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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 2, what does Owen admit is the only thing he wants to do with his life?
2. What does James wish he could do at the end of the night in Chapter 2?
3. What does Anand confide to James about Owen in Chapter 4?
4. In Chapter 1, what word does Kathryn bet James that Tap knows?
5. About whom does James dream about in Chapter 6?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Kathryn rise quickly in Owen Brademas's dig?
2. Describe Kathryn and James' argument in Chapter 5?
3. Describe the murder in Kouros.
4. Why is James ridiculed by his friends in the beginning of Chapter 1?
5. What indication exists in Chapter 1 that relations are strained between James and Kathryn?
6. Describe the tiff that Charles Maitland and James have at the end of Chapter 7.
7. What does James Axton do in Europe?
8. What is James and Kathryn's relationship with Volterra?
9. In Chapter 4, what plan does Kathryn have for after her dig ends?
10. Describe the awkward lunch at the beginning of Chapter 7.
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In The Names, Don DeLillo has created a central mystery - the mystery of the cult - in which clues and revelations are annoyingly amorphous and cannot necessarily be trusted. Write an essay about the subjectivity of truth in the novel, focusing on three pieces of information that James Axton gleans in his investigation. Where does this information come from? What is James's attitude towards it? Does he think that it is ultimately trustworthy?
Essay Topic 2
The expatriates of The Names have a decorum and a series of systems they use as they travel through Europe and Asia. Write an essay about the qualms, Concerns, recommendations, and preferences that permeate the characters' conversations and actions? What do they take care always to do? What do they avoid at all costs? How do these decisions reflect a changing world and the dangers that will emerge throughout the novel? How is traveling in this period different from previous expatriation and the international travel of today?
Essay Topic 3
Violence occurs intermittently throughout The Names, and when it falls, the violence comes quickly and partially witnessed. It is ambiguous in its intent and raises all sorts of questions. Write an essay about moments of violence in the novel:
Part 1) Discuss the first murder. Who makes not of it first in the novel? Is it witnessed, first-hand by any character? How does Owen connect the violence to the people he met in the cave? What inquiries lead to the connection of the first murder to the ones that came before and after it?
Part 2) How does Owen experience his only murder with the death cult? Is he actually present when the man is bludgeoned to death? Why or why not? In assessing the effect of this violence on him as a character, discuss what leads up to the murder and what follows it.
Part 3) How is David Keller shot in the novel? Who shoots him, and why? How does James Axton, and by proxy the reader, experience this act of violence in the novel? Discuss what concerns and doubts it creates in the protagonist's mind. How is the act explained?
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This section contains 1,185 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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