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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 does the narrator scream in the end of Chapter 22?

2. How much older is the narrator than Lana?

3. The narrator says in Chapter 19, "What my time in the cave taught me is that the ultimate life-and-death struggle is" what?

4. What word from Chapter 19 means having an obstinately uncooperative attitute or discipline?

5. What book does the commissar give to the narrator in Chapter 23?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the narrator's central internal conflict in the beginning of Chapter 16?

2. What do Lana and Bon discuss at the night club in Chapter 14? How does this conversation impact the narrator?

3. What does the narrator confess to Sonny before killing him? Why?

4. How does the admiral compare the plight of the troops to Jesus in Chapter 17?

5. How has the narrator's past year in the prison been described in Chapter 19?

6. What is symbolized by the narrator's rucksack in the novel?

7. Why does Bon insist on returning to Vietnam for the General in Chapter 13?

8. Where are the narrator and Bon sent after leaving the prison in the end of the novel?

9. What is revealed in the jar on the commandant's desk? What does it symbolize?

10. What is significant about Ms. Mori's family photos being set out in Chapter 13?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the methods of torture used on the narrator during "reeducation." What are the effects of these methods? How is the narrator affected both mentally and physically? How is he led to recover?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the narrator and Bon's capture in Thailand. What mission are they on when they are captured? Who captures them? Where are they taken after capture?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the events surrounding the Fall of Saigon. When did the Fall of Saigon occur? For how many years was the Vietnam War fought? How does the author depict these events in The Sympathizer?

(see the answer keys)

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