How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
And so Oskar acquired a third drumstick—he was old enough for it. And I drummed not on tin but on moss. And I no longer knew: am I drumming? Is it Maria? Is that my moss or her moss? (22.44)
You have to admit that a drumstick and drumming are odd images to use in this situation, but that's what he knows, what he compares all experiences to. Oskar poetically describes the sense of being swept away during sex. He's sixteen, plenty old enough to experience an erection.
Quote #8
Oskar was seventeen back then, yet in spite of his youth he developed into a man on the treacherously convoluted training grounds of Lina Greff. Abandoning the military comparisons, let me now measure Oskar's progress in artistic terms. […] From Maria's childlike and sentimental yet ever so sweet harmonica straight to the conductor's stand; for Lina Greff offered me an orchestra […]. There I learned to blow, strum, puff, pluck, and bow […] Oskar drew all there was from Frau Greff and, though satisfied, remained unsatisfied, like any true artist (25.2).
Oskar sure has a way with words. At seventeen, he's already a sexual connoisseur thanks to Frau Greff, whose husband has been neglecting her sexually because he's more interested in teenage boys. Oskar's too small to catch his interest, but Frau Greff is desperate, apparently.
Quote #9
I couldn't help hearing that the coconut fibers were giving Sister Dorothea a feeling much like the feeling fizz powder had given my beloved Maria all those years ago, except that the fizz powder allowed me to hold up my end fully and triumphantly, while here on the coco mat I was a total and humiliating flop (41.22).
Oskar can't achieve an erection in this scene and he feels totally humiliated by his failure. What's missing is any idea that a stranger accosting a woman in a dark bathroom probably isn't the ideal turn on for her (or him). But who knows? Maybe his penis has developed a moral conscience and is no longer cool with the idea of having non-consensual sex.