The Tin Drum Manipulation

It's obvious from the beginning that Oskar is a bit of a liar. After all, does he really expect us to believe that he can accurately remember the moment of his birth? This claim suggests that Oskar is very uncomfortable with the idea of not feeling in control of a situation. Instead, he claims to have total knowledge of everything, and sometimes speaks of himself in the third person to reinforce this sense of being in control.

Early in the book, Oskar tells the story of how he used his drumming to make a Nazi marching band start playing dance music. He's quick to remind us that he didn't have political motives. He just liked the feeling of controlling the band. In other words, he was in it for himself; it wasn't a political protest.

Here again, Oskar brags about the things he was able to achieve with his drum when he was a younger man. To be fair, he risked a lot by doing this. Still, Oskar reminds us again that he didn't drum out of anti-Nazi sentiment, but because he liked the feeling of being in charge.

In his first meeting with the little clown named Bebra, Oskar first learns the valuable lesson that he must manipulate other people before they have a chance to do the same thing to him. For Bebra, this is a matter of pure survival, and one of the best ways to manipulate people is to be a performer. This conversation is what inspires Oskar to hide under grandstands and manipulate the Nazi marching bands.

Oskar's love for manipulating people doesn't end with marching bands. He gets a much more demonic enjoyment from tempting people to commit theft. In his own words, he likes to teach people not to be hypocritical, since many of the people who end up stealing from shop windows are the very same people who would talk about the immorality of stealing in their daily lives. His plan usually succeeds.

Of all the people Oskar tempts with his glass cutting, the most important one is his uncle Jan because he tempts Jan with stealing a necklace that Jan could give to Oskar's mother, Agnes. Jan is a shy, careful person, and he would probably never steal something for himself. In this scenario, Oskar uses what he knows about Jan to nudge him towards stealing.

Oskar is destined to always rely on other people to help him get new drums. This is one of the things that keeps him in the limited relationships he does have. People are only valuable to him in terms of how he can use them for his own purposes.

Can it get any clearer than this? The lengths Oskar will go to in order to get what he wants are terrifying—he betrays his own father to certain death just to get his drums. Sounds very much like an addict's behavior.

All through this book, Oskar likes to refer to himself as both Satan and as Jesus. The simplest explanation for this is that both satisfy his sense of self-importance. He seems to enjoy terrifying Sister Dorothea.