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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. How does the audience respond to Lowell's poem in Chapter 6?

2. Which of the following locations is not one that Mailer mentions rioting over the Vietnam issue in Chapter 2?

3. What is Mailer's primary complaint about the performance space?

4. What does Mailer take from de Grazia in Chapter 4?

5. Which of the following is not a style of dress that marchers wear in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the performance space of this section.

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

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

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

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

6. How does Mailer respond to William Sloane Coffin in Chapter 3?

7. How does Mailer annoy Ed de Grazia in Chapter 4?

8. Why are Mailer, Macdonald, and Lowell ambivalent about getting arrested in Chapter 1?

9. What rationalization does Mailer give for taking his book from the hostess's house in Chapter 5?

10. How is Robert Lowell received by the audience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel Armies of the Night, Norman Mailer makes reference to other source materials. These offer the reader another vantage for the events of October, 1967. Write an essay about these source materials, focusing on two uses in the novel:

Part 1) The novel begins with a an assessment of Norma Mailer's involvement in the march on the Pentagon in Time Magazine. What does this article have to say about Mailer? How, in essence, does it provide a counterpoint for what follows in the rest of the novel? To what extent does this article both inspire Mailer to write the novel and serve as a destination of sorts for him? Why is Mailer so dedicated to responding to the article?

Part 2) The second book of the novel is full of quotes and references to other publications. Discuss several of these publications and their role in Book II. How does their inclusion reflect a different sort of narration from the narration in Book I? Is Mailer attempting to cite them as corroboration or refute them as he does the Time Magazine story?

Essay Topic 2

Near the end of the second book, Mailer enumerates the reasons why some people oppose the war in Vietnam. Write an essay about this logic, focusing on three of the groups he mentions. Do you think their reasoning in sound? What organizations and individuals represent this group in the narrative? Are there modern parallels to this group in today's society?

Part 1) Those who want Asia and, eventually, America to turn Communist.

Part 2) Those who are pacifists.

Part 3) Those who think the war is unjust.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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