The Tin Drum

In what way is Oskar the protagonist different from Oskar the narrator? In what ways are they similar? What is the wider significance of the relationship between these two Oskars?

How are the notions of sanity/insanity depicted in the novel? How do these notions function on both an individual and societal level?

Oskar’s narration is often concerned with family ties and intergenerational patterns of behavior. What are these behavioral patterns? How do they reflect ongoing problems and issues in society at large?

Analyze the role of Oskar’s tin drum and supernatural glass-shattering voice in childhood. What is the significance of these aspects of Oskar’s characterization and what role do they play in the novel thematically and symbolically? Why is the novel itself named after his drum?

The novel frequently wrestles with issues of culpability, both in an individual and in a societal sense. How are culpability and guilt explored in the novel? Is atonement ever possible? Why or why not?

Violence permeates the novel in various forms. How is violence depicted? What is the relationship between different forms of violence—political, domestic, social—in the novel? How does violence function in a narrative and/or thematic sense?

In what ways can The Tin Drum be described as a magical realist novel? How and why does Grass use magical realist techniques to explore war and post-war realities?

How does the novel portray the Holocaust? How does the Holocaust affect society and the novel’s characters? How does it relate to the novel’s thematic concerns?