Devan Patel

634 words
In his novel, ​The Assault, ​author Harry Mulisch creates a recurring theme of numbness
and ignorance that is expressed by the main character Anton Steenwijk throughout his life. In
the beginning of the book, he suffers a traumatizing event, and as the book progresses the
audience is able to see the effects that it had on him as he grew up It's through his usage of
descriptive diction, symbols and metaphors, and his motifs spread throughout the book that
Mulisch is able to create the theme of numbness that Anton experiences throughout the novel.
In episode 1, Fake Ploeg, a ​prominent Dutch collaborator, has been shot and dragged 
over to Anton’s doorstep.​ Nazi forces soon arive and forcibly removed the Steenwijk’s from their
home and set the house on fire, Anton compares watching it burn to a “scene from a theatre”
(Muslich, 29), a nice break from the reppetitivness of his life. By explaining that he saw it as a
scene from a theater, implies that Anton didn’t really understand how much of a tragedy it was,
he was too young and innocent to know how this would affect him. The audience can see how
childlike innocence and ignorance turns into a detrimental blocking of memories during the
course of the book. Continuing off the theme of numbness, Mulish continues to establish a
sense of separation between Anton and the assault, to further convey the fact that Anton is now
consistently trying to find ways to numb his pain and childhood trauma. This could be seen on
his way to Amsterdam “Such a lot was happening! For Anton, who was still too young to absorb
the past, each new event erased the preceding one from awareness and buried it in his
subconscious” (Muslich, 29) the use of this imagery showed how anton had one event after
another compounding onto his young mind, and pushing each traumatic event further into his
subconscious.
Jumping to episode 3, where Anton has moved into his own apartment and finished
medical school. Following the common motif of numbness, Anton decides that “specializing in
anesthesia.” was what he wanted to do. This comes full circle to how Anton himself constantly
numbs out his own emotional pain, weathering severe headaches instead. He is so determined
to not feel his pain, that he endures physical pain instead. Later on when Fake enters his
apartment brings an“ugly stone” (Mulisch 89) and places it on Anton’s piano. Anton immediately
perceives it as “an insult” (Mulisch 89), feeling like it represented a part of the past he was trying
to forget, which just like the stone was rough and ugly. The stone itself doesn't remind Anton so
much as the arrival of fake, another part of his past. Fake inevitably throws the stone and
shatters the mirror which releases soot all over his room. Mulisch uses the state of his room as
a physical representation of his mindset. The shattering of the mirror represents antons
unwillingness to reflect on his past, or in this instance the stone, and not doing so had extreme
consequences spreading soot, or confusion, all throughout his mind.
In the last Episodes of the novel, however, Anton has a talk with Takes, where Anton is
finally able to reach some closure to his life of repressing his memories. Finally fixing a tooth
that had been bothering him. This is a big step for him, indicating that he would no longer numb
his emotional pain, but the physical pain he had been enduring all his life. No longer haunted by
the “ashes” (Mulisch, 185) of his past
Throughout the book a myriad of different symbols and motifs were, and it was through
author Harry Mulisch usage of these techniques to create a recurring theme of numbness and
pain expressed by Anton.