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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Of the following people whom Didion interviews, which is the least accessible with information?
2. In his fantasies, where does Jack Lovett say he planned to take Inez when they're reunited?
3. Who gave Inez her emergency contact in Jakarta?
4. In what city did Frank Tawagata assist Harry Victor in his 1972 campaign?
5. On the radio interview to which Inez listens in this chapter, the analyst sums up America's position in Vietnam with what phrase?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Jessie Victor is one of the more unpredictable characters of DEMOCRACY. Write an essay analyzing her objectives, both those that she tells her father she wants to pursue and the ones she pursues by a series of inadvisable actions. What decisions does she make that cause problems both for her and for those around her? What reasoning does she give for making these choices, and what reasoning does the narrator infer? How doe these motivations connect with the goals she describes to her father?
Essay Topic 2
Perhaps the most central relationship of DEMOCRACY is that between the author and the reader. Didion - and her alter ego, the narrator - continually indicates that she is not going to honor the unspoken agreement of this relationship. Write an essay about this relationship in three parts:
Part 1) In what respect is Democracy not the narrator's first choice for a novel? What did Didion supposedly attempt to write before she settled on the story of Inez Victor and Jack Lovett?
Part 2) The narrator regularly uses conditional and hypothetical language when describing events in the story. What does this indicate simultaneously about her relationship with those events and with the reader?
Part 3) The order in which the story of DEMOCRACY is told is not chronological. Why do you think Didion chooses to structure the story this way? What does it deny to reader and what does it provide?
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay examining the local political situation leading to the Paul Christian killings. Focus on the relationships between the following two people: Wendell Omura and Janet Ziegler, Dwight Christian and Dick Ziegler, and Wendell Omura and Dick Ziegler. What business transactions unite these people? What litigation and what personal affairs? How does the Paul Christian shooting effectively resolve these conflicts? Is it actually connected to the affairs?
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This section contains 417 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) |
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