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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. Where does Babette teach?

2. Who is allegedly in the CIA?

3. In what year did the narrator invent his academic department?

4. Who helps Jack find a German teacher?

5. What do department heads wear at the College-on-the-Hill?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Murray come over to watch television with the kids?

2. Describe the student body of the College-on-the-Hill.

3. Why does Bee say that the people who crash landed went through a bad experience for nothing?

4. Why does Babette ask if Bee and Steffie know each other?

5. Characterize Heinrich in terms of the discussion about the rain he has with Jack. What does DeLillo want us to understand about him?

6. Describe the family lunch the Gladneys eat, in terms of who attended, what they ate and what the mood was.

7. What is the mood of the family when they are shopping at the mall?

8. Describe the scene that opens the novel, in terms of setting, action and narration.

9. Why does the chancellor suggest that Jack should change his persona, and what does he suggest?

10. Why did they evacuate the grade school in Chapter 9?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although many of the characters are unusual, Heinrich is one of the stranger characters. As a fourteen year old with a receding hairline, is he a good representation of the average American teenager? What are the things about Heinrich that you recognize in your peers and yourself? What things about him are different? Would you want to be friends with him, why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Foreshadowing is an important technique. Write an essay that explains how DeLillo foreshadows the Airborne Toxic Event with a series of prior events. Describe the events and be specific about his foreshadowing technique.

Essay Topic 3

While Jack is obsessed with a mass-murderer, he is afraid of his own death. Babette seems to think that Jack's biology and jealousy make him predestined to be homicidal. Interrogate her claims, based on evidence from the text. Why does Jack resort to violence? What does it have to do with his academic obsession with Hitler and maybe even his J.A.K. persona? How does DeLillo use German and associations with Germany to explore Jack's fear?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 865 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample