The Tin Drum

The Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by German author Gunther Grass. In the novel, a man named Oskar tells the story of his life, particularly focusing on his experiences during World War II. The novel employs satire, absurdism, magical realism, and allegory to wrestle with the pain and trauma of life under Nazi rule. The Tin Drum was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1979 and has been hailed as a landmark in literary fiction. In 1999, Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This guide uses an eBook version of the 2009 Vintage Classics edition, translated by Breon Mitchell.

Content Warning: The source material contains sometimes graphic depictions of political, domestic, and sexual violence, implied pedophilia, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Oskar Matzerath is a patient in a psychiatric hospital, which is referred to in the text as a “mental institution” (9). He begins to write his autobiography using supplies given to him by his keeper, Bruno. Oskar begins with the story of how his grandparents met. Anna Bronski is a potato seller who hides a fleeing arsonist named Joseph Koljaiczek beneath her many skirts. While under her skirts, he impregnates her and the couple marry. Anna gives birth to Oskar's mother Agnes, but Joseph goes missing when he is forced to run from the police. Agnes falls in love with her cousin, Jan, as well as an injured soldier named Alfred, who she nurses back to health during World War I. Agnes eventually marries Alfred while Jan marries a woman named Hedwig. When Agnes becomes pregnant, she is never sure whether Alfred or Jan is the father. Even after Oskar is born, Jan and Agnes continue their sexual relationship.

Oskar is born with a fully developed adult mind. He remembers his birth in meticulous detail. When he overhears Alfred talking about Oskar's future as a greengrocer, he is annoyed. He considers returning to the womb but the promise of a tin drum from Agnes convinces him not to do so. As a compromise, he decides that he will not grow any more after his third birthday. To the outside world, Oskar appears like a child. He carries a tin drum with him everywhere and plays it constantly, using it to communicate and conserve his memories. In the future, playing a tin drum will help Oskar explore his memories.

Oskar and his family live in the free city of Danzig. When the Nazis take power in Germany, they invade Poland and take over Danzig. Oskar witnesses antisemitic violence firsthand, such as the destruction of Jewish-owned shops and violence against Jewish people on Kristallnacht. However, he is more concerned with regularly replacing his beloved tin drums.

Oskar discovers that his voice can shatter glass. He uses this ability to break windows and cause mayhem in Danzig. When he is still young, Agnes dies of fish poisoning. Alfred joins the Nazi Party while Jan reaffirms his Polish identity by working for the Polish Post Office. When German soldiers attack the Post Office, Jan helps his fellow workers defend the building. They are eventually overwhelmed, and Oskar is complicit in Jan being taken away and executed by the Germans. He struggles with his guilt regarding Jan's death.

Alfred hires a girl named Maria to work in his grocery store. Oskar falls in love with Maria and, as he begins to explore his burgeoning sexuality, he convinces himself that he has impregnated her. She is also in a sexual relationship with Alfred. When she gives birth to Kurt, Oskar is convinced that the boy is his son even though Maria is now Alfred's wife. Frustrated, Oskar begins a sexual relationship with a neighbor named Frau Greff, whose pedophilic husband eventually takes his own life.

Oskar leaves home to work in a travelling performance group run by his friend Bebra. The group performs for soldiers on the front lines. After he sees a German soldier execute nuns in Normandy, however, Oskar returns to Danzig. He becomes the leader of a gang of children named the Dusters, but they are caught when they deface a statue in a church. At the end of World War II, Russians enter Danzig and terrorize the local people. Oskar and his family are held hostage in the basement while the Russians loot their house. Oskar hands Alfred a pin with a Nazi insignia, which Alfred fears will mark him for execution if discovered. Alfred swallows the pin, which catches in his throat. The Russians shoot him as he chokes to death.

Oskar, Maria, and Kurt go to live in Dusseldorf. Oskar flits between jobs, working as a stonecutter and a model. He moves into his own apartment and meets a musician named Klepp. They agree to start a jazz band together. At the same time, he becomes obsessed with a neighbor named Sister Dorothea. Oskar becomes a successful musician, but fame and money do not make him happy. While walking a rented dog, he finds a severed finger. He meets a man named Vittlar and eventually convinces Vittlar to report the severed finger to the police. Oskar is arrested for murder and placed in the psychiatric hospital, even though he knows that he is innocent. He worries that he will be released soon, as he craves punishment for the mistakes of his past.