Tin drum

Author: (German) Grass, G. (Author), Hu Qideng (Translator)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2007-01-01
Features: This book is the masterpiece of the renowned German writer Grass, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. At the age of three, Oscar unintentionally discovers his mother's affair with his uncle Lanzki and witnesses the rampant power of the Nazis. He decides not to grow taller and chooses to become a dwarf instead. From then on, in his perspective, society and the people around him appear strange and crazy. He spends his days beating on a tin drum to vent his frustration against the deformed society and the world. If his father or teacher angers him, he will scream loudly, shattering the windowpanes and his teacher's glasses into pieces. He also uses this to "disrupt" social order, causing trouble for Nazi gatherings. Despite his short stature, he possesses extraordinary intelligence and is exceptionally clever. Faced with his keen insights, his mother dies in shame and sorrow, his father becomes a Nazi officer, and his uncle dies in the war. The neighbor girl Maria comes to care for him, and they engage in sexual relations. After she becomes pregnant, she marries his father and gives birth to Kurt. Oscar travels with a dwarf circus troupe to the front lines to entertain the German army and returns home three years later. The Soviet army has captured Berlin, and his father dies by swallowing the Nazi party badge. When burying his father, Oscar loses his tin drum, and at the same time, his biological son Kurt hits him on the back of the head with a stone, causing him to collapse into the grave, bleeding profusely. However, from that moment on, he begins to grow taller, and his special ability to shatter glass with screams also disappears. The novel uses black humor to tell a fictional story that showcases Germany's dark history. The film adaptation of this book won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The book is the masterpiece of the renowned German writer Grass, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. At the age of three, Oscar unintentionally discovers his mother's affair with his uncle Lanzki and witnesses the rampant power of the Nazis. He decides not to grow taller and chooses to become a dwarf instead. From then on, in his perspective, society and the people around him appear strange and crazy. He spends his days beating on a tin drum to vent his frustration against the deformed society and the world. If his father or teacher angers him, he will scream loudly, shattering the windowpanes and his teacher's glasses into pieces. He also uses this to "disrupt" social order, causing trouble for Nazi gatherings. Despite his short stature, he possesses extraordinary intelligence and is exceptionally clever. Faced with his keen insights, his mother dies in shame and sorrow, his father becomes a Nazi officer, and his uncle dies in the war. The neighbor girl Maria comes to care for him, and they engage in sexual relations. After she becomes pregnant, she marries his father and gives birth to Kurt. Oscar travels with a dwarf circus troupe to the front lines to entertain the German army and returns home three years later. The Soviet army has captured Berlin, and his father dies by swallowing the Nazi party badge. When burying his father, Oscar loses his tin drum, and at the same time, his biological son Kurt hits him on the back of the head with a stone, causing him to collapse into the grave, bleeding profusely. However, from that moment on, he begins to grow taller, and his special ability to shatter glass with screams also disappears. The novel uses black humor to tell a fictional story that showcases Germany's dark history. The film adaptation of this book won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.