Perfume

After listening to the discussions in class and reading the posts put up here, I don't think anyone shares my opinion on this book. To be honest, I do not hate Grenouille. His murders were indeed terrible, but somehow I wasn't repulsed by him, nor did i feel any anger towards him. In many parts of the novel I found that I could actually relate to what he was thinking. 

  To me, the book was like a window into the kind of people of that time: dirty, smelly, nasty. And Grenouille was an unusual character who was used to emphasise just that. It is written that he had this so called "love" only for himself and supposedly set himself higher than everyone else who existed, even God. I feel that he did this unknowingly. As you can see, towards the end of the novel, when he is about to be executed, a guard mentions something about God and Grenouille responds with an ignorant look, "as though he had never heard the name before". To me, it is clear that no one has ever taught Grenouille about God and so, he just doesn't know about Him. He loves himself only because he has never been taught to have love for others or feel love towards anything for that matter. The only actual love he shows is for the different odours he can smell. And that love is natural to him- which shows he is human, however strange he might be.

   The book is written in such a way that you cannot put it down, however greusome it may be, and Suskind or whoever did the translation couldn't have given us a clearer view into Grenouille's mind. I somehow truly feel that this book was only written to show us how cruel the people were of that time and to make sure that we don't go back to being like that. 

  The murders of the young beautiful girls make the reader feel worked up,  and this happens only because the reader is aware that murder is terrible and that if Grenouille gets caught he could be killed for it. However, they are actually written about in a very casual manner; as though they are not a big deal at all. To Grenouille, the only 'big deal' he can get out of the murders are the scents of the girls. This shows me, once again that Grenouille was not taught that murders are terrible deeds. He only wanted to be noticed and loved by all people. Even that, at the end is changed because he realises that he doesn't actually want love from anyone when he doesn't have any for them. To be loved and noticed is probably one of the few things he learnt with the use of his other sense- sight. He probably saw other people around him (like Baldini) becoming popular and being loved by others and that subconsciously became something he craved since he wasn't noticed at all. However, he didn't realise he wasn't being noticed by anyone; he didn't realise he didn't have a scent of his own. This brings out another 'human' characteristic in him- like every other human being, he wanted something he couldn't have. And when he finally got it, he realised he didn't actually want it - which happens to every other human being too. 

  Well, those are just my thoughts on the novel. Please feel free to add your comments and ask questions :)