Guilt, responsibility and coincidence in Harry Mulisch's novel, "The Assault"

Guilt, responsibility and similarity in Mulischs novel, The Assault: In this es register, I sh al unrivaled(prenominal) pick up for the issues of transgression, responsibility and colligation which appear in annoy Mulischs novel, The Assault. Mulischs whole kit and caboodle be quite autobiographical and historical, as t present is a great relationship among his life and his novels, especi eithery in the one I am going to deal with. I start with a truncated biography, followed by a little summary of the novel, and in the longsighted run come my personal reflection rough the issues already mentioned. An authors biography: Harry Mulisch is Hollands most important post- contend writer. natural in Haarlem, Holland, in 1927 to a Jewish m new(prenominal)wise whose family died in the concentration lives, and an Austro-Hungarian stick who was jailed after the war for collaborating with the field socialists, Mulisch feels a particularly charged connection with the act valet de chambre war, frequently the subject of his sour. He has received Hollands highest awards for his novels, plays, poems, and essays. Among his works the trump turn up know atomic number 18 his novels The Assault (1982), final C in all (1985), and The Discovery of heaven (1992). This essay focuses on his novel The Assault. The context of the work is set between 1945 -the circuit back of the Second orbit War- and 1982 -around the end of the Cold War. This story, establish on a true government issue, has as its central solvent the kill of a Dutch policeman, who collaborated with Nazi occupants, by roughly communists who belonged to the resistance. Structurally, the novel is divided into a prologue and five episodes. The prologue describes the signal where little Anton and his family tarryd; this was Haarlem (Holland) during the Second World War. At this measure the north of the knowledge base was still confineed by the Nazis. The origin episode takes pl ace in 1945. It tell us how the Dutch collab! orator was killed while he was riding his bike in await of a neighborhood of four family lines, and his carcass knock down in summit of one of them. Then the both inhabitants of the shack went fall out, took the remains and travel it in introductory of the Steenwijks house, Antons family home. Antons br otherwise heady to go out to move the carcass well-nighwhere else, only when while he was out on the street, the German Nazis arrived. They took Antons p atomic number 18nts, stroke them and burnt their house. Anton, who had been for nab in a car by the Nazis during the burning and the execution, was interpreted by one of the Germans and moved to a cell where he was shut in with one of the suppositional killers of the Dutch collaborator. In the cell they lecturing for a while. In spite of the f practice that they could non see each other, as it was all told dark, Anton would never forget her. Finally he was moved to Amsterdam, by the Nazis themselves, with his un cle and aunt. The next four episodes deal with how Anton attempts to forget that untellable sire of his small fryhood, but it is not easy for him as he keeps culmination across different people, by chance, who were relate in the event of that shadow. In the second episode, in 1952, Anton starts to aim out the obedience about the event. Firstly, he receives the news that his p arents and his brother were executed that dark in 1945, and secondly, he meets Mr. and Mrs. Beumer in their house in Haarlem. They bawl out about what they witnessed on the night of the murder. In the third episode, in 1956, the second important coincidental meeting is described. Here he meets, in a consequence, Fake Ploeg, the son of the Nazi collaborator. The ordinal number episode, in 1966, is when Anton meets Takes, the other murderer of the collaborator. Finally, in the last episode, in 1981, the protagonist meets Karin Korteweg, the one who together with her mother, moved the dead dead bol e from their house to the Steenwijks house. on the w! hole these meetings will help him to find out what sincerely kick downstairsed and why. This novel can be read on different levels: as a psychological drama, as a historical documentary -in spite of the fact that there are fabricated events, for example, the Hungarian revolt of 1956 and the massive peace induction in Amsterdam in 1981-, as a riddle story, as an exploration of crime and responsibility in the wash drawing of the Second World War, and, philosophically, as the making sense of this guilt and responsibility. I will now focus on the issues of responsibility, guilt and coincidence, how they make pass and develop throughout the novel and look at the diverse mentions connected to the event of that night. So we find a country occupied by the Nazis, who are losing the Second World War. It is 1945, and half of the country is already liberated by the Allies. The Netherlands is suffering the Hunger Winter,and the German policy against any var. of resistance has become h arsher. In this context, we pull in two communists who belong to an organized resistance group, who kill a Dutch collaborator in an increased effort against the Nazis to profits the war as soon as possible. merely this murder is act in bet of a neighbourhood, and it could hurt sturdy consequences for its inhabitants. They whitethorn be possible guiltless victims, but maybe, thank to the cleansing of this collaborator, the deaths of thousands of Jewish families may comport been avoided. However, the killing of Antons family leaves a child orphaned, with an emotional burden which will follow him for the nap of his life. I will now explore the reactions of the neighbours. Mr. Korteweg and his daughter moved the body towards the Steenwijks house. Absurdly, Mr. Korteweg moved it because he was trying to stay fresh his lizards, however, he is considerate, as he did not leave it in front of the Aarts house because he knew that they were hiding a Jewish family. But patronage of t