Comparison Of Guilt In 'The Search For M'

Guilt plays a very important part in both novels, but it appears more evidently in „The Search for M”. In this novel, both Arieh and Dani/Mullemann are children of surivors of the Hollocaust. They have been born in the aftermath of the horrors of the Second Warld War, in a society that has not oficially assumed a moral stance for the actions during the Hollocaust and has not convicted its war criminals. (29) Silence about the past comes not only from society, but also from their parents in their attempt to protect them from these horrors.(8) Both Arieh and Dani/Mullemann are burdened with guilt which gives them extraordinary qualities, but the origin differs for each: Arieh is able to find the guilty parties based on his intuition combined some form of partial empathy with them, with their guilt. His guilt stems from his murder of a right-wing extremist when he was young; a man he found through his detective work based on his intuition and which he stoped before he comited another crime(8). For Dani/Mulleman, guilt does not come from something he did, quite the contrary, he has not done anything wrong in his entire life. Since he was a child he has always taken the blame for other people’s actions.(8) This was taken to the extreme in adulthood , when his ability to identify the and with the guilty parties led him to take the blame for every criminal act he heard/saw/read about(8). The character of Mullemann, Dani’s alter-ego is vital in society’s

Universal recognition of the act and its moral judgement that follows allows for reaffirmation of principles and in the end, of the principle of equality. Both in „The Search for M” and in „Carte Blanche” all members of society should be treated equal and in the case of murder, the action to be judged as morally wrong and