Amani Murphy

Ib English 11

Hodgson

Big Leaps Into Small Passages

The Assault by Harry Mulish is filled with several key passages. These passages emphasize one or more

of the books motifs; Furthermore, these passages stand to develop one of these motifs and the novel’s

main character Anton. This is an analysis of one of those key passages with the goal to develop a better

idea on what the passage has to offer. The passage comes at the end of the novel after the last of the

information surrounding the murder of Anton’s immediate family is given to Anton by Karin. It was

admitted to Anton that Karin’s father only had the body moved in front of Anton’s home to save his pet

lizards. The realization initially dawns on Anton, “The lizards … Was it possible? Could everything

be blamed on the lizards? Were they the culprits in the end?”(Mulisch 206). Anton’s entire

childhood and more so his life was decimated due to a man saving reptiles. Karin divulges that she did

not want to put Ploeg’s body in front of Anton’s home, but his neighbors were hiding a family of Jews.

Once all of the information settles in Anton he cannot bring himself to be near Karin. Anton is disgusted

and confused by the moral ambiguity of the players in is tragic loss. He leaves into the crowd of people

and this is where his nihilism begins.

Anton falls under the pressure of everything he has experienced in his life to no longer caring

about any of it. The first and most powerful sign of his nihilism, “But what does it matter? Everything is

forgotten in the end”(Mulisch 211). Summarizing anything in this way is a strong nihilistic sentiment and

dangerously cheapens all parts of Anton’s own history. Ironically, this statement also shows the paradox
of Anton believing this lie. Once Anton has remembered or understands everything about his past he

accepts the irrelevance of everything; However, The strong relevance of his history that he is unable to

forget is what brought him to believe nothing matters because it will be forgotten. The world reflects

Anton’s sentiment, “The shouting dies down, the waves subside, the streets empty,” (Mulisch 211). The

entire crowd was going wild and screaming in the streets and reverts back to nothing. The strange and

wild event no longer matters. The setting Is further enforcing Anton’s feeling at the end of his journey.

The slow and notable shift to an empty street reflects Anton’s shift from his conflicted past being

impossible to ignore to being nothing to him.

This reflection of Anton’s mental state does not stop there once the story introduces a man with

his son(Mulisch 211). The man has “lived through the War” and is “one of the last, perhaps, to

remember”(Mulisch 211). He is a reflection of Anton himself as shown through the implied irony of

living through the war. The man through this implication did not actually live through the war. This is an

implication that the man is a completely different man. Anton also having lived through his own literal

and metaphorical war has also completely changed. The man further reflects Anton, “He has joined it

against his will, this demonstration”(Mulisch 211). That is the point in which the reader can fully know

the identity of the man. The man is Anton with his son and Mulisch chooses not to name him as to blend

him into the setting. The quote is a metaphor for Anton’s entire life and the full disclosure of his past. He

did not willingly discover any of the information given to him by players in the events. Mulisch takes

Anton’s name out of this final passage to enforce his new attitude. Until this point in the story Anton’s

life was constantly defined by his past making his identity irreparably tied to those events. Once his

identity is taken out of the picture Mulisch shows Anton is no longer a man defined by his past. He is

instead just a man with his son, a piece of the setting. Anton is described from that perspective further

having “An ironical look in his eye, as if he finds the situation amusing”(Mulisch 211). The look in Anton’s
eye is further proof of his carelessness. The detail of Anton finding the situation amusing while Mulisch

maintains Anton’s lack of an identity is further proof of that.

Mulisch imbues Anton with a carefree attitude in the later section of the passage. Anton is

shown to be more at ease, “his head somewhat to the side, as if he were listening to a distant

sound”(Mulisch 211). Anton is free from the burden of his past fully rejecting his past and listening to

that large howl fade away. The motif of loud noise to represent Anton’s past is employed by Mulisch in

this sentence to show Anton is enjoying the noise of his past drifting. Anton is truly carefree and while

his past may exist he lets it leave his life as he walks. Anton himself drifts, “he lets himself be carried

along through the city, back to the place where he began”(Mulisch 211). Mulisch continues to

strengthen the new trait of carelessness in Anton. The use of the personification of the city cementing

him as a idle figure being taken away. The reference to where Anton began being a metaphor for a clean

slate. The novel ends on, “dragging his feet a bit, as if each step raised clouds of ashes, although there

are no ashes in sight”(Mulisch 211). Mulisch employs this metaphor to show the minuscule, but notable

resistance of his past as he drift away. While Anton has let go of his past and his former life in an effort

to live happier and more carefree, he still has to dust away the ash of his former self. The ashes of his

past must be kicked up before it can blow in the opposite direction. That is the final passage of

Mulisch’s The Assault.

Anton, as shown by this final passage, finishes the rest of his life with a nihilistic and carefree

world view after discarding his identity and with it his past. The events of Anton’s life plagued his entire

life, they followed him no matter how far he went to forget and move on. Once all of the information

about his past is given to him he develops a sentiment of meaningless about the world. In that, Anton

for the entirety of the final passage Anton is not outright identified by Mulisch. Mulisch chooses to

cement Anton into the setting as an Everyman. Mulisch employs that tactic to symbolize the change in

Anton’s mental state. Anton himself disregards his identity because his identity had become intrinsically
tied to his past and the details surrounding it. Anton, regardless of slight resistances, accepts both the

nihilism and lack of identity to become more carefree. Mulisch through many different applications of

figurative language shows Anton’s transition. Mulisch employs the personification of the city setting,

The motif of Loud Noise, and the stripping of identity to clearly outline this shift. The novel ends on

Anton having changed putting in the last few pushes towards his new life.
Works Cited
Mulisch, Harry, and Claire Nicolas White. White. The Assault. Pantheon Books, 1985.