The Assault Commentary

In the book, “The Assault,” By Brian Falkner, there is a specialized group of teenagers fighting for the last hope of the human race to survive. This group of teenagers are disguised as under-cover alien lifeforms. The aliens they are disguised as are called Bzadians. The Bzadians main reason why they came to Earth is because their home planet is in the process of being destroyed due to the lack of resources. At first the Bzadians that first came to earth said they were a peaceful race and that they only needed a certain amount of space in order to survive.

The Assault by Harry Mulisch constructs a powerful and emotional narrative about a man struggling in the last dark days of Nazi occupation in Holland and the ordeal of having to grieve the death of his family. Anton Steenwijk encounters women in his life that will shape his subconscious indefinitely, such as Truus. Truss bears the greatest impact on Anton throughout the novel, and this is demonstrated further in his relationships with Saskia. Furthermore, Lisbeth acts as a counterpoint to Saskia and demonstrates Anton's newfound ability to move on as the novel progresses.

As the boat drifted away “the fisherman went blind with uncontainable rage. ‘Get back down there where you belong!’ he screamed” (377). The fisherman, in pure shock and disbelief of his imminent doom, lashed out at the boys he loves so dearly. While his words try to shelter the boy from the reality of the situation, it is his inability to conceal his anger that instead allows them to understand what is happening. The fisherman tries to take control of a situation he clearly cannot control, “Dad,’ asked the boy steadily, ‘what do we do now?’...’The first thing we have to do,’ he heart himself saying with infinite tenderness… ‘is think” (378). Before he can even think of what to do, the fisherman is trying to instruct others and, ultimately, save them. As the fisherman develops his plan for their rescue, the situation grows more dire and the inevitability of their fate grows more apparent. The fisherman’s actions in the face of imminent danger exemplify his protective leadership and will to

The book "The Assault" by Harry Mulisch is very centered around the main character Anton's struggle with memory. The relationship between his approach to memory and the effects of his approach proved to be the main conflict of the story. Being complicated, it is hard to decipher. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is very much a shell of his memories. Many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, too small (seemingly) insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes can all be traced back to his supposedly forgotten memories of the events surrounding his families tragedy.

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

Blood chilling screams, families torn apart, horrifying murders are all parts of the Holocaust. David Faber, a courageous, young man tortured in a Nazi concentration camp shares the horrors he was exposed to, including his brother Romek’s murder, in the book Because of Romek, by himself David Faber. When Nazis invaded his hometown in Poland during World War II, David remained brave throughout his father’s arrest and his struggle to stay alive in the concentration camp. David’s mother inspired him with courage.

has begun to contemplate what she will say about this topic. Using fishing as a metaphor,

He doesn't want her to figure out he loves fishing, “ She hadn't seen my equipment yet. What i should've done, of course, was push the canoe in closer to shore and carefully slide the rod into some branches where i could pick it up later in the morning”(pg.3 Weatheral). He doesn't want her to see his equipment because she doesn't like fishing and is trying to do everything possible to impress her, even if that means pretending to be someone else. He made a mistake by choosing a girl over his passion, “i pulled a penknife from my pocket and cut the line in half. With a sick, nauseous feeling in my stomach, i saw the rod unbend”(pg.5 Weatheral). The main character chose a girl over his passion which is fishing, and now has that sickening feeling of guilt and regret he feels in his chest that he can not escape. He doesn't deny he made a mistake, he says he will never make the same mistakes again. The theme of this story is to always be yourself and to not act any differently around anyone else you're trying to impress, as it just hurts you in the end and creates more endless pain

Despite the fact that the term assault has been changed endless times is still in civil argument today. It is by and large characterized as to constrain somebody to take part in sex by utilizing dangers or savagery. All the more particularly and lawfully the meaning of assault can be characterized as (Legal word reference) "the commission of unlawful sex or unlawful sexual interruption." Not just is it's definition constantly changing yet it likewise shifts from state to state. This obviously causes a few issues in the hazy areas in the matter of what constitutes as assault. Most states have chosen to name assault as rape and rape is part up into classes known as degrees.

I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. Slowly and conscientiously he ate all of the wedge-shaped strips of fish” (59). This relates to perseverance by showing how Santiago doesn’t really want to harm the fish, but he knows he has to in order to make a living. Santiago’s hand has cramped up, yet he feels sorry for the fish, not himself. He has caught a few small fish to eat raw. He wishes he could feed the

Thomas Benz 8/24/15 Per.2 R.A. #1 1.) Santiago is an old fisherman who is the main character in the story. 2.) Manolin is Santiago's friend, he also fished with him before he got bad luck.

- This story is already about his memory it is itself in a way a memory as it explains history through continuation of his life, he uses his memory to solve current problems linked to him killing a man in “The man I killed” and that he uses his memory to reach security over the power that the guilt of killing has over him

In the novel, The assault, Henry Mulisch’s narrative style allows the readers to dig a lot deeper than to just skim through the pages. By allowing the readers to put themselves inside the story, he brings out in his novel the true meaning of what a human goes through and how they cope with tragedies from a serious life event; in this case, a violent assault. By reading Mulisch’s novel you get to see inside Anton’s miseries and see his life from a different perspective. Anton is constantly looking for reassurance in his life for what happened to him in his violent childhood. The violence that had happened to him has made him suppress his memories and he does not seek to find the true answers to what had happened that horrible day. He tries to numb himself from his past and push through life to try to live normally while trying to push past his feelings of his violence. While Anton struggles with life and his suppressed memories, he faces several aspects of life throughout the time has helped him stitch in the missing pieces of the violent occurrences of the assault. This brings himself one step closer to coming to piece with all his memories each time he breaks down a piece of that distance that he has formed between that life event and himself. This being said, Henry Mulisch shows the readers how Anton eventually comes to terms with his suppressed memories of his violence from his past with time.

When one cannot deal with guilt within oneself, the feeling of guilt can be transferred to affect another. Art struggles throughout his life to understand why he never had a great relationship with his father. After trying to write with no luck, Art heads to his regular appointment with Pavel, another Holocaust survivor. Pavel suggests that maybe “(Vladek) took his guilt out on YOU, where it was safe… on the REAL survivor.” (7, p 44) Vladek felt guilty about surviving the Holocaust, but instead of accepting it,

Books, films, documentaries, and even memories: each serves to recount past events, each in a different way. While these accounts of the past are shared, they serve to provide the audience with an understanding; oftentimes this understanding does not and cannot portray the effect of certain, unimaginable events in history, such as the Holocaust, on individuals. In his essay, “The Presence of the Past,” Bernhard Schlink brings to the surface some of the inherited struggles that generations of German people have faced as a result of the Third Reich. Alongside his essay, Schlink also presents the effect of the past on people in his novel, The Reader, when he presents the audience with a character placed in a situation that is highly uncommon.