The Tin Drum Sex and Lust Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The stylish, always slightly plaintive Jan Bronski, submissive at work, ambitious in love, imprudent and obsessed by beauty in equal measure, who lived from the flesh of my mama, who, as I still believe and doubt to this day, begot me in Matzerath's name (10.31).

Another illustration of how, at a very young age, Oskar was acutely aware of the sexual feelings and behavior of the adults in his life.

Quote #5

Oskar jumped up and flung himself at Maria. She caught him with her hair. His face was now overgrown. It grew between his lips. Maria laughed and tried to push him away (21.43).

Oskar impulsively runs to Maria and presses his face into her crotch. Maria, though, still isn't mortified. Instead, she just laughs and tries to push him away. She really doesn't seem to see him as a sexual person—he looks and acts like a three-year-old. It was scenes like this that got the movie banned in some cities for being child pornography.

Quote #6

Something was going on that Maria had neither seen nor probably ever felt before; her hand twitched, trembled, tried to fly away, for woodruff nipped at her, woodruff penetrated her skin, woodruff excited her, gave her a feeling, a feeling, a feeling… (22.18)

When Oskar puts fizz powder into Maria's hand and uses his spit to make it foam, Maria seems to undergo some sort of sexual awakening. At least that's how Oskar describes it when he repeats the words "a feeling" at the end of this passage. "Spit" could also be a euphemism here.