Chapter 3

• The gap of the home he left 7 years ago is compared to that of a missing tooth.
• When Anton saw his old neighbors he was upset to see them most likely because of the memories their faces brought up. He always pictured Harleem as a place and he didn't remember the people when he thought of the past. The fact that those people are still living their and they simply moved on from the time of the war was confusing to him.
• He finds a monument of his parents. He learns that their names are honored and engraved into a wall and bronze framed. Those names are all that was left of their memory along with some pictures. Their bodies were never found. And lastly his brother's name is not included because of the controversy of his death and whether he deserved a spot their or not. He shows a little surprise when he hears of the place. But after that point his reactions are stoic. This shows that he thought or secretly know of all of the possibilities and by that time no outcome will shock him.  

Episode 3 Question

• How old is Anton?

23 years old.

• What reason does Anton give for avoiding the theater? And why does he react this way?

At the theater he witness an act where a man is bowing his head in a submissive position while a women is shouting at him. The women was in a terrace, and perhaps that is the thing that catalyzed the recall of the memory. The memory of the assault that partially took place at the terrace of his home in Harleem.

• What area of medicine is Anton specializing in and why? What does this make the reader think about him?

Anesthesiology, because he is willing compromise  money for more time for himself. He wanted to able to leave at end of a surgery. And so can surgeons do, but surgeons are butchers according to him.

• What are Anton's thoughts about politics and why is this?

Anton cares very little for both national and international politics. He is rather neutral  before international politics. However, we the time to vote arrived in the Netherlands he had to vote, he had to pick a side. He initially was planning to vote for the liberal party simply because his friends are going to. His uncle was upset to hear that his nephew is choosing mistakenly. He resolved to asking Anton a simple question to decide which party he needs to vote for. He asked whether Anton is an optimist or a pessimist, because Anton answer by saying he is a pessimist he was advised to vote for the Social democrats and so he did.

Chapter 2

• He was hesitant at first but he decided to go anyway. He felt like a man making "his first visit  to a whorehouse".
• The influence of the conversation that the students had is that it revealed the youth's perspective on the up coming war with the Koreans. It also reveals the common street's point of view on communism. From the talk one can deduce that a lot of propaganda has been carried out; usage of the word "pussy" and "softies" to describe men who are reluctant on going to the war  shows that. 

Answers 1

Answers

Chapter 1 

• Anton's Attitude towards the assault in this chapter is collective and cool on the outside. He didn't join the people in their loud celebrations of peace and he didn't burst in tears when he heard the news of the death of his family. In his attempt to get over the past memories he got detached from the his present.
• Anton remembers the war as short broken bits of the past. When he recalls war he remembers the coldness, the hunger and lonesomeness. He also remembers the shooting, blood and prison cells as if it was all a nightmare.
• Anton's uncle and aunt treat him like their child except for the "friction" that they would have with their real child. Its obvious that they treat him with cautious sympathy. He doesn't feel like their child but he still enjoy his stay with them and he feels comfortable with them.
• After the war was over Anton felt relieved to know that the entire new universe he lives in is over. Though he knew he can't return to his previous one. He simply didn't want to remember any of the events that took place back then.

Episode 2 Tasks

Chapter 1

• What is Anton’s attitude to the Assault in this chapter and why?
• How does Anton remember the war?
• What is his relationship like with his aunt and uncle?
• How does he feel when the war is over and why?
• What memories does he have of the events of that night?

Chapter 2

• How does Anton feel about returning to Haarlem?
• What is significant about the conversation between the students?

Chapter 3

• In what ways does he compare the gap left by his home?
• What is his reaction to his old neighbours and why?
• What does he find out, and how does he react to each thing he learns?

Chapter 4

Write an analysis of the following passage, remembering your tips from last week:

‘For the first time he felt a kind of fear, something sucking him  in, a deep hole into which things fell without reaching the bottom, as when someone throws a stone into a well and never hears it land.   At a time when he still thought about such things, he had wondered what would happened if he drilled a tunnel right through the centre of the earth and then jumped in, wearing a fireproof suit. After a certain amount of time that could be determined mathematically, he would arrive, feed first, at the antipode, though he would not quite reach the surface. He would come momentarily to a standstill. Then he would disappear once more, upside-down, into the depths. After many years, also mathematically calculable, he would at last stop and remain floating, weightless, at the center of the earth, where he would be able to reflect upon the state of things in eternity.’ (Mulisch 75-76)

Key quotes from the first episode:

• "Even before the catastrophe occurred, Anton used to think that Carefree meant a place where cares entered freely, not a place free from cares; just as someone could think priceless meant without cost, rather than beyond price." Prologue, p. 3
• "It was January, nineteen forty-five. Almost all of Europe had been liberated and was once more rejoicing, eating, drinking, making love, and beginning to forget the War. But every day Haarlem looked more like one of those spent grey clinkers that they used to take out of the stove, when there had still been coal to burn." First Episode, 1945, p. 9 
• “Not until people are called Adolf again will the Second World War be really behind us. But that means we’d have to have a third world war, which would mean the end of Adolfs forever.” Episode 1945, p.13
• "His mother and Peter were just in time to see them deposit the body in front of Carefree." First Episode, 1945, p. 19 
• “But what he saw then, in 1945, was different from what he would see now. The German was about forty years old and actually had that lean hardened face with the horizontal scar beneath the left cheekbone – a type no longer used except by directors of comedies or grade B movies. Today only babyish Himmler faces are still artistically acceptable; but then it was not an artistic matter, then he really did look like a fanatical Nazi, and it wasn’t funny.” Episode 1945, p.30
• “But I was scared, believe me! Perhaps even more by the silence that by the darkness. I knew that there were lots of people all about, but everything had disappeared. The world stopped at my skin. My fear had nothing to do with the War anymore.” Episode 1945, p.36
• “We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs.” Episode 1945 p.38
• "He could tell by her voice that this was somehow fatal. What had happened to Peter?" First Episode, 1945, p. 40
• “A man who has never been hungry may possess a more refined palate, but he has no idea what it means to eat.” Episode 1945, p43
• “The world is a Jammertal, a valley of tears. Everywhere it is the same.” Episode 1945, p44
• “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.” Episode 1945, p47
• “It could not harm him. He was, after all, on their side, they knew that, of course – even yesterday” Episode 1945, p48
• “Chocolate! Only by hearsay did he know that it still existed. This was very like paradise.” Episode 1945, p51
• “It had all been a series of appalling mistakes!” Episode 1945, p52
• “He was sobbing but hardly knew why, as if his tears had washed away his memories.” Episode 1945, p52

Reading The Assault by Harry Mulisch for English class. 

The writer was raised during the WWII by his Jewish mother and his father who was a Nazi collaborator...Mmm, that's an unlikely combination! This man must have a very unique perspective on the war and surely he must shares a lot of feelings and experiences with his characters. And who knows may be his characters are extensions of himself and/or some people he knew.