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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 did John make in his first job in politics?

2. What imagery does O'Brien use to convey the scene of John's anger and Kathy's reaction to it?

3. What does Claude Rasmussen recommend John do in Chapter 15, "What the Questions Were"?

4. What did one of the members of John's company have attached to his helmet?

5. What did John watch Weatherby do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Claude Rasmussen's opinion about what happened?

2. Describe the importance of the abortion Kathy had.

3. What do we learn about John's character from the evidence and narrative?

4. Describe the setting of the opening scene of In the Lake of the Woods.

5. What did John tell himself about what he did to Weatherby?

6. How does Kathy die in the hypothesis in Chapter 14?

7. What do we know about the night of the boiling plants?

8. Describe the difference between Arthur Lux and Vinny Pearson.

9. What does John think about Kathy's absence?

10. What was John's experience of Vietnam like, and what did Weatherby have to do with his experience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast Kathy's infidelity to John with Harmon and John's infidelity to Kathy with politics. How are they similar? How are they different? Can they even be described in the same terms?

Essay Topic 2

To what degree is this book internally consistent? How much does it follow the rules it lays out for its own unfolding?

Essay Topic 3

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

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