Chapter 2, what drug does Mailer repeatedly decry?

3. In Chapter 2, to whom does Mailer state he holds final allegiance?

4. Which social or literary figure calls Mailer in Chapter 2?

5. What crime would Mailer be guilty of in returning young men's draft cards during the march, according to the statement in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. What appraisal of Robert Lowell does Mailer make in en route to the Department of Justice in Chapter 3?

2. Describe the interactions Mailer has with his fellow speakers at the party in Chapter 4.

3. Describe the performance space of this section.

4. How does Norman Mailer characterize his hangover in Chapter 2?

5. What state is Mailer in when he leaves the party in Chapter 4?

6. What is Mailer's attitude toward protest at the beginning of the novel?

7. How do Ed de Grazia and Mailer scuffle in Chapter 5?

8. Describe Mailer's emceeing in Chapters 5 and 6?

9. What does Mailer pointedly note about the black delegates at the march in Chapter 3?

10. What narrative is told by the Time Magazine article of Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of notables like Lowell, Mailer, and Macdonald? Write an essay about the role of celebrity in the protest. Why does Mitch Goodman go about convincing Mailer to join the protest, knowing his personal feelings and tendency toward wild behavior? In the latter half of the essay, discuss how the notables actually fare in the March. What do they do to show support for those who face beatings and litigation?

Essay Topic 2

In speaking about the younger marchers who are verbally abused and often beaten and kept in jail for weeks, Mailer calls this protest at the Pentagon a rite of passage. Write an essay about the rites of passage inchoate in it. What individual actions must these young people undergo in this rite? Are they uniformly painful and traumatic? How so? In summation, discuss what these protesters intend to achieve through this rite. What are they accomplishing by undergoing these hardships?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout Armies of the Night, Mailer interrupts his own narrative to discuss the novel itself and his decisions regarding how to tell the story. Write an essay about these interruptions, their function in the writing, and their effect on the reader:

Part 1) How does Mailer explain his decision to halt the narrative after his arrest? What information does he go back in time to impart before continuing with the events of the march? Discuss what Mailer indicates himself about a writer by this self-referential interruptus. Is he merely indicating that he is an incorrigible trickster?

Part 2) In the final passages of Book I, Mailer interrupts the events in Occoquan to offer a treatise on America's involvement in Vietnam. Why is this passage significant in understanding the development of Mailer the character? To what extent does it illustrate character growth in the story?

Part 3) Discuss the interruption of narration at the beginning of Book II. What significant literary development is happening in the novel at this point, and why is Mailer choosing to halt the story to inform the reader? How does this interruptus serve to mark a complete tone shift in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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