The Tin Drum

As Oskar performs with Bebra's group in Paris, his “artistic skills” (223) improve drastically. Oskar enjoys the performances and insists that he barely misses his family. He does not contact them, allowing them to “live for a year without [him]” (224). He allows his anger against Maria and Alfred to fester. He continues to have sex with Roswitha.

By 1944, the tide of the war has turned. The Germany Army is in retreat. Bebra's group is called to put on a show in Northern France as the Germans prepare to repel the Normandy Invasion by the Allied forces. Bebra and Oskar prepare their show on a desolate beach with German gun stations nearby which look like “a flattened turtle” (225). They meet a German corporal named Lankes. Lankes describes the way the soldiers build the concrete gun stations. Before the concrete can set, he says, the soldiers place a live puppy in the foundation. There is now “a puppy buried in the foundation of every pillbox” (226) and they will soon run out of puppies, so will have to use kittens, which are not as effective.

Lankes is an artist. He talks about the artistic flourishes he adds to each pillbox design, which he titles “mystical, barbaric, bored” (228). They agree that the 20th century is particularly barbaric. Together, they watch nuns collect shellfish from the beach. An officer named Herzog orders Lankes to shoot the nuns, claiming that they might be enemy spies. Lankes pushes back on the order but eventually relents. He shoots the nuns.

The beach invasion begins a short time later. Bebra and his troupe try to escape. Just as they board a German truck, however, Roswitha claims to need a cup of coffee. Oskar refuses to fetch it for her, so she disembarks. Just as she steps off the truck, a bomb falls and kills her. Oskar feels guilty that he did not fetch the coffee. He feels a special affection for Roswitha and their time together as he returns to Danzig, which is “undamaged and medieval” (235)

The death of Roswitha has a profound effect on Oskar. He decides to leave Bebra's performing group and return to Danzig, likening himself to “the Prodigal Son” (236). His return shocks his family, who never knew where he went. They assumed that he was gone forever. When they learn that the missing Oskar has returned, the authorities try and have him committed to a psychiatric hospital, accusing him of being too different from other people. They do not believe that Alfred is qualified to care for him. In reality, the Nazis would not send him to a hospital. He would be euthanized. However, Alfred insists that Oskar is his son.

When Kurt turns three, Oskar wants to buy a tin drum for him so that he and his son can “drum as a duo” (237). Oskar rants about the things he would have done differently with his son, if he had the chance. He imagines a scenario in which he and his son could happily share an afternoon looking through an album of family photographs. By this time, however, he and Kurt struggle to get along. On Kurt's third birthday, Oskar gifts him a tin drum. Kurt seems to have “misunderstood” (239) the gesture and attacks Oskar with the drum. As Kurt is now three, he is the same physical size as Oskar. He bullies Oskar, making Oskar feel helpless and absurd.

Maria learns that her brother Fritz has died in the war. Fritz's death turns her toward religion, so she begins taking Oskar to regular services at the same Catholic church Oskar visited with his mother. Oskar feels “sorry for her” (241). During one visit, Oskar searches for the statue of Mary and Jesus which fascinated him as a child. He finds the statue and decides to “put Jesus to the test” (243) again: If the statue of Jesus can play his drum, then he will become religious. This time, the demand works. Jesus plays a rhythm on the tin drum. However, Oskar quickly becomes bored and demands his drum back. As he walks away, Jesus calls out to him, asking whether he is now a believer. Oskar says that he is not, but Jesus repeats the question. When Oskar eventually turns around, Jesus compares him to his former apostle, Peter, and claims that a new church will be built using Oskar as a foundation. Oskar threatens the statue and runs out of the church, finding Maria. 

The interaction with the statue has a profound effect on Oskar. He wanders the streets of Danzig, shattering windows with the “desperate edge” (246) of his voice. One day, he is approached by a group of young people. Oskar tries to escape the group but he cannot run away. The group's leader—a boy named Stortebeker— quizzes Oskar. Unwilling to tell them his real name, Oskar says that “[his] name is Jesus” (249). The kids threaten him, but Stortebeker insists that Oskar teach them the glass-shattering vocal technique. They have all seen Oskar break glass with his voice and they want to do the same. When Oskar shows off his skill, they applaud while “air-raid sirens” (251) begin to sound. They elect Oskar as the new leader of their group, named The Dusters. They beat up adults and break into places to steal any weapons that they can get their hands on. Eventually, they say, they plan to use these weapons to attack a busy government building filled with German workers.

Oskar takes over “the leadership of the thirty to forty members of the gang” (253). Though they frequently attack Nazis, the Dusters reject any potential recruitment from other politically-minded groups, such as the Communists. They claim to be “fighting against [their] parents and all grownups” (255). Rather than lead a glorious and doomed assault on a government building, however, Oskar makes a different plan. He tells the Dusters to steal religious artefacts and items from museums, including a failed attempt to find the cursed figurehead, Niobe.

