The Tin Drum - Definition and Overview

The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is part of the Danziger Triologie (Danzig Trilogy).

The novel was adapted for the screenplay of a 1979 film of the same name, directed by Volker Schlöndorff. The film won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Synopsis

The story is about the life of Oskar Matzerath, who writes his autobiography from memory while in a sanitarium during the years 1952 to 1954. However, Oskar's memories begin before those of ordinary people. The story starts with his own birth, when Oskar sees the light of "two sixty-watt bulbs" in Danzig (Gdansk). Oskar declares himself to be one of those "auditory clairvoyant babies", whose "spiritual development is complete at birth and only needs to affirm itself". At age three he receives a tin drum for his birthday and decides, after observing the obtuseness and duplicity of the adult world, to will himself not to grow up.

External link

• extensive review (in German) (http://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Grass_blechtrommel.htm)