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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. Which writer does Mailer think he is a stand-in for the young people in Chapter 7?

2. How does Mailer describe the MP's face at the end of Chapter 1?

3. What is Mailer worried about missing at the beginning of Chapter 8?

4. How many marchers does the New York Times suggest will be at the Pentagon protest in Chapter 5?

5. Why did march planning committee visit the Pentagon numerous times before the march?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the several movements the arrested marchers have to make in this section?

2. Describe the scene in Occaquan at the beginning of Chapter 6.

3. What do the MP's and the marchers have in common, according to Mailer in Chapter 6?

4. How does Dick Fontaine figure into the events of this section?

5. What train of people following the the march in Chapter 4?

6. How does Mailer determine it is time to get arrested at the end of Chapter 5?

7. What fracas does Mailer get into in Chapter 2?

8. In the detain room in Chapter 3, what strikes Mailer about the people around him?

9. What do the Fugs do at the Pentagon in Chapter 5?

10. Describe the mood of the crown in the beginning of Chapter 4.

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the use of stream-of-consciousness and free association in the narration of Armies of the Night. When are these modernist tools used most prevalently? To what extent do they appear when Mailer the character is swept up in some phenomenal experience? What does this style of narration say about Norman Mailer's state of mind? In the second half of the essay, discuss what Mailer most frequently associates toward. What does this say about his goals as an author in writing this novel?

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