How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
During the interminable ceremony I couldn't shake the feeling: her head is going to bob up, she'll have to vomit again, something inside her still wants out (13.14).
Even though Oskar's describing his reaction in an articulate way, you can still read this as a child's fear—that a dead person's suddenly going to sit up. In this case, it's a horrible and sickening thought. It reminds us of Oskar's grandfather's situation—dead or not?
Quote #5
To this very day I have not cured myself of the habit of keeping a lookout on streets and squares for a skinny teenage girl […] who devours men like a shark. Even in my bed at the mental institution I'm frightened whenever Bruno announces an unknown visitor. My fear is this: Luzie Rennwand has come back as a scary Black Cook to urge you to jump one last time (31.21).
Luzie, like the Black Cook, comes to symbolize fear and death, since she's the one who told the police about the Dusters vandalizing the church, which resulted in their probably being hanged. Oskar fooled the judges at his trial and was acquitted, but he knows that there are still threats everywhere in life.
Quote #6
From the trees—lindens, if I remember rightly—dangled Volkssturm men and soldiers. Cardboard signs on their uniform jackets were fairly legible and indicated that the men hanging from the trees, or lindens, were traitors. I stared into the faces of several hanged men, made a few general comparisons, then specific ones with the hanged greengrocer Greff (31.32).
Here's a truly horrible scene that Oskar seems completely unaffected by except in an intellectual way. Has he already seen so much death that he's unmoved by seeing people hanging from trees in the streets? Do you believe he's so unaffected by the sight? BTW, this was an absolutely true scenario in Danzig.