Dog Years Summary
Günter Grass

Dog Years Summary

Dog Years was considered by some a technical advance over Grass's earlier works. The conscience of Germany can be seen as the major subject of the novel, so, thematically, Dog Years is not very different from the earlier two works of the "Danzig Trilogy" although there are differences in emphasis. By eliminating Oskar's omniscience, argues Keith Miles, Grass gets closer to reality with its shifting perspectives and unclear gestures. By splitting up the single point-of-view he used in The Tin Drum, Grass can have his characters interpret, refine, restate, and reinterpret events. Ironically, then, the reader gets a more unified view of reality. Miles likens Dog Years to Dostoevski's The Possessed (1871) and states that the essential concern of both books is the politics of salvation. When Walter Matern goes on his journey of vengeance for his former friend Eduard Amsel, he is trying to...

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