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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 word does Mailer use to describe supporters of the ear in Chapter 7?

2. Why does Mailer determine it is time to get arrested in the end of Chapter 5?

3. At what time in Chapter 8 does Teague begin his lectures again?

4. Which of the following is not something Mailer describes as the march begins in Chapter 4?

5. In Chapter 5, what is Mailer's mind racing to figure out?

Short Essay Questions

1. What permits does the Mobilization Committee get in Chapter 4?

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

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

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

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

6. What conclusion does Mailer draw from two articles at the end of Chapter 6?

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

8. How does the tone of the novel shift dramatically at the beginning of Book II?

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

10. How does Mailer think about his family in Chapter 5?

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

Mailer the narrator and historian makes a point of arguing that both the MP's and the marchers are saddened by the violence evoked by the protest. Write an essay analyzing the way Mailer dramatizes the events, giving even-handed account of both sides of the police line. What examples does he give of sensitive and professional MP's? How does he explain the logic behind their brutality and their shame at having committed it? Conversely, how is the violence legally unjustified? How does it result in terror and wild paranoia among the marchers? Is that its intent?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout Armies of the Night, Mailer interrupts his own narrative to discuss the novel itself and his decisions regarding how to tell the story. Write an essay about these interruptions, their function in the writing, and their effect on the reader:

Part 1) How does Mailer explain his decision to halt the narrative after his arrest? What information does he go back in time to impart before continuing with the events of the march? Discuss what Mailer indicates himself about a writer by this self-referential interruptus. Is he merely indicating that he is an incorrigible trickster?

Part 2) In the final passages of Book I, Mailer interrupts the events in Occoquan to offer a treatise on America's involvement in Vietnam. Why is this passage significant in understanding the development of Mailer the character? To what extent does it illustrate character growth in the story?

Part 3) Discuss the interruption of narration at the beginning of Book II. What significant literary development is happening in the novel at this point, and why is Mailer choosing to halt the story to inform the reader? How does this interruptus serve to mark a complete tone shift in the novel?

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