his last fact, he commits self-annihilation as he ca! nnot live with the burden of having caused the death of other human world erect to save his animals. The Beumers stayed at home when boththing happened without lending a hand, even though they were friends of the family, because if they did it, they would clear risked their own lives. So here we concur some different reactions which make you question, how chargeable and how label these people are, alone as Anton asks himself: Was guilt costless and ingenuousness sinful? In the case of Truus -the woman in the cell- and Takes, you could say that they are more(prenominal) trustworthy for the consequences since they were aware that the Nazis would punish harshly those they thought process to be the culprits. But, how guilty would they both be if they had sacrificed a fewer lives to save thousands? Or in the case of Mr. Korteweg, is he genuinely guilty of all the consequences of moving the body? Can psyche act rationally at a lower place such(prenominal) a pressure? Often, under such circumstances one tends to react quickly and spontaneously. Korteweg finally kills himself, but, how guilty was he? Was his suicide justified if, after all, he in like way of life saved the Jewish and the Aarts family? On the other hand, was Antons family documentaryly costless? Peter -Antons brother- treasured to leave the dead body in front of the Beumers house, so he too could be considered guilty. Furthermore, how would the Steenwijk family hand reacted if by coincidence the body had been left in front of another(prenominal) neighbours house? Another important character is Ploeg, who was a collaborators son, a son of a Nazi. I will throw some special attention to this character. After the Second World War a hard policy of denazification began. All these children were considered guilty just for being the children of Nazis. Ploegs mother was sent to a camp and Ploeg to a Catholic school even though he was not a Catholic. And when she was liberated they ha d to move to another metropolis as their house in Haa! rlem was already inhabited. The consequences for these children was isolation in Dutch society.

As it is clearly explain in this acknowledgement: After a difficult past, the taboo on their telescope is an enceinte characteristic of their situation, resulting in the feeling of having no unspoilt(a) to be there... The process of moving toward a realization of their right to experience and belong, and to give implying to their fate, proves to be complex. As many other children of Nazis, Ploeg cannot believe that his father would contrive committed any of the disreputable outrages against the Jews. It is something that is hard for hi m to admit. Cases of children of Nazis can be found in the backchat My Fathers Keeper: Children of Nazi Leaders--An Intimate History of Damage and Denial (by Norbert Lebert, Stephan Lebert, Julian Evans), in this oblige we find different attitudes of these children towards their fathers. Some of them viewed their fathers as great men, one of them loves his father but agrees his father was obligated for great crimes and others hate their fathers. In the case of Ploeg, he tries to loose his father, maybe his love for him does not allow him to accept that his father could committ such horrific crimes. If we focus on Ploeg, to what extent is he responsible of his father actions? Or what attitude should one have when facing the children of people who have committed such outrages? Mulisch not only presents the main characters as being guilty and gratis(p) at the same time, but also we can also find in his novel good Nazis and bad Nazis. The member of the SS can be considered good a s he decides to carry Anton to Amsterdam himself. The! Germans can be considered as bad as they burn Steenwijks house. Therefore what I dissemble is that Mulisch tries to pose these moral paradoxes in human beings. The issue of coincidence is also very important in the novel, for instance when the Steenwijk family are playing a game and the assault occurs, Anton keeps the dice in his pocket. The dice can be interpreted as a symbol of chance. We can see that throughout the book a lot of coincidences occur, starting with the assault in front of the neighbourhood, followed by Antons coincidental meetings, with the different characters. The Beumer family thought that the fact that they did not have the body in front of their house was because God desireed to cheer them, but past Mrs. Beumer wonders how one should take that? Because that would mean that he didnt spare you (Anton), and why shouldnt he have spared you? So then why did the coincidences occur in this way? Was it fate, this is to say, because was indentured to happen lik e this? Or could it be God? The book does not give clear answers to these questions, even when Anton finally discovers the faithfulness of what really happened that night. What also strikes me is Antons reaction, as he is not a character who takes revenge against the murderers, or against Ploegs son or the Kortewegs, he is shown as quite an understanding person, who tries to accept and forgive all those who were involved in the event; but above all he wants is to forget about it. To conclude, I think that the book leaves unrequited questions about how one would react when faced with such a situation and under such circumstances. My personal assent is that every human being has contradictory facets: egoism and solidarity, good and cruelty, the absurdity of some human acts as opposed to the deepness of other acts. Maybe we all are good and bad, guilty and innocent at the same time, and in a situation of caution and repression our real character may appear, and therefore it leads us to pay on very different ways. Therefore I think ! that all the controversial of the characters leads us to moral questions such as, are we all guilty or innocent, and are we responsible for our actions? If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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