Perfume explores a tremendous range of topics, ideas and themes. And although Regeneration was a great book to read, we often overlap in a few of the ideas when either doing presentation and essays. Perfume on the other hand touches in nearly every area of the human emotions, everything from love, hate, anger, anxiety, to other emotions that cannot be described in a single word. It also touches on the French culture, religion, morals, ethnics, and nature, with both incredible olfactory detail and visual details. I personally look forward in discussing Perfume in class, but at the same time also hope that our ideas will not be affect too much by, movies, clips, general themes that will veer our original opinions of Perfume off course.

Attempting to Understand Grenouille

We look at Grenouille as a murderer, as a psychopath. But because of his horrendous actions we cease to try to understand his personality. and simply label him as a 'psychopath' to help explain his behavior in a more acceptable way that we can comprehend. We also come to believe that Grenouille was 'evil' since the moment he was born. In my opinion this is false.
Grenouille was born gifted and talented but not born 'evil'. He was simply born without a smell. and furthermore he was born abandone. Not only was he abandone by his mother, but also by the wet nurse Jeanne Brussie and also by Father Terrier. His mother simply could not take care of him, Jeanne Brussie and Father Terrier label him 'evil' based on nothing else than the fact that they could not smell him. Furthermore Madame Gaillard did not have the slightest concern for him. Therefore in the first few essential years his childhood of he experience no love, no compassion or anything of such. Putting it in a modern perspective, he suffers a very realistic and very common Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).
At an early age they completely depend on themselves for protection and survival, hence they become completely isolated from other people, because they see everyone else as a threat. With that in mind they will not be able to trust and hence not be able to love. Without treatment most children grow up to become sociopaths (psychopaths) and do not develop a consciene and care for no one else but themselves.
This is obviously only a small attempt in trying to understand Grenouille, also this is only my opinion because I have only read about a few cases of RAD, to me if Grenouille was had been taken born in a proper hospital and with proper care, his character would have been completely different. and despite his actions, I find it hard to believe that anyone is born 'evil'.

Relationship between Perfume and The Wild Duck

While reading the wild duck i reolized some similarities between the story line of Perfume and the story line of the wild duck. In both pieces of literature the main character has been propelled forward in socitey by another character. In the Wild Duck Hjalmar was given the oppurtunity to become a photographer and marry his wife through his best friends father, this changed his life, because he got a daughter adn also means of living and an income. Grenouille was taken in and "purified" to become a more decent citizen which helped him to reach his goal of creating the perfect perfume. Both of these works show the impact of other people's influence on a characters life and future.

Grenouille the GOD of all scents

“And Grenouille the Great saw that it was good” (pg131)this was said by Grenouille

“and God saw that it was good” this is from the holy bible(old testament: genesis:1:10)and it was said by god himself

Here Grenouille clearly compares himself or even replaces himself with God. According to the Bible god said those words over and over again while creating earth. In this case of perfume Grenouille sees himself as God. While Grenouille is creating the universe of scents he is as well just like God in the Bible repeating the phrase “saw that it was good” over and over again. This clearly implies that Grenouille sees himself as THE GOD OF SCENTS.

Plot Structure

You should also be familiar with this and be able to fill this in for all longer works studied. Click link for diagram - plot structure diagram

A better one more complex and adds comparison with Aristotle's here

Using literary terms correctly - not a choice

Note to all: don't forget to refer to literary devices in a sophisticated manner.

Everyone really needs to be using the correct terms for analysis. You also need to be doing close language analysis in terms of literary analysis.

A selection you should know:

• Sensory imagery is the term to use when taking of the senses. There is visual, aural, olfactory, tactile and gustatory imagery.
  
• An allusion is when a plot line / story closely or in part resembles another - maybe a moment in history, a mythical reference, a poem, character. Look out for these and see if you can make links.
• An allegory is a story with some kind of lesson or moral message. Technically, can Perfume really be defined as being an allegory? If so - what is the message - is there one or many? Or is there no clear-cut answer?

I will keep adding to this - make sure you copy and paste them in a place where you can refer to them.

Perfume - The End

At the end of Perfume, Grenouille achieves what he has been working towards throughout the novel. He creates the ultimate scent and causes people to worship him and fall into ecstasy with a single drop.
It is interesting that his perfume had different effects on the separate classes of his audience. While the working class had a massive orgy, the upper class took their pleasure in on themselves, weeping and fainting and trembling. Although it could be inferred from this that the lower class were are like animals and less dignified than the upper class, the scene does show that they have more freedom and feel a greater strength of emotion. Or perhaps they are just able to share their emotions with others. This suggests that the upper class are content to think about themselves and are a different type of person altogether. If they had had the same personalities as the lower class, they most likely would have acted in the same way as them in the heat of the moment. No one had control over their own bodies. Instead, the upper class are shown to be more withdrawn and dignified even when nobody else was watching.
It is also interesting that no one rushed at Grenouille or saw through his aura of perfume. Everyone was affected by it. This shows that Grenouille really was a different order of being from them as he of course was not influenced by his own creation.
When he tips the whole bottle of his perfume over himself, the people around devoured him because of 'Love'. The extreme of the emotion is shown to result in hunger for flesh. Suskind is saying that the wonderful emotion of Love is purely selfish at its extreme. In fact it could be selfish all the time since it does not change but just gets stronger.

