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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 does Del tell James about Volterra's intention regarding his film in Chapter 10?

2. To what does Volterra attribute the cult killings at the end of Chapter 8?

3. How does the congregation react to Orville's inability to speak in tongues in Chapter 14?

4. Which of the following Chapter 12 characters is grievously ill?

5. In discussing the methodology of the cult in Chapter 9, what does Andahl insist the cultists are not?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does James find a new sense of comfortable stasis at the end of the novel?

2. What does James Axton learn in Bombay early in Chapter 11?

3. What unfortunate occurrence happens to David Keller in Chapter 13?

4. How does James follow up on his Mani discovery later in Chapter 8?

5. In Chapter 12, why does Owen go to Lake Rajsamand?

6. In Chapter 8, what does James see in Mani that shakes him up?

7. How has Rowser become more paranoid in Chapter 11?

8. What admission does James make to Lindsay Keller in Chapter 13?

9. What traumatic experience happens to Orville Benton in Chapter 14?

10. How does Owen look in Chapter 12?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the ensemble that is James Axton's expatriate social scene. What collective philosophy do these people share, and for whence does this philosophy derive? In this essay, discuss the dynamic that exists within the group. Who are the most dominant figures in the group dynamic, and who feels like an outsider? Which couples are strong and which are clearly foundering? How is this made apparent?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the character of Frank Volterra. What is his connection to the Axtons, and how does he find himself in the search of the language cult? Discuss how DeLillo paints Volterra with a different brush that the other characters. Is he, in essence, a caricature of the temperamental auteur director? How does Del Nearing's attachment to Volterra humanize him to a certain point?

Essay Topic 3

In DeLillo's novel, objects and words take on symbolic value. Some of this becomes inchoate as a result of age and divine intent. Some of it is created in the mind of the observer. Write an essay discussing the significance of certain objects in the book. What individual is engrossed with this object, and what reasons does he or she give? What effect does this object have on characters? What divine significance does this object have in relation to other elements of the novel?

Part 1) The Acropolis

Part 2) The Cuneiform the archeologist hires a boy to read on a high precipice.

Part 3) The Ta Onomata boulder

(see the answer keys)

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