Analysis of the tin drum by Gunter Grass

It's an analysis of the Novel Tin drum by Grass

Gunter Grass is the famous German Nobel Laureate and he is reputed for publishing is award winning Novel: The Tin Drum.

The story begins with the protagonist Oscar being confined to an asylum.  Then story goes to a previous narrative and describes a woman tending a field.  There are anecdotal remarks about Oscar’s grandmother.

The Tin Drum has a special allegorical symbolism. Does it describe a valiant protest by a dwarf against a Nazi rule?

In the Novel Tin Drum, Grass portrays a water front loaded with Quixotic Characters. A wood is seen floating through the canal.

He talks of a War time situation and his mother getting betrothed to German of Blue Blood.

The author talks of Oscar’s birth being an easy one.

Again the symbolism of the Drum emerges. Oscar’s parents said that when he is three, they will present him a tin drum.

There’s a narrative about Photography being placed in the house. Photography for Roland Barthes has two connotations: studium (image) and punctum (the interpretation). It is interesting to note how brilliantly Grass puts the pen, writing the narrative of photography.

Grass uses magic realism when he says the dwarf Oscar’s voice will shatter glass. Is this a reminder of the shocking tyranny and despotism of the Nazi rule? 

Grass launches a narrative where Nazi humiliates a non-Nazi and punching him, he lowers his self esteem by calling him a Pollack.

When Oscar was small, he was invited by the Nazis to their meetings and there he was pampered.

Grass’s narrative about Christianity is rather befuddled. He wanted the idol of Jesus to play on his drum. But ironically nothing of that sort happened.

The symbolism of the drum is contradictory. Is it symbolic, of an ordinary being trapped in the dungeons of Nazi Rule? Does Gunter Grass want to escape Nazi rule through symbolism? Is he showing  an iota of compassion for the beleaguered Jews.