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Comments on Book Three, "The Tin Drum"

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:06 pm
by Suzanne
The chapters contained in book three of "The Tin Drum" have been consolidated into this one thread. Please post all comments about the last chapters of "The Tin Drum" here.

Re: Comments on Book Three, "The Tin Drum"

Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 9:39 pm
by Suzanne
One of the most revealing passages about the purpose of Oskar occurs in the chapter entitled, "Madonna 49". Oskar becomes a model for art students and he describes the paintings that these students create, page 464.
Occasionally there was room for a backround. Despite the currency reform, these young people had not forgotten the war; behind me they erected ruins with accusing black holes where the windows had been. Or they would represent me as a forlorn, undernourished refugee, amid blasted tree trunks; or their charcoal would imprison me, weave ferociously barbed barbed wire fences behind me, and build menacing watchtowers above me; they dressed me as a convivct and made me hold an empty tin bowl, dungeon windows lent me graphic charm. And all in the name of artistic expression.
The meaning of this passage is pretty clear. Oskar represents the people who witnessed the atrocities of WWII, and those who became victims. This is further evidence, in my eyes anyway, that Oskar is a character to be sympathized with. The narrator may feel that he himself is a representative of the victims of this war and uses Oskar for this purpose, as well as using Oskar as a tool to cope with the distruction of not only Germany, but the distruction of his own personal life.