Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit Test For The Sorrow of War
Unit Test For The Sorrow of War
Final Test
1. What was Kien planning before the air raid sirens were called?
a. To go to a bar
b. To go home
c. A romantic dinner with Phuong
d. To go to a movie
5. Where do Kien and Phuong go when they first hear about the outbreak of war?
a. The school
b. The train station
c. The beach
d. The barracks
6. What 'peaceful' memory of the war does Kien think about in this Part?
a. Gambling with his platoon
b. Their platoon's trip to Hanoi
c. Smoking cigarettes
d. Their platoon's trip to a southern farm
7. Why does Phuong accompany Kien on the train when they sign up for the war effort?
a. They want to spend all the time they have left together
b. She has never been on a train before
c. To make sure he gets there
d. She is travelling to her relatives
9. What happens to the train that Phuong and Kien eventually get on?
a. It crashes
b. It breaks down
c. It arrives safely
d. It is bombed
11. How does Phuong help Kien to rejoin his unit and avoid being accused of desertion?
a. She makes a phone call to their army base
b. She writes a letter to their commander
c. She gives him money to bribe the guards
d. She hitches a ride with him to their barracks
13. What does Kien do with the culprits of the farmhouse killing?
a. He executes them
b. He bribes them
c. He runs away
d. He doesn't execute them
15. At the end of the Vietnam War, how were Kien and the other soldiers treated by the public?
a. They were ignored
The Sorrow of War
Final Test
18. What device does the author use when he writes, “But relentlessly, his pen disobeyed him” (57)?
a. Hyperbole
b. Personification
c. Metaphor
d. Juxtaposition
19. What behavior exhibited by Kien’s biological father caused his mother “humiliation” (123)?
a. He was a sleepwalker
b. He was a stutterer
c. He was an epileptic
d. He spoke in tongues
21. Why did Kien give four commandos who had killed village girls a reprieve?
a. Because he remembered his mother saying he should always accept heartfelt apologies.
b. Because one of the commandos looked like his father.
c. Because he remembered his girlfriend mocking men who killed who thought they were heroes.
d. Because he realized that it was to kill unarmed men would be cowardly.
22. Kien had two loves in his life; who were they?
a. Phuong and the mute girl
b. Phuong and his mother
c. God and his mother
d. Phuong before the war and Phuong after the war
23. Why would some say Hoa represents the sacrifice of war?
a. She risked her life to protect Kien and his men.
b. She volunteered to serve in the war in the place of her younger brother
The Sorrow of War
Final Test
c. She threw herself on top of German Shepherd dogs that were destined to be killed.
d. She made “friends” with the enemy, as a means of distraction.
24. Why does Kien know the” Jungle of Screaming Souls” well?
a. He grew up there.
b. Phuong and he spent their last night together before the war there.
c. He was one of ten men that survived a bloody attack there.
d. Hao showed him around the area.
25. How does Hoa sacrifice herself for Kien and the other soldiers?
a. She distracts a group of soldiers and is raped while the other soldiers escape.
b. She throws herself on a grenade.
c. She shoots a group of American soldiers.
d. She hides Kien from the death squad.
26. How does the narrative change at the end of the book?
a. Fiction to nonfiction
b. Third person narrative to first person narrative
c. First person narrative to third person narrative
d. Nonfiction to fiction
27. Which of the choices below is not a theme that fits this book?
a. Death is inevitable
b. There are no winners in war
c. The cost of peace is sorrow
d. Love and war can bring sorrow
30. How does Kien’s interaction with Tran Sinh reveal his guilt?
a. Tran Sinh let Kien money and he never paid Kien back.
b. Kien came out of the war relatively unharmed, but Tran Sinh was badly injured.
c. Kien killed Tran Sinh’s brother
The Sorrow of War
Final Test
d. Kien knew that Tran Sinh’s sister was a prostitute, but did not tell him.
Pick one of the questions below and respond in a well written paragraph. Use three examples from the text to support
your claim.
1. The women in Kien’s life symbolize aspects of the war. Explain two or three of Kien’s relationships with women
in the novel.
2. Why does Kien write about the war, when he is afraid of those memories? Explain how those memories drive his
writing.
3. What emotional effects does war have on Kien? How does it affect the way he feels and thinks about others?
Include examples in your response.
4. Kien finds himself attracted to Lan even though he loves Phuong. Is this the only way Kien knows how to express
himself and love? Or is he merely acting on a sort of animal instinct?
5. Kien describes his life as a set of non-life where he just wanders aimlessly through the town on page 70. Can
Kien live a normal life after what he had been through? Is he capable of moving on, or will he have to find a way
to both live in the past and present at the same time?
6. Kien is described as being instilled with a new vigor when his country prepares for war once more. Is he only
capable of being alive during war and strife? If so, does this mean that Kien had never truly lived during pre-war
times?
7. Kien talks about how it is now a time of peace and that the war was in the past. However, Kien says that they are
"two different ages, two worlds, yet written on the same page of life." What does this quote suggest about
Kien's feelings towards the war? Is the war over according to Kien?
8. At the end of the novel, Kien leaves his home and leaves everything behind, including his story. What does this
represent? (228)