The Tin Drum

Oskar Matzerath, from mixed German/Polish (Kashubian) heritage, is born in Danzig during the post WWI period with a well formed mentality and knowledge of life, including his family's history, such as the strange way his maternal grandparents met which resulted in the birth of his mother Agnes Bronski, and while loving her husband, baker Alfred Matzerath, Agnes' continuing affair with her cousin, Jan Bronski, a Pole who works at a Polish run post office. With this knowledge, knowing that he will receive a tin drum as a gift on his third birthday, and watching the way adults around him continue to act, Oskar makes a conscious decision that on his third birthday, after he receives his tin drum, that he will stop growing, making it look like an accident has stunted his growth. His tin drums - the original as well as subsequent replacements - will act as symbols of his eternal youth. At a young age, he also learns of another special gift he has which aids in him getting what he wants by causing disruptions around him. Oskar will learn more fully of the consequences of his decision when chronologically he becomes a teenager, which coincides with the Nazi uprising and persecution of Poles and Jews.