The Rat: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Rat: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex character dynamics and themes present in a narrative that intertwines ecological concerns with existential and societal critiques. Central to this exploration is Harry Liebenau, the narrator and a writer who reflects on his past, including connections to other characters from previous works by the author. Oskar Matzerath, a three-foot-tall, humpbacked drummer turned prosperous video producer, is pivotal as he seeks to create a film underscoring the environmental neglect faced by Germany's forests due to acid rain. His grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek, and a mystical female rat known as the She-rat play crucial roles in revealing the narrative's underlying themes of survival and the potential for a post-human society, centered around the rats' triumphant rebellion against human oppression.
Other significant figures include Damroka, the narrator's wife, whose feminist aspirations and quest for a utopian past evoke historical and ecological reflections. The younger generation is represented by Hansel and Gretel, children of the West German chancellor, who embody rebellion against a corrupted society while striving for ecological restoration. Additionally, Lothar Malskat, a painter who replaces historical art with forgeries, symbolizes the theme of authenticity versus illusion in postwar Germany. This rich tapestry of characters collectively explores the interplay between humanity's destructive tendencies and the resilience of nature, making it a thought-provoking study for those interested in societal critique and environmental themes.
The Rat: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Günter Grass
First published: Die Rattin, 1986 (English translation, 1987)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Germany, Sweden, and Poland
Plot: Social
Time: 1984
Harry Liebenau, the narrator, a writer employed by video producer Oskar Matzerath. Liebenau, obviously representing the author himself, is a writer from Danzig who was a character in Grass's Dog Years (1963).
Oskar Matzerath (MAH-tseh-raht), a three-foot-tall, humpbacked drummer who also appeared in Grass's The Tin Drum (1959). He is now a prosperous, bald, sixty-year-old video producer who wears too many rings and dresses in suits with large checks. Oskar agrees to the narrator's suggestion to produce a film that would utilize a fairy tale motif to depict the unwillingness of the government to confront the destruction of Germany's forests by acid rain. As the production goes forward, Oskar is driven to Poland in his Mercedes to attend the 107th birthday celebration of his grandmother, Anna Koljaiczek. His surprise gift to her is a video produced by his company, which had foreseen and recorded in advance everything that would happen at the birthday celebration. In the She-rat's version of events, the video predicts the destruction of humanity in the midst of the party. Oskar's grandmother survives for a while after the holocaust, but, after her death, she and a desiccated Oskar become objects of worship for the rats. In the narrator's alternate version of events, the nuclear holocaust does not occur and Oskar, though afflicted with an enlarged prostate, survives to celebrate his sixtieth birthday and learn of his grandmother's death.
The Rat, a gray-brown female rat, which the narrator receives as a Christmas present. The She-rat invades the narrator's dreams in a vision of the nuclear destruction of humanity and its replacement by rats. Rats, foreseeing humanity's suicidal bent, retreat underground when their warnings go unheeded. They survive the Armageddon, which they regard as inevitable and trigger by gnawing the microchips in the controlling computers of the superpowers. The She-rat shares with the narrator the rats' efforts to construct a posthuman society and their final victory over a race of mutant rat-men, called Watsoncricks and manipples, the products of late human genetic engineering. Banding together under the slogan “Solidarity,” the rats of Danzig exterminate the parasitic and authoritarian rat-men and free themselves of the last vestiges of human exploitation and aggressiveness.
Damroka, the narrator's wife, a tall blonde with flowing hair. Damroka, an organist, purchases and refits an old sailing barge, which she christens The New Ilsebill. She recruits four fellow feminists to join her on a research voyage to sample the levels of jellyfish infestation in the Baltic. Damroka's actual goal is the sunken Wendish city of Jumne, or Vineta, which had once been governed by a matriarchy. She is counseled in her quest by the talking Flounder from Grass's novel The Flounder (1977). In the She-rat's story, the endlessly knitting and regularly contentious women find the city but, before descending to it, are incinerated in the nuclear catastrophe. In the narrator's version of reality, the scientific mission is completed and Damroka, having failed to find her Vinetan utopia, returns home.
Hansel, also called Johannes, and Gretel, also called Margarethe, the “punk” children of the West German chancellor. The boy is fifteen years old and resembles Störtebeker, the teenage gang leader from The Tin Drum. The thirteen-year-old girl is similar to the thin and malicious Tulla Pokriefke of Dog Years. Hansel and Gretel, in rebellion, run away from the chancellor and his materialistic and corrupt society. They join forces with Jacob Grimm (the Federal Republic's minister for forests, rivers, lakes and fresh air), his brother Wilhelm, his undersecretary, and an array of Grimm characters in an effort to reverse the ecological destruction of Germany. The military and the industrialists, however, with the blessing of the clergy, ruthlessly crush the fairy tale so that their version of reality might prevail.
Lothar Malskat, a painter from Königsberg who, when hired to restore remnants of Gothic murals, replaces the unsalvageable originals with his own brilliant but eclectic work. His forgeries are universally touted as glorious examples of northern Gothic. Oskar wants to produce a film about Malskat, who had publicly admitted the hoax. In Oskar's opinion, the true forgers of postwar Germany were Konrad Adenauer and Walter Ulbricht, who had opportunistically crafted the façades of their new German states to win the support of their respective occupying powers.