Bruno Munsterberg: Oskar's keeper, who watches him through a peep hole. He makes knot sculptures inspired by Oskar's stories. A translation into English by Ralph Manheim was published in 1961. A new 50th anniversary translation into English by Breon Mitchell was published in 2009. Grass, Günter (4 October 2009). "Guenter Grass - The Tin Drum". World Book Club (Interview). Interviewed by Harriet Gilbert. BBC World Service. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023 . Retrieved 19 June 2023.

Most of the protracted metaphors are really euphemisms, and reflect the way that many people who lived through WWII couldn't talk, or couldn't talk directly, about the events of those years. Some of them are truly impressive and subtle, such as the one in the final chapter of Part One, 'Faith, Hope, Love' about Santa Claus, almonds and the gasman. But others, especially the roundabout sexual euphemisms, which often simply seem to reflect older generations' discomfort talking directly about sex, became IMO increasingly tedious. (Though I think many GR friends who enjoy Rabelaisian novels full of wordplay would love these regardless.) But considering this, even if Oskar’s life turned out this way, look up at what all he accomplished. Il senso di colpa è proprio uno di quegli elementi che rende Oskar il riflesso del suo stesso popolo:

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When Satan's not in the mood, virtue triumphs. Hasn't even Satan a right not to be in the mood once in a while? In 1979 a film adaptation appeared by Volker Schlöndorff. It covers only Books One and Two, concluding at the end of the war. It shared the 1979 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or with Apocalypse Now. It also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of 1979 at the 1980 Academy Awards. Grass attended the Danzig gymnasium Conradinum. He volunteered for submarine service with the Kriegsmarine "to get out of the confinement he felt as a teenager in his parents' house" which he considered - in a very negative way - civic Catholic lower middle class. In 1943 he became a Luftwaffenhelfer, then he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst, and in November 1944, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, into the Waffen-Schutzstaffel. The seventeen-year-old Grass saw combat with the 10th Schutzstaffel panzer division Frundsberg from February 1945 until he was wounded on 20 April 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp. Oskar is a fine chronicler of his era because he simply does not belong; his very rejection of it is embodied in his refusal to grow and in his decision to lead a gang of youths who fight against parents and all grownups, regardless of what they may be for or against.

For Reese, who made his name with one-man shows based on letters and diaries of other such crowd-pleasers as Joseph Goebbels and the notorious German child murderer Jürgen Bartsch, Oskar Matzerath is a man whose conscience is on trial.

These two reasons for euphemism intersect when the story reaches the Russian occupation of Germany and the mass rapes by soldiers. At the time The Tin Drum was published, there remained a national refusal to talk about this - and that was still the case in the late 1950s, as was seen in the reception of the memoir A Woman in Berlin. So it was bold to allude to it at all. The innuendos used about it in The Tin Drum read with a playfulness that's highly inappropriate to the contemporary reader, though do probably reflect male minimisation of harm as well as the collective hushing-up, and therefore suit the era from a certain angle. However this book uses war references in a different context just as some fiction books refers to classics. Oskar is a dwarf with a glass-breaking voice - and in one scene is seen shouting at enchanted people (can you imagine some dwarf with a loud, destructive and seductive voice?). During the War, Oskar supports either the Polish opposition or the Nazis (even though he doesn't particularly like the Nazis), depending on what's convenient for him.

Oskar is clearly a villain. He commits multiple crimes, including many murders (direct and indirect), vandalism, theft, etc. He's vain, selfish, malicious, cruel and an accomplished liar. He's diabolically clever and comes out on top no matter what befalls him. Speaking of the Great War, Gunter Grass has been in the German army, but did not say about it until very late. This was considered shameful, even if his role was insignificant, if I remember well. The human life with its virulent jumps through time is ever unfathomable, ever mystifying. We will never know what will happen to us nor understand why these things happen. The journey we take is wreathed with puzzling events and painful moments, but that’s not to say that it doesn’t have its beams of joy. The odd assortment of sentiments life makes us experience is ultimately what being human is. You smile and laugh when you feel happy and cry when you are pierced by pain. It’s choosing which moments to memorialize in our minds, which thoughts to make magical that will make the difference. Let’s hope that these moments find us. Let’s pray that we, like Oskar, find our own tin drums that will give a steady beat of purpose to our hearts. Drum away all the unnecessary baggage and crosses. Let go of your circumscribed thoughts and enjoy the thrilling, pounding moments life has to offer. Let’s laugh. Let’s dance. Let’s make magic. And magic is all about believing. Through its verbal complexity, its use of fabulist images, and its daring choice to invest an absurd, amoral character with equal parts monstrosity and artistry ~~ Oskar’s expert ability to singshatter glass is juxtaposed against Kristallnacht ~~ Grass’s novel earns its stature.

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I've read somewhere that Oskar symbolizes Nazism. Maybe, but I think Fascism would be closer to the mark. Germany falls through and so he wants to go to America. So America will become the new Fascist state?

Through all this, a toy tin drum, the first of which he received as a present on his third birthday, followed by many replacement drums each time he wears one out from over-vigorous drumming, remains his treasured possession; he is willing to commit violence to retain it.It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the Palme d'Or, in the same year, and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film the following year. Music Details for Tuesday 4 February 1997". ABC Classic FM. ABC. 15 February 2007. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 19 September 2008. Es innegable hablar de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y del nazismo, ya que la posición, tanto de Oscar y de los personajes secundarios que lo rodean tanto del autor es más bien ambivalente ya que los aberrantes sucesos protagonizados por los nazis (especialmente el relato de la violenta, fatídica y horrorosa “Noche de los cristales rotos” o “Kristallnacht”) son vistas por un ingenuo Oscar y más bien puesto a consideración del lector el juzgamiento de los hechos de esa noche del 9 al 10 de noviembre de 1938. Mismo caso para la defensa de la oficina de correos polaca en Danzig (Gdansk) que los nazis atacaron con toda su furia el 1° de septiembre de 1939.