Starship Troopers 1

Study Guide Questions for Chapter One

If you are looking for the beginning of the study of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of available book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Fear, Fortitude, Providence, Duty, Loyalty

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. How did Johnnie always feel before a drop?

2. What loss had the Roughnecks experienced recently?

3. Why was Jenkins not allowed to drop?

4. What kind of mission were the Roughnecks being sent to carry out?

5. What did everyone in the Mobile Infantry do, no matter what their particular specialty might be (i.e. regardless as to whether they were a cook, chaplain, etc.)?

6. By what means did the Mobile Infantry soldiers reach the ground of the planet?

7. What was “one of the things that helps a capsule trooper” make it successfully to the ground?

8. Describe Johnnie’s activity once he reached the ground. What did he busy himself doing?

9. How are the “Skinnies” described by Johnnie?

10. What reason did Johnnie give for why he particularly desired to hit the city’s “waterworks?”

11. What kind of bomb did Johnnie drop in the room full of Skinnies?

12. When it was time to get to the retrieval boat, what was wrong?

13. How did “Dizzy” make it back to the retrieval boat?

14. What seemingly miraculous thing did Captain Deladrier pull off?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why did Jelal (Jelly) “downcheck” Jenkins and not allow him to drop, even though he wanted to go?

2. What would be the logic or reasoning behind performing a raid such as the one the Roughnecks performed in this chapter? What would such a mission hopefully bring about?

3. Why was it important to the dynamics of the Mobile Infantry that “everybody drops?”

4. Why would the Mobile Infantry deploy to a planet’s surface in this manner rather than by landing ships?

5. “Part of a mobile infantryman’s training is to let him see, from the ground and both by eye and by radar, just how confusing a drop is to the forces on the ground.” Why would this be important to their training?

6. Why was Ace not responding well to Johnnie’s order and communications?

7. Why would the Mobile Infantry develop something like the “thirty-second bomb” that Johnnie used?

8. Why would Johnnie risk missing the retrieval boat to help Ace and Dizzy? Did he do the right thing?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Johnnie said, “I always get the shakes before a drop.” What is the proper role of fear in our lives? Is fear a bad thing or can it also be a good thing? Do you think it would be better for Johnnie if he could get to a place where he didn’t feel fear anymore? Why or why not?

2. Johnnie said, “How can a chaplain bless anything he’s not willing to do himself?” The American military does not allow chaplains to engage in combat or carry a weapon. Do you agree with the Mobile Infantry’s perspective on this or the American military’s position? Explain your reasoning carefully.

3. Keeping in mind that Humans and Skinnies are in an active state of war currently, what should we think about the ethics of such a raid as the one described in this chapter? As Christians can we approve of the general tactics described in this chapter? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. How might this passage of Scripture be related to our current reading?

2. Read John 15:13. How does this relate to Johnnie’s decision to risk missing the retrieval boat?