The Assault Literary Elements

The Assault Literary Elements

Genre

Fictional novel

Setting and Context

The action takes place in Germany and in Amsterdam in 1945.

Narrator and Point of View

The action is told from the perspective of a third-person subjective point of view.

Tone and Mood

The tone and mood are violent.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is Anton and the antagonist is identified as being the Nazi regime.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is a political one and is between the Allied forces and the Nazi regime.

Climax

The story reaches its climax when Anton is left in the care of his relatives living in Amsterdam.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

The main allusion we find here is the idea that the actions of the American soldiers also caused the death of innocent people but that because they were on the winning side, this is not mentioned as often as the deaths caused by the Nazi regime.

Imagery

The most important image is that of Anton's house burning down. Anton watches this scene from afar, knowing his dead family is laying inside. This image is extremely important because it has the purpose of showing just how ruthless the Nazis were.

Paradox

One of the main paradoxical ideas is the fact that Anton is blamed by Fake for his father's death even though Fake's involvement with the anti-communist party was the reason why Anton's parents were killed even though they had no involvement whatsoever.

Parallelism

A parallel is drawn between the communist supporters and the fascist supporters who emerged after the end of the war. This parallel is an extremely important one because it transmits the idea that even though these groups believe they are different, they are more or less the same.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The pocket knife mentioned by Cor Takes is used here as a general term through which the narrator makes reference to the lengths to which a person is willing to go just to fight for what she or he believed to be right.

Personification

We have a personification in the line "as the grave filled with dirt, it demanded the attention of everyone who was present".

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