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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 1, Mailer claims that America's New Left is drawing its political aesthetic from what country?

2. What word does Mailer use repeatedly in Chapter 1 to describe the effect of the Pentagon March?

3. In Chapter 2, what does Mailer specifically not want done to him at the protest, should the police sweep in?

4. Whose "dwarf alter ego" did Mailer claim to be at the Ambassador speech, according to Macdonald in Chapter 3?

5. Which character in Chapter 3 is astounded by the fact that the papers were kind to Mailer's performance and not his?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasoning does Mailer give for placing himself at the center of the narrative of the novel in Chapter 1?

2. How is Robert Lowell received by the audience?

3. What concerns Goodman about the protest planning in Chapter 3?

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

5. Why is Mailer late to emcee the event in Chapter 5?

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

7. What does Mailer feel about left-wing splinter groups' names in Chapter 3?

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

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

10. What happens once the group arrives at the Justice Department in Chapter 4?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the protest culture that exists in the world of the novel. How does this culture affect the way famous people live their lives: in particular, how does the omnipresence of protest in America affect Mailer's decision to go to Washington, DC? How does the specter of the Martin Luther King, Jr. march on Washington hang over the events of the 1967 March in the novel? To what extent is the protest movement becoming somewhat rote in Armies of the Night?

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, New York and Washington, DC, are distinctly juxtaposed where one is a place of planning and thought and the other place of action of danger. Write an essay about the juxtaposition of these two cities. Which character best typifies the aesthetic of New York, in your opinion? Which character best typifies DC? What is the significance of the fact that many of the notables spend Saturday attempting to get back to New York for a society party? What does it mean that Mailer soon forgets about this goal?

Essay Topic 3

More than midway through the novel, Mailer suddenly goes back in time and explains the planning of the March, events which he was not present for. Write an essay about the planning of the March, discussing which individuals and groups shaped it. What were the divergent opinions in terms of the locations and tactics of the March, and which one's won out in the end? Discuss individuals and groups who fell into conflict, why they did so, and how this affected the development of a strategy. In summation, determine whether the March had a coherent and unified planning process.

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