Dog Years (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Gunter Grass
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The mid-1920’s to the late 1940’s
- Setting: Danzig and West Germany
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Dogs, Art or artists, 1940’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, Anti-Semitism, Nazism or Nazis, Germany or German people, Ballet or ballet dancers, Gypsies, Persecution
- Locales: West Germany, Danzig, Germany
Characters Discussed
Walter Matern (VAHL-tehr MAH-tehrn), the stocky son of a miller. Walter, known as the “grinder” for constantly grinding his teeth, is the protector, friend, and blood brother to Eddi Amsel. Their lives, along with the changes in Germany, are traced from their boyhood in the mid-1920’s through the early post-World War II period. Walter is expelled from the Young Prussia Athletic Club for distributing Communist leaflets, and his career as an aspiring actor is cut short by his excessive drinking. He joins the brown- shirted Nazi Sturm Abteilung (SA) on...
[The entire page is 1163 words long]
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