Starship Troopers 18

Study Guide Questions for Chapter Thirteen (Part 4) & Chapter Fourteen

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)

Appearance vs. Reality, Prudence, Fortitude, Gratitude, Providence, Home

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Johnnie “suddenly” realize after falling into the Bug hole?

2. What two men did Johnnie lose contact with in a very short time?

3. What did Brumby do, seemingly “without orders?”

4. What did Johnnie order to be done, regardless of the “Sky Marshall” and his orders?

5. After telling sergeant Cunha to “take charge of” his section, what did Johnnie decide to do?

6. What decisions, once made, caused “a load” to be “lifted” from Johnnie’s mind? 

7. What is a “tanglefoot” bomb?

8. What had Johnnie’s platoon sergeant done which made him safe from harm but also stuck where he was?

9. How did Operation Royalty end “as far as [Johnnie] was concerned?”

10. Who did Johnnie’s platoon sergeant turn out to be?

11. What did Johnnie account his “luck” in life to?

12. What is Johnnie’s situation in the M.I. as the story ends?

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

1. When Johnnie couldn’t make contact with Captain Blackstone or his platoon sergeant, what was most likely on his mind given colonel Nielssen’s talk with Johnnie, “Birdie,” and “the Assassin” in chapter twelve?

2. Why did Johnnie order Cunha to close holes even though that is against the orders of the Sky Marshal?

3. Why did Cunha and his men follow Johnnie down the Bug hole even though Johnnie didn’t order them to?

4. Why did Johnnie not follow “doctrine” concerning “a strike force underground?”

5. Why did Johnnie ignore his platoon sergeant's advice to “rendezvous with Brumby’s section – then return to the service?”

6. Johnnie said, of the brain bugs they captured, “None of the six were ever exchanged, they didn’t live long enough.” Why might they have not lived long enough to make a prisoner exchange?

7. How does learning that Johnnie’s platoon sergeant is sergeant Zim affect your thoughts and feelings about everything you’ve read in chapter thirteen?

8. Why might Johnnie have turned down a “field commission” had it been offered to him?

9. What is implied by Johnnie’s reference to “Ramón Magsaysay” and by his speaking in “Tagalog?”

10. Why do you think the story ends where it does and in the way it does?

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

1. Evaluate Johnnie’s claim, “everything of any importance is founded on mathematics.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?

2. Johnnie reflects on his “luck” at the end of chapter thirteen and finds that it is actually people who have cared for him and taught him how to live. Make a similar list for your life. Who has, to the present date, impacted you the most and what are some ways they have shaped you into the person you are now?

3. Having now finished reading Starship Troopers would you say your interest in serving in the military is higher or lower than it was prior to reading this book? Why?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read 2 Timothy 2:1-4. How might you relate what Paul says to Timothy to the ending of Starship Troopers?