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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 Mailer offend the hostess in Chapter 4?

2. In Chapter 3, what concern does does Goodman have about the route to the Pentagon?

3. What does Mailer drink during the party of Chapter 4?

4. According to mailer in Chapter 1, which of the following qualities is definitely not necessary in a protagonist for the story of the March?

5. In Chapter 1, what does Mailer claim the young generation hates more than anything else?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Mailer find at the church in Chapter 3?

4. How is Mailer received after Lowell in Chapter 6?

5. Why is Dwight Macdonald livid about the newspaper coverage of the Ambassador event in Chapter 3?

6. Why does Mailer state he does not have a good instinct for speeches at protests?

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

8. Describe Norman Mailer as a character.

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Norman Mailer, throughout the novel, refers to himself and the other writers and organizers of the march as notables, indicating that they will get preferential treatment from authorities. Mailer makes clear in Armies of the Night that the notables have less at stake than the younger, less famous participants. Write an essay about the difference in consequences faced by the notables and the younger marchers, focusing on two groups. What pain does each group face? Why are the notables excepted from this risk? How do the younger groups face this danger with stoic resolve over the course of the novel?

Part 1) The young men who have turned over their draft cards.

Part 2) The marchers who remain camped in the Pentagon lot on Saturday evening.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Write an essay about the novel's placement as a work of narrative non-fiction. How is the friction between the literary qualities of the novel and its documentary qualities central to the work's aesthetic? What steps does Norman Mailer take to ensure that Armies of the Night is a work of literary bravado? How does he then undermine these literary conventions by pointedly choosing to invoke a historical tone in the latter passages? What sort of dynamic does this create for the reader?

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