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The Assault Harry Mulisch Analysis

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Shraddha Soni English Nick Wilson 2/25/2016 The Assault Assault was written by dutch author Harry Mulisch in 1982. It is about the life of the lone survivor during world war 2. The story is about a 12 years old boy whose family is …show more content…

“Hate is the darkness, that’s no good………. We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs.” In this novel often the light is compared with truth, love, good and darkness is compared with hate, evil. Story begins with darkness when electricity goes out. The night when Anton met Truus, there was a sliver of light in a sea of darkness, reflects the complexity of her actions. As he calmed down, he began to see a pale strip of light under the door and kept his eyes focused on it(33). Truus helps Anton to see the light. Once seeing this light, Truus tells Anton that this strip of light is symbolic of love : “That’s the kind of light people have inside them when they are in love with …show more content…

Memories are the units of information that have impact on one’s life and are stored in brain for years. In the novel every person Anton meets allows his memories to develop. First he meets his former neighbours, the Beumers, who allow him to learn new things about that night. Then he meets Fake Ploeg junior. Anton and he had arguments defending their fathers, and why that night may have happened. This allowed Anton to question his theories as if they had not been correctly. The freezing weather is shown, as the warmth of the room contrasts the ‘bitter cold’(23). The cold water is the perspective Mulisch utilizes to describe the experiences of Anton and Take’s as they struggle to fight with the bitter cold memories of the assault. Truus, a source of mystery for Anton, ends this struggle for them. They are in the cold and she is the moment of warmth that makes the cold even

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