Review Questions: Chapter 2

1.         Officer Caldwell is clearly shown in this chapter to be a man unhappy with his situation.  What seems to be the root cause of his unhappiness?  Is his state of mind due primarily to external events which are outside of his control, or is it more the result of the way he chooses to respond to those events?  How do you think Caldwell himself might answer this question?

2.         How do earlier events in Caldwell's life, such as his experience in the Army or his ultimate failure as a student athlete, help to explain the person that he has become?  Does it appear that Caldwell is the type of person who learns from his experiences?  Do you think that most people are like Caldwell or unlike him in this respect?

3.         Consider the meaning that Officer Caldwell's coffee, perhaps an unimportant thing in most contexts, takes on in this chapter.  What symbolic value does it have here?  What effect does it have on Caldwell?  How is his consumption of the beverage similar to the more obvious pressures that the officer is forced to deal with?

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