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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 borough of New York City is Arnold Epstein from?

2. What objection does Carney give to his assigned punishment?

3. What does the prostitute ask Eugene when he comes out from hiding?

4. What does Eugene tell Carney he is afraid of?

5. What does Eugene ask Epstein?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Eugene convince Daisy to kiss him?

2. What does Arnold's fantasy say about his character?

3. What does Daisy tell Eugene she will always know, if he winds up with another girl?

4. What does Hennessey's fantasy say about his character?

5. What state is Toomey in during Act 2, Scene 7?

6. How does Toomey treat Epstein, and why?

7. Describe Eugene's attempt to dance with Daisy.

8. What does Toomey tell the soldiers about their future service in the war?

9. What punishment does Toomey promise if Epstein doesn't complete his duty to Toomey's standards?

10. What is the soldiers' new sergeant like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Boot camp takes young men who are adapted to civilian life and attempts to adapt them for life in a war. Discuss this aspect of the characters' time in boot camp.

1) What makes a person a good soldier in the play? How good or bad are the same personality traits in civilian society? Which of the soldiers are well adapted to being in a war?

2) Which of the characters are best adapted for civilian life, and why? How well-suited are their characteristics in war?

3) Do the characters learn strategies for adapting their civilian behaviors to becoming soldiers? In what ways?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the play as a coming-of-age story.

1) How does Eugene mature during the course of the play? What knowledge, experience, and understanding about the world does he gain?

2) In what ways is boot camp a rite of passage that serves as a transition from childhood to adulthood?

3) How is Eugene's visit to the prostitute a rite of passage? What other rites of passage are there in the play?

Essay Topic 3

The play BILOXI BLUES is about soldiers during wartime, but little is actually seen of the war. Discuss the role of war in the novel.

1) Why does the play show Eugene's experience before shipping overseas, and then end with his retelling of events during the war, but not show the war itself?

2) How real does the war seem to the soldiers in boot camp?

3) What affect does the existence of the war, which the soldiers will soon have to become a part of, have on their decisions and attitudes?

(see the answer keys)

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