Finding Beauty in Darkness

The Assault begins in a state of confusion with many swift tragedies taking place one after the other. The beauty in these tragedies is that the main character; Anton is able to find a source of light within the darkness that is about to be unveiled to him. “Wrapped in a horse blanket… It was dark and light at the same time” (Mulisch 41), shows this way of Anton’s to find the positivity. After watching his house get destroyed, being separated from his family, and slammed from place to place; Anton is still able to appreciate the thrill of being on a motorcycle for the first time. While this hasn’t seemed to be a reoccurring theme because of how early it is in the book, Mulisch could be using this to show that the most beautiful part of the Holocaust was the victim’s way of persevering through each day. Furthermore, the passage shows Mulisch’s beliefs that the only way to overcome a tragedy like this is to try to come back to living a normal life. After all that Anton had been through in just a maximum of two days’ time the first thing Mulisch did was grant any boys dream by giving him a motorcycle ride. Anton was able to find the light in the darkness necessary to survive, just as all of the victims of the same tragedy had to do as well.