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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. At the end of Chapter 1, what does Harry predict will happen to Jim?

2. What does Jim reminisce about from his childhood while watching the countryside go by?

3. What does Jim tell Mac influenced him to join the Party?

4. What does Jim decline to which Mac responds that Jim has no vices?

5. What was Dan's occupation before becoming a migrant crop worker?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jim not mind the hard work and life of Party members that Harry explains to him?

2. What is the situation in Torgas Valley with the Growers' Association and the pickers?

3. In Chapter 6, why does the checker offer Jim money in exchange for information? What information?

4. How does Mac use the analogy of running new hunting dogs with old timers with Jim?

5. What is the specific situation that occurred that Mac recounts as the reason for why Joy is "screwy."

6. What reason does Jim give Harry wanting to join the Party?

7. In Chapter 4, how is Mac's claim that the man who tries to scare you is usually scared of you an analogy to the strike?

8. In Chapter 2, Jim reminisces about mysterious happenings during his childhood; how did this, according to Jim, affect his mother?

9. What are the sounds playing at the end of Chapter 6?

10. Why is field work so dangerous, according to Mac?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mac states that he uses whatever materials are at hand to accomplish a goal. How does the birthing scene in Chapter 4 exemplify this statement he makes? What is his main goal and how is the birthing scene a foreshadowing of what is to come? Use specific examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Violence plays a key role throughout "In Dubious Battle." Both sides of the strike employ violence, sometimes differently but, towards the end of the novel, quite similarly. Describe how both sides of the fight use violence and how their use of violence ultimately amounts to little. Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Steinbeck wrote "In Dubious Battle" during the McCarthy era and was even blacklisted himself. How is this book specifically written for its social context? How does the suspicion of spies, the fear of being blacklisted, and turncoats within the novel resonate with what is going on in Steinbeck's contemporary period? Write an essay describing the parallels between the novel and Steinbeck's life.

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