Throughout his adult life, Anton retains a general submissive attitude. He is not concerned with what is happening in his life. He accepts the actions of others blindly. He does not get involved with politics or social issues until faced with the views of his uncle and De Graaff, his father-in-law. After speaking with them about politics, he purely accepts their opinions and agrees with them. In the elections of 1956 he decides on voting for the liberals because “his friends did,” (81) until his uncle contradicted him. Anton ends up voting “for the Social Democrats like his uncle,” (82). Anton does not think for himself and “in love, too, he simply let things happen to him,” (97). His career choice also symbolizes Anton’s passive outlook. Anton becomes an anesthesiologist, which is ironic because now he can numb the pain of others just as he numbs himself from the pain of his past.
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Despite this submissiveness, Anton’s past confronts his several times throughout his life. He meets people who try to explain what happened that night in Haarlem, first Truus, then Fake Jr., Takes, and finally Karin Korteweg. But during each meeting, Anton puts little emphasis on that time of his life and refuses to talk about the death of his parents. He tells Takes that “ ‘there’s nothing to discuss, really. What happened, happened. It doesn’t bother me, believe me…everything is fine,’” (Mulisch, 110). After similar encounters with other characters from his past, Anton finally meets Karin Korteweg at a demonstration that he is forced to go to. At first, Anton attempts to speak with Karin about her present life but eventually he gets to the point and says, “ ‘let’s not beat around the bush. You want to tell me about it and I want to know,’” (175). This is the first step to Anton’s epiphany. Before meeting Karin, Anton was not concerned with the details of that night in Haarlem but now he is ready to face the truth. After learning exactly what happened to his family, Anton is able to let go and move on. He learns that his family’s lives were taken but, because of that, three Jews and the Aartes’ were saved. This allows Anton to justify what happened to his home and family. The demonstration Anton attended symbolizes his being forced to face his past. Just like he did not want to learn the truth about the actions taken against his family, “he has joined it against his will, this demonstration, and there’s an ironical look in his eye, as if he finds the situation amusing,” (185). Now that Anton can finally accept the events that changed his life, “all is forgotten in the end,” (185) and his past no longer haunts him.
Similarly, Stevens is a man who hides from his true feelings and engrosses himself in his career. Stevens’ profession controls him and because his emotional needs
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have never been fulfilled, he throws himself into his career and lives through his memories. On his journey to meet Miss Kenton, which he attributes to needing her help because of understaffing at Darlington Hall, he reminisces about his past instead of thinking about the present or the future. He recalls fighting with Miss Kenton, whom he secretly loves, over professional matters and even leaving his father on his deathbed so that he could cater to his employer. He justifies his actions by assuring himself that his father “would have wished me to carry on just now. To do otherwise, I feel, would be to let him down,” (Ishiguro, 106). Stevens is an extremely professional man and never admits to his shortcomings. His close attention to detail, such as the Giffen and Co. silver polish, and preciseness proves that Stevens does not let anything, not even his personal feelings, get in the way of his work. However, it is obvious that Stevens has deep feelings of regret about some of his actions. The tone of the novel is very nostalgic and, towards the end, becomes one of deep regret as Stevens realizes the mistakes he has made in his life. Because of his devotion to his career, he loses his father and Miss Kenton. He realizes this when he confronts Miss Kenton and she rejects him. She points out the fact that people often think to themselves, “ ‘What a terrible mistake I’ve made with my life.’ And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had,” (239). Stevens finally begins to realize that he let his career ruin his personal life and that he has lost years of happiness that could have been spent with Miss Kenton. Stevens also realizes that he has been misleading himself in thinking that Lord Darlington was a moral gentleman and is afraid that he has wasted much of his life in serving such a man so blindly. He feels that he was mistaken when he believed that he “was doing
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something worthwhile,” (243). In contrast to Anton, Stevens does not learn from his revelations. Instead of starting anew, he decides to delve back into the career that stripped him of years of true happiness. He vows to “begin practicing with renewed effort,” (245) his bantering skills to “pleasantly surprise,” (245) his employer.
In contrast to Anton who tries to ignore his past, Winston attempts to embrace it. Winston, along with all the citizens of Oceania, is controlled by the government, Big Brother and the Party. The theme of 1984 is a warning against a totalitarian government. Orwell uses the protagonist, Winston, to show what could happen in the future if mankind accepts everything that is told to them. However, Winston is one of the few characters who secretly questions Big Brother. The Party uses many techniques to control all the actions of the people of Oceania. They manipulate citizens with constant propaganda, the telescreens, which monitor a person’s every movement within their own home, a new language that does not allow for rebellious thoughts, and, perhaps most importantly, the control of history. Big Brother has the power to change documents and reinvent the past. One of the Party slogans is that “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past,” (Orwell, 35). The people of Oceania are not allowed to keep mementos or photographs so that their memory becomes unreliable and they will be forced to accept everything the Party tells them. However, because Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, the building in which historical documents are altered to match the ideologies of the Party, he is aware of some of the falsehoods being told to the citizens. This knowledge forces Winston to try to recall past events. For example, the Party claims that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
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and in alliance with Eastasia. However Winston knows that only four years ago, the exact opposite was true. Throughout the novel, Winston constantly battles with his memory and what the Party says to be true. Memories are revealed to him in his dreams but he cannot trust that they are true. Winston begins to despise the Party and become obsessed with being able to trust his own memory. A symbol of his obsession is the glass paperweight that he buys in the prole district. He describes it as “a little chunk of history that they’ve forgotten to alter. It’s a message from a hundred years ago, if one knew how to read it,” (145). This paperweight however also symbolizes Winston’s downfall when it is “smashed to pieces on the hearthstone,” (223) by the Thought Police as they arrest him. Winston then thought “how small it always was,” (223) just like his hopes of escaping the wrath of Big Brother always were. Winston is ruined because of his refusal to accept the Party’s lies about history. Winston continues for a short period of time to deny Big Brother’s ideals and question to Party’s motives but he finally gives up when faced with his biggest fear, rats. After his experience in Room 101, he whole-heartedly accepts Big Brother and the lies that are fed to the citizens of Oceania every day. He still has memories of his mother but he “pushed the picture out of his mind. It was a false memory,” (296). 1984 ends with “he loved Big Brother,” (297). Like Ishiguro, Orwell creates a pessimistic ending. Winston’s epiphany is distinguished from Anton’s because, instead of realizing his faults, Winston reverts to the behavior he once despised.
Mulisch is juxtaposed from Ishiguro and Orwell by the fact that The Assault gives the hope that, given the chance; one can change and find happiness. The shift in tone from stoicism to thoughtfulness is distinguished from the continuous tones of
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reminiscence and nostalgia in The Remains of the Day and 1984. Anton is released from the oppression he faces from his denial of his past while Stevens remains under the control of his profession and Winston continues to be restricted by the Party.
