The Rat (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Gunter Grass
- First Published: 1986
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social
- Time of Work: 1984
- Setting: Germany, Sweden, and Poland
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1980’s, Human race, Folklore, Ethics, Truthfulness and falsehood, Filmmaking or filmmakers, Germany or German people, End of the world, Poland or Polish people, Pollution, Medical ethics, Sweden or Swedish people, Rats or mice
- Locales: Germany, Sweden, Poland
Characters Discussed
Harry Liebenau, the narrator, a writer employed by video producer Oskar Matzerath. Liebenau, obviously representing the author himself, is a writer from Danzig who was a character in Grass’s Dog Years (1963).
Oskar Matzerath (MAH-tseh- raht), a three-foot-tall, humpbacked drummer who also appeared in Grass’s The Tin Drum (1959). He is now a prosperous, bald, sixty-year-old video producer who wears too many rings and dresses in suits with large checks. Oskar agrees to the narrator’s suggestion to produce a film that would utilize a...
[The entire page is 842 words long]
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