Good or Evil: Lack of Dichotomy in Harry Mulisch’s the Assault

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IB LA 11 6 March 2013 Good or Evil: Lack of Dichotomy in Harry Mulisch’s The Assault The Assault by Harry Mulisch begins when the entire Steenwijk family, except for the youngest son, Anton, is murdered in retribution for the assassination of a Nazi collaborator, though, in reality, they have no hand in his death. Eventually, characters are introduced throughout the novel who could arguably be blamed for the Steenwijks’ deaths. These include Truus Koester and Cor Takes, resistance fighters who commit the assassination of the Nazi collaborator, Fake Ploeg. However, throughout the rest of the novel, Mulisch introduces their motives and personalities, which collide with first impressions of Truus and Takes. This contrast between first impressions and true character help to put forward the theme that there is no such thing as an entirely good or evil person. Anton first meets Truus in an almost pitch black cell with a sliver of light under a police station after her planned getaway fails. Our first impression of Truus is that of a criminal. The first time she is addressed in the novel, a policeman says to her: ‘“You’ll have company, but keep the boy out of it, will you? He’s had enough misery, thanks to you”’ (37). Immediately, Truus is connected to Anton’s family’s deaths. However, the environment, which has a sliver of light in a sea of darkness, reflects the complexity of her actions, which are not entirely dark either. Truus herself attempts to justify the assassination in the name of light: “‘Hate is the darkness, that’s no good. And yet we’ve got to hate Fascists, and that’s considered perfectly all right. How is that possible? It’s because we hate them in the name of light, I guess, whereas they hate only in the name of darkness. We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs’” (38). While Truus realizes that had she not shot the

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