The Darkness in the Light

In the passage on page 38 of The Assault, the author juxtaposes light and darkness in order to hyperbolize the difference between the two sides of the war. The woman in solitary confinement with Anton is describing the "kind of light people have inside them when they're in love with someone." The light represents the good inside of people. She goes on to explain that "Hate is the darkness, that's no good. And yet we've got to hate Fascists, and that's considered perfectly all right." She makes a compelling point here, revealing that in order to defeat the hate, or the darkness, people must have darkness inside them as well. "For them everything is very simple, but for us it's more complicated. We've got to become a little bit like them in order to fight them-so we become a little bit unlike ourselves." It's easy for the Fascists to hate others, since they have all of the darkness inside of them, but to hate the Fascists is harder for the anti-fascists, since they are filled with the light, or love. They have to become like the enemy in order to defeat the enemy, which is hard for some people.