Episode 2 Tasks

Chapter 1

• What is Anton’s attitude to the Assault in this chapter and why?
• How does Anton remember the war?
• What is his relationship like with his aunt and uncle?
• How does he feel when the war is over and why?
• What memories does he have of the events of that night?

Chapter 2

• How does Anton feel about returning to Haarlem?
• What is significant about the conversation between the students?

Chapter 3

• In what ways does he compare the gap left by his home?
• What is his reaction to his old neighbours and why?
• What does he find out, and how does he react to each thing he learns?

Chapter 4

Write an analysis of the following passage, remembering your tips from last week:

‘For the first time he felt a kind of fear, something sucking him  in, a deep hole into which things fell without reaching the bottom, as when someone throws a stone into a well and never hears it land.   At a time when he still thought about such things, he had wondered what would happened if he drilled a tunnel right through the centre of the earth and then jumped in, wearing a fireproof suit. After a certain amount of time that could be determined mathematically, he would arrive, feed first, at the antipode, though he would not quite reach the surface. He would come momentarily to a standstill. Then he would disappear once more, upside-down, into the depths. After many years, also mathematically calculable, he would at last stop and remain floating, weightless, at the center of the earth, where he would be able to reflect upon the state of things in eternity.’ (Mulisch 75-76)