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Point Of View And Metaphorical Imagery In The Assault By Harry Mulisch

647 Words3 Pages

Maryam Wasif
Mrs. Overbeck
IB Literature HL
12 April 2023

Limited Point of View and Metaphorical Imagery Unveils the Story

In Harry Mulisch’s novel, The Assault, the author mainly focuses on figurative language and point of view to depict the night of the assault several years after it occurred. However, in Episode 4 of the novel, Mulisch puts forth a character who unveils what happened on the night of the assault and why it happened, to the protagonist, Anton. Throughout the Episode, Mulisch utilizes a limited point of view and metaphorical imagery to unveil an important aspect of the night of the assault. Towards the beginning of Episode 4, Anton engages in a conversation with Cor Takes, the person who shot Fake Ploeg in Anton’s neighborhood. Takes begins the conversation about the horrific night by providing background information about Ploeg and his ruthless character. He then went ahead to elaborate that, human beings like Ploeg should be finished from the surface of this earth and if Anton thinks Takes should not have done that, then “...in the light of history, the human race shouldn’t have existed” (Mulisch 113). The utilization of a limited perspective depicts to Anton that what is done, had to be done. That, if the human race is present- inside that, factions of good and evil are too present- from which …show more content…

As they sat, Takes started to disclose his rationale for shooting Fake Ploeg that night and why in that specific neighborhood. At that moment the scenery around them “...was once more bathed in light” of the sunshine (Mulisch 112). The use of metaphorical imagery illustrates that everything was once again being uncovered, to an extent. Questions were being answered. From this conversation, if nothing else, Anton found out that the girl in the cell with him that night of the assault was Truus

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