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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 11, what Indian town is Owen living in?

2. With what other character does Hardeman work?

3. Which of the following is not a character that James Axton meets in person?

4. What reason does James offer in Chapter 10 for Greece's continued buffeting by stronger powers historically?

5. What does Andahl refused to divulge about the cult in Chapter 9?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does James Axton learn in Bombay early in Chapter 11?

2. According to Rowser in Chapter 11, what changes are happening in the Northeast Group.

3. How does James follow up on his Mani discovery later in Chapter 8?

4. How does Owen experience the murder in Chapter 12?

5. What does Singh say about the desert in Chapter 12?

6. In Chapter 12, why does Owen go to Lake Rajsamand?

7. What information does Andahl give about the cult in Chapter 9?

8. How does James seduce Janet Ruffing at the end of Chapter 9?

9. What prank do the Kellers and James try to play on Hardeman in Chapter 11?

10. What point about the murders does Andahl make in Chapter 9?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Don DeLillo's novel deals with the notion of marriage in the latter half of the twentieth century by observing several married people dealing with issues of modern marriage. Write an essay about three such individuals. How does each individual feel about the marriage? How do they deal with the temptations involved in living abroad? How do these decisions affect the marriage? Discuss the state of the marriage at the end of the novel:

Part 1) James Axton

Part 2) Ann Maitland

Part 3) Janet Ruffing

(see the answer keys)

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