Opening Line
The novel commences with a justifiably renowned opening line: “Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there’s a peephole in the door, and my keeper’s eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me.” That last part there—about being a blue-eyed type—is more ironic than the rest and there’s some heavy packaging of irony in what leads to it. “Blue-eyed type” is an allusion to Aryan superiority—the Master Race—as nobody but Nazis ever called Nazis. The idea of freakish mental patient aligning himself with the Aryan ideal is ironic on two levels. Firstly, it is actually in keeping with the authentic insanity of Nazi ideology. Secondly, Oskar represents literally everything about non-Aryan traits that the Nazis despised.
Foundational Irony
The unreliability of Oskar as the narrator of the book is the ironic foundation upon which the entire story is constructed. In the world of novel-length fiction, there may be nothing more fundamentally ironic than having someone whose word cannot be fully trusted entrusted with the job of telling the tale. By definition, a novel is a story that never happened; it is a fiction even if based on true events. This very facet of the form is what made the novel the black sheep of literature for its first century or so of existence. It is also why such a huge number of the very first novels which gave shape and form to its structure include prefatory material that often goes to absurd lengths to convince readers that the events covered in the story did—one some way or another—actually happen. The irony of Oskar’s narration is that throughout the story, he purposely encourages the reader to doubt the reader to doubt the veracity of his tale. This approach stands in direct opposition to the early stages in the evolution of the novel as a literary form.
To Think, He Killed Some Cats!
If you can believe Oskar, there once was a Nazi stormtrooper—meaning he was among the very worst of the very worst of the most inhumane members of the party—who tried to kill four cats, but failed. This failure resulted in his actions being discovered and reported to his superiors. Those superiors put him on trial and found him guilty of conduct unbecoming a stormtrooper so he was summarily and dishonorably discharged on grounds of engaging in cruelty to animals. If the irony in this is not apparent, remember that history books are widely available and often free of charged to read.
The Onion Cellar
People gather at the Onion Cellar to chop the vegetable which releases chemicals capable of irritating the eyes to the point that tears are produced. The tears produced by cutting onions have nothing to do with emotions; one can be joyously happy while doing it yet still have tears streaming down their face. The irony lies in the oppositional juxtaposition: the people coming there to cut onions are profoundly upset emotionally by the horrors of the Nazi era, yet incapable of crying about it. They need the onions to produce the tears so that feelings seem real when they express them.
I am So Great! I am So Great!
There is a flashback scene in one of the all-time greatest episodes of The Simpsons—“Selma’s Choice”—in which a pre-Lisa Bart is showing banging the bottom of a metal pot with a metal spoon while constantly singing “I am so great!” It seems highly probable that this scene is a subtly quirky allusion to the novel: the drum-banging Oskar is not shy about professing testimony to his belief that he is truly the embodiment of greatness almost to the point of perfection. The irony, of course, is that he is quite clearly not so great. In fact, though he is the protagonist, it is a huge stretch to identify him as the hero of the story.
