Love and Light vs. Hate and Darkness

The motifs of love and hate in The Assault correlate directly to the motifs of light and darkness. While Anton is stuck in a cell with a mysterious woman she tells him some very insightful information. The way that she says it makes it seems as if she is trying to console him and herself. They talk of light and sunshine and how it represents love and kindness. She tells Anton of "the kind of light you sometimes see clinging to trees right after a sunset," (Mulisch 38) and that this light is the kind of light found in people when they are in love. This is so significant because she is teaching Anton about love. It is not his mother or father but a mysterious and random woman. She continues to tell Anton that "hate is the darkness," (Mulisch 38) and darkness is no good. Continuing on, she tells Anton that they must hate fascists and that's alright, but this contradicts what she had previously said that hate was bad. Finally, she justifies herself by telling Anton that they "hate them in the name of the light," (Mulisch 38). This quote has such an impact in The Assault because this woman is claiming that her hate is better than others when in reality her hatred for them is just as bad, just as corrupt and dark as the fascists that she hates. Mulisch demonstrates that people try to justify themselves for being hypocritical and do so by making others seem worse than them.