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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 3, what city does the Steering Committee meet in?

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

3. Who is Mailer's lawyer in Chapter 9?

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

5. After a term in which of Mailer's books has the band named itself?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is the crowd becoming unruly in Chapter 4?

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

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

5. How does Mailer fair in court in Chapter 9?

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

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

8. What reasons does Mailer list in Chapter 7 for people to be against the war?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mailer's novel is a powerfully eloquent evocation of the pain, passion, and hard realities surrounding the 1967 March on the Pentagon, but it is peppered with instances of his being unable to adequately express his feelings about America, protest and the war. Write an essay, detailing three instances in which Mailer is fantastically ineffective in explaining himself to crowds or the press? How does he explaining this iniquity? What does he feel when he soberly understands media reaction to his words? Sum up the essay with a discussion of how the novel Armies of the Night is, in part, his attempt to right these failures.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the consistent comparison of the marchers in the novel to a conventional army. Begin your discussion of this likening of two armies by focusing on Mailer's connection of the march to his tour of duty in World War II. What are the similarities he mentions? Where is the comparable glory and agony experienced by both groups? How do the marchers have to prove their courage and willingness to sacrifice for comrades? How does this affect the wording used in describing them?

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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