Cats and Mice

"Cats and Mice" is the second book of Günter Grass's "Danzig Trilogy." Its action also takes place in Danzig during the war and addresses painful themes of national past. The narrative centers around teenagers whose childhood and youth occur in a militaristic atmosphere infused with the spirit of National Socialism. The gymnasium student Joachim Malke is traumatized by his classmate (the cat thrown around his neck catches Malke's prominent Adam's apple) and decides to obtain the highest award of Nazi Germany—the Knight's Cross—at all costs, not only to cover his vulnerability but also to present himself before his peers at the gymnasium and earn the glory of a hero. Gradually, the grotesque story takes on tragic tones—the hero becomes disillusioned with a cruel and absurd world. In Grass's words: "Malke's story exposes the church, the school, the cult of the hero—all of society. In his case, everything turned out to be untenable."