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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. Which of the following names is not among the dead listed in the beginning of Chapter 1?

2. What race does Doc Peret say is evident in Cacciato's appearance?

3. What item do the men find in their search of the train in Chapter 21?

4. Which of the following characters does not go the MARS system to call home in Chapter 24?

5. What is the ratio of support personnel to combat personnel in Chu Lai?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Paul Berlin lose Cacciato in Mandalay?

2. What news does Doc Peret deliver to Lieutenant Corson at the beginning of the novel?

3. How does Sidney Martin aggravate Third Squad in Chapter 25?

4. What are Sidney Martin's values regarding war as described in Chapter 25?

5. Why do Stink Harris and Bernie Lynn have a falling out?

6. In what state is Pederson on the day he dies?

7. Why can the Mayor of Ovissil not read Paul Berlin's history?

8. How does Sarkin Aung Wan react to Paul Berlin's description of their mission?

9. Describe Lieutenant Corson.

10. What does Paul Berlin hope regarding Cacciato?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Three times over the course of the Cacciato pursuit, Third Squad escapes certain death with little or no explanation as to how their salvation came about. Write an essay about these instances and what they say about the nature of the Cacciato war story:

Part 1) What does the Squad discover in the VC tunnels on the Vietnam-Laos border? How does this experience inform Paul Berlin's understanding of the enemy, and how - in the end - does Third Squad escape the tunnels? Where do they emerge?

Part 2) How does Third Squad nearly die in Tehran? What eventually saves them, and to what extent do these rescuing agents seem to appear out of Paul Berlin's mind?

Part 3) Which member of Third Squad disappears when the ocean-liner to Greece is suddenly searched? How do the remaining men manage to escape what seems like an inescapable situation?

Essay Topic 2

Paul Berlin is clearly a surrogate for Tim O'Brien in Going After Cacciato, developing the narrative as it is happening. Write an essay analyzing the storyteller role of Paul Berlin in the novel. How is Berlin's greatest weakness his tendency to self-mythologize? Is the central narrative of the novel, in fact, a massive self-delusion? In the end, is the creation of this delusion something beautiful, alarming, or both?

Essay Topic 3

Going After Cacciato is a mixture of fantasy and harsh reality, and the way in which Tim O'Brien interweaves these is as daring as any of the battles in the story.

Write an essay, in which you focus on three moments when fact and fantasy intersect. How does O'Brien make clear to the reader that he is shifting between these two planes? Where do these connections happen, and what characters do they involve?

(see the answer keys)

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