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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 European city does James Axton have an apartment in?

2. What city is James in at the beginning of Chapter 3?

3. What scares Owen about religion?

4. After James drops Anand and Rajiv off in Chapter 4, what does Tap request they do?

5. Which of following characters does not speak Ob?

Short Essay Questions

1. What theories do Kathryn and Owen posit about the killings in Chapter 5?

2. Why is Owen uncomfortable talking about the Feast of the Virgin in Chapter 2?

3. What does James Axton do in Europe?

4. What plan does Volterra have for his life after film?

5. Why does James Axton like having late-night talks with Owen and Kathryn?

6. What strange coincidence does James notice at the end of Chapter 6?

7. Describe the awkward lunch at the beginning of Chapter 7.

8. What explanation of the language cult's motives does Vosdanik offer in Chapter 6?

9. Describe Kathryn and James' argument in Chapter 5?

10. How does Kathryn rise quickly in Owen Brademas's dig?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the Language Cult and how it becomes a symbol in the novel. To what extent does the language cult exist outside of time and place? In what ways is it stateless and oddly innocent? In discussing the otherworldliness of the cult, determine what it represents to the people who search it out. What do these lost Americans long to find at the end of the search for the cult? To what extent does the cult represent a pre-American world?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the marriage and separation of James and Kathryn Axton. How did their marriage affect each others individual life and goals? What state is the marriage in when the novel begins, and how did it reach this point? Discuss how Kathryn and James' personalities and lifestyles change after the separation. What idiosyncrasies are revealed as a result? What finally breaks the marriage apart for good, and how does the veneer of cordiality disappear as a result?

Essay Topic 3

The action of Don DeLillo's The Names largely centers on a group of westerners' search for the language cult that stalks Eurasia. Each of these men has a reason for seeking this death-cult, and each has tactics that yield varying success. Write an essay about the individual quests for the cult in the novel:

Part 1) Why does Frank Volterra want to find the death cult in The Names, and what is his intention when he does find them? Discuss how Volterra initially hears about the cult, and what tactic he uses to find them. What success does this yield? Why does the director give up?

Part 2) Why does James Axton want to find the cult? Discuss what other events in his life coincide with this dangerous quest. What does James discover about the cult, and how? How is his sense of sanity affected by this? What new fears and obsessions does the search evoke?

Part 3) Why does Owen Brademas want to find the death cult? How does his childhood relate to his goals in the quest? Discuss what tactics and skills make Owen Brademas the most successful of the searchers in the novel. Why, in the end, does Owen consider his search a failure?

(see the answer keys)

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