When an older man mocks Oskar's plan as being like a “Christmas play” (256), Oskar agrees. The play is not a traditional theater performance. Instead, Oskar and the other kids break into the Catholic church and cut the figure of Jesus from the statue. Once the Jesus is freed, Oskar is dressed up as a baby and placed “matter-of-factly” (258) in the now-excavated space. He sits on the lap of the statue of Mary as the Dusters hold a Mass. When the police burst in, the Dusters are all arrested. The police do not know how to react to the sight of Oskar lying on the lap of the statue of Mary. One of the police officers recognizes Oskar as they lead him away for what he describes as “the second trial of Jesus” (260).

The Dusters are placed on trial. Due to his diminutive size, Oskar is able to pretend that he is just a three-year-old child. He watches the trial as a German judge sentences each one of the Dusters in turn, while he is released. The Dusters are presumably executed.

A short time later, the Russian attack on Danzig begins and the “threads of current events” (262) begin to weave together in the form of the end of the war. The Russians quickly defeat the Germans and take control of Danzig. He watches the city of Danzig burn when it is shelled by the Russians, though he is just about able to save his “things” (266) from the fire. Oskar hides in the basement of his house with Maria, Alfred, Frau Greff, and Kurt. The “totally ordinary” (267) Russian soldiers find them.

The soldiers rape Frau Greff while threatening the others with guns. Alfred fears that the Russian soldiers will discover that he is a Nazi. If they find out, they will execute him. The only evidence that he is a Nazi is a small pin with a Nazi insignia. The “Party pin” (268) is in Oskar's fist; he hands it to Alfred as the Russians loot the house. Alfred panics. He slips the pin in his mouth and tries to swallow it. Oskar knows that the pin is open. The pin gets caught in Alfred's throat. He immediately begins coughing up blood. He chokes and gasps. Alfred is about to die when a Russian soldier shoots him, “emptying the whole magazine” (269) either as an act of mercy or to silence him. Oskar admits that he may have opened the pin on purpose.

Danzig, like many places in modern Poland, has been a part of many countries and has had many names “before the spelling was settled upon” (270). Oskar gives an account of the complicated, violent history of the city before returning to his story. Alfred's funeral is held a short time later. The family attends, as does a Jewish man who has recently been liberated from one of the Nazi concentration camps. The man explains that his family was murdered in “the ovens at Treblinka” (272). He is struggling to let go of their memory and still talks about them as though they were with him.

As Alfred's casket is lowered into the ground, Oskar feels a sudden compulsion to throw the tin drum in after him. He thinks about his first experiences with the tin drum and his decision to never grow beyond three years old; these were ways to deal with a future that Alfred foresaw for him, but which he did not want. Alfred and Agnes are now dead, so Oskar can live the life that he wants. As soon as he throws the tin drum “on top of the coffin” (276), he begins to grow. Oskar feels his entire body grow immediately. Even “Crazy” Leo, also at the funeral, can tell that Oskar is growing. He runs around, shouting, “he's growing, he's growing, he's growing” (277).

In the hospital, Bruno measures Oskar. They find that Oskar is now “one meter and twenty-one centimeters” (278), more than a foot taller than he was at his father's funeral. Oskar believes that he is still going to grow. At the time of the initial growth spurt, however, his body reacts badly. He becomes sick and no doctor can understand what is “wrong” (280) with him.

During this time, Maria decides to leave Danzig. She goes to live with her sister in Dusseldorf, taking Oskar and Kurt with her. Maria's departure means that Anna is now alone. Everyone seems to have left her; even Oskar seems to be terribly sick and may leave her soon. After a sad farewell with Anna, Maria takes Oskar and Kurt to Dusseldorf.

In the hospital, Oskar remembers his painful growth spurt of 1945. This took place almost a decade ago, he says. Oskar asks Bruno to transcribe the next part of the story on his behalf.

Bruno takes over writing duties. His style is markedly different to Oskar's prose. Though Oskar has framed Bruno as an unintelligent man, his writing suggests that Oskar's depiction of Bruno may not be reliable. In the passages written by the “unmarried and childless” (286) Bruno, Oskar and the family travel from Danzig to Dusseldorf. The train is filled with criminals and they are attacked several times. One of the few possessions which is not stolen is “the family photo album” (288), which Oskar clings to desperately. At the same time, he is still struggling to stay alive in his “fevered state” (291). His bones are growing and he has a very high temperature.

Oskar's memories of the final part of the journey to Dusseldorf are a confusing blur. When they arrive in the city, Maria immediately checks Oskar into a hospital. He spends a long time in the hospital as his body grows. The growth is not healthy or pretty. His bones stick out at odd angles. Fortunately for Oskar, he has become somewhat famous during this time. He mentions in passing that he played the drums on a popular record. The royalty payments from this record earn him a considerable deal of money.

Oskar takes the pen back from Bruno. He wants to be measured again. In the three days since his last measurement, he has grown “two centimeters” (292) in additional height.