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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 Mailer liken himself to when he begins emceeing in Chapter 5?
2. What does Mailer state in Chapter 5 is the best course of action if you cannot please a liberal hostess?
3. What does Mailer take from de Grazia in Chapter 4?
4. Which of the following ideas is not something that Mailer declares the young generation believes in more fervently than its forebears in Chapter 1?
5. Whose flattery in Chapter 4 is Mailer suspicious of?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is Mailer's attitude toward protest at the beginning of the novel?
2. What happens once the group arrives at the Justice Department in Chapter 4?
3. What is the plan for the Justice Department protest?
4. How does Mailer characterize the march to the Washington Monument in Chapter 2?
5. What state is Mailer in when he leaves the party in Chapter 4?
6. What appraisal of Robert Lowell does Mailer make in en route to the Department of Justice in Chapter 3?
7. What does Mailer feel about left-wing splinter groups' names in Chapter 3?
8. What narrative is told by the Time Magazine article of Chapter 1?
9. What amusing interchange happens between Mailer and Lowell in this section?
10. What does Mailer find at the church in Chapter 3?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Norman Mailer is a large, robust, arrogant personality. His placement at the center of most of the novel creates a powerful presence the reader must contend with. Write an essay about the divergent components of Mailer's personality. Begin by discussing his engorged id. How does Mailer revel in excess int he early passages of the novel? What is he trying to achieve? In the second half of the essay, discuss the emerging of Mailer's better angels. How does this reflect another side to Mailer, one that wants to show respect and graciousness? How is the novel as a whole a reflection of this desire?
Essay Topic 2
Mailer's novel is a powerfully eloquent evocation of the pain, passion, and hard realities surrounding the 1967 March on the Pentagon, but it is peppered with instances of his being unable to adequately express his feelings about America, protest and the war. Write an essay, detailing three instances in which Mailer is fantastically ineffective in explaining himself to crowds or the press? How does he explaining this iniquity? What does he feel when he soberly understands media reaction to his words? Sum up the essay with a discussion of how the novel Armies of the Night is, in part, his attempt to right these failures.
Essay Topic 3
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?
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This section contains 1,128 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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