View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is distinct about the writing style of Chapter 14?

2. What city is James in at the end of Chapter 9?

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

4. What does Charles specifically - and mistakenly - congratulate James for in Chapter 13?

5. Who leads James to Owen's place in Lahore at the beginning of Chapter 12?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Del Nearing and Frank Volterra meet?

3. According to Rowser in Chapter 11, what changes are happening in the Northeast Group.

4. How does Owen experience the murder in Chapter 12?

5. What information does Andahl give about the cult in Chapter 9?

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

7. What point about the murders does Andahl make in Chapter 9?

8. What is different about Chapter 14 from the rest of the novel?

9. What unsettling information does Ann Maitland tell James in Chapter 10?

10. Where is Volterra in his planning for the cult film at the end of Chapter 8?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The place of America in the international community is a recurring motif in the narrative. How are all of the main characters - James Axton, Kathryn Axton, and Owen Brademas - at the back and call of this place? What new dangers are emerging from the ether in regards to Americans abroad? How is James Axton an operative of America in the hostile international world? How does Eliades represent the opposite, a spokesman and operative for a disgruntled world?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

The world of The Names is one in which truth and facts are subjective. One can never be certain what is real and what is imagined. As such, there are a plethora of ambiguous characters in the novel. Write an essay about three such characters, discussing what they appear to be and what they are. How is the narrative affected by each of these characters? What deceptions do they perpetrate, and to what end? Is each characters' objectives identified by the end of the novel?

Part 1) Eliades

Part 2) Rowser

Part 3) Andahl

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,064 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample