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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 was new about the enemy composition in Vietnam as opposed to previous wars?

2. Which of the following is not a response to killing as described at the beginning of Chapter 1?

3. Which of the following is not a means of recuperation Grossman endorses for PTSD in Chapter 3?

4. Between which two stages of the killing process is a murder-suicide fluctuating, as described in Chapter 2?

5. What stigma constitutes a gray atrocity?

Short Essay Questions

1. What factors does Grossman say are contributing to youth violence in Chapter 1?

2. What changes have occurred in recent years to mitigate the psychiatric casualties of Vietnam?

3. What solution did the American military devise to deal with low firing rates in World War II?

4. Which essential qualities makes a role model desirable as listed in Chapter 4?

5. What evidence does Grossman provide that violence among youth has increased dramatically since the 1950s?

6. What examples from Chapter 6 illustrate a problematic relationship with women in the military?

7. What are the three categories of atrocity as delineated in Chapter 1?

8. According to Grossman, why do young people idolize entertainment figures more than police and politicians?

9. What separates a natural warrior from a psychopath?

10. According to Grossman in Chapter 3, how can PTSD be treated effectively?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the first sections of ON KILLING, Dave Grossman discusses how a myriad of causes are often cited for causing psychiatric casualties in combat. He goes through them an refutes all by the trauma of killing. Write a three part essay in which you discuss the argument for and against several of these potential causes. What effect does each cause have on a soldier in combat? How has this manifested itself in the field? What argument does Grossman use to refute the assertion that it is the primary cause of psychiatric casualties?

Part 1) Exhaustion.

Part 2) Fear.

Part 3) Hate.

Essay Topic 2

In the first section of ON KILLING, the author argues that the soldier has more options on a battlefield than simply fight or flight. In an essay, discuss these options and particularly the most common one taken: posture. Firstly, why is fight-or-flight not a legitimate choice in a fight between two humans? What other two options are open to humans in this case? What makes posturing such an attractive option, and how has the development of firearms only improved a soldier's ability to posture?

Essay Topic 3

The likelihood of a soldier to kill in combat is markedly improved if he feels he is not the only culpable party to the killing. Write an essay about this diluting of guilt. What is group absolution, and what components of a group dynamic make it possible? Why is a soldier comforted by the sense that others around him are also killing? What is a crew-served weapon, and how is it effective in dispersing guilt for killing?

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