Perfume: a summary.

This book starts off with the birth of a baby (if you can even call it that), called Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in a rancid food market built atop a cemetery and ends with an orgy of beyond biblical proportions right before the protagonist himself decides to end his life in a way which manages to both shock and fascinate readers. Grenouille, the protagonist, is born unloved and devoid of a personal odour. But he has an over-developed sense of smell. He is able to smell anything and everything, except himself. His sense of smell is so sharp that it becomes something that is both a blessing and a curse.

The sense of smell is the one sense that is inevitably tied to living. In order to live you must breathe and consequently, in order to breathe you must smell. It is considered a curse because he cannot escape the stench of other human beings. It is a blessing in the sense that he is able to classify every tinge of a particular smell, and in addition to that, capable of combining separate elements and turn them into new and amazing scents. At first, he tries to avoid all humans by retreating to a cave in the highest region, the peak of the mountains where he became a habitant for seven consequtive years. He is then deeply attracted to the purest of human scents; virgins who are just reaching the age when they are "budding" or "blossoming" which ultimately leaves him intoxicated and hungry for more. Thus he begins his conquest of capturing and preserving this scent and he makes this the ultimate goal in his life.

Nothing could stop Grenouille, for he is compared to a devil, a tick, a god. He doesn't believe in the existence of God for he has no use for God as he builds himself a world where he alone is the creator and therefore is superior to everyone else. He often retreats to his self-created world and this is where readers are engulfed into his personal thoughts. There are many and obvious and conspicuous references to him as a twisted and intricated form of God.

"And when he saw that is was good and that the whole earth was saturated with his divine Grenouille seeds, then Grenouille the Great let descend a shower of rectified spirit . . . Then Grenouille the Great commanded the rain to stop. And it was so... And Grenouille the Great saw that it was good, very, very good. And he caused the wind of his breath to blow across the land." - pg 130/131

He figures out a way to create a human scent for himself, since he finally, by accident discovers the fact that he, Grenouille is deprived of a personal scent.

"He would be able to create a scent that was not merely human, but superhuman, an angel's scent, so indescribably good and vital that whoever smelled it would be enchanted and with his whole heart would have to love him, Grenouille, the bearer of the scent." - pg 160/161

In the end, he is captured for his crimes (killing young virgins to obtain their scent to create his ultimate perfume) and is sentenced to death. On the verge of his execution, he sprinkles his ultimate perfume on himself. Quickly enough, this turned into a mass orgy. Everyone who smelled him saw him as pure good and innocent. They love him (even if they don't know him and even for the terrible things he had done) and couldn't believe that he was guilty! (even Richis, the second consul himself forgets about the fact that Grenouille murdered his precious daughter and is willing to take Grenouille as his son.) These people were so overcome with rapture that,

"It was as if the man had ten thousand invisible hands and had laid a hand on the genitals of the ten thousand people surrounding him and fondled them in just the way that each of them, whether man or woman, desired in his or her most secret fantasies. The result was that the scheduled execution of one of the most abominable criminals of the age degenerated into the largest orgy the world had seen since the second century before Christ." - pg 247

It's fascinating how easy it is for people to lose their sense for a smell of another human. Here, readers can see that rationality is completely lost for primitive animal instincts thus leaving a question for the readers to ponder: ultimately, taking every other factor out of the equation, which is more powerful, sense or scent?

The ending is very intricating and so unpredictable. At first, I myself wasn't sure how Suskind was going to conclude the novel in a way that would help the readers to understand the overall message. But he manages to sum everything up in a very ingenious way; Grenouille sprays the whole bottle of his ultimate perfume on himself in a crowd of people, making him so irresistable that everyone wants a piece of him, leaving him to die a tragic but significant death.

Perfume

Having read Perfume and exploring Grenouille's world of sent has made me become more aware of scent as a whole and how it effects our daily lives. We rely on scent to help us survive, similar to Grenoulille although most of the time we do not realise it. We rely on scent to help us find food, helping us avoid rotten/unhealthy food and to warn us of danger such as fire. Grenoulille too relied purely on scent to protect him from danger, as in the novel; Grenouille smells the cave first, before entering, checking if there was any threat, and his scent helped him avoid human contact on his journey to the cave.

The book also evoked the thought of how the scents Grenouille experienced must differ from the scents we experience today, in the modern world. The smells that he encountered would have been more honest, less complicated and pure. Where they were made by hand and great care and love was used to produce a fine product, like Grenoulille who bought out the very essence of the perfume. Where as our sents today connect with technology and an ever advancing human race. They are made by machine without the tender touch of a hand, therefore seeming to miss the love and care which added to their beauty in the past.

As a whole I enjoyed the entire book, the story line was completely different and one does not often get novels that appeal to the sences as mush as this one. The style of Suskind's writting is interesting, the way he describes Baldini's shop and Paris made me feel as if I were in the novel with Grenouille experiencing what he was experiencing. Suskind not only appeals to the olfactory sence but to the visual, aural and tactile sences as well. This is demonstrated in the cave which includes both visual and tactile sences, as one could picture the complete darkness and loneliness of the setting. Not only this but the moist, cold, hard feeling of a cave and the animal it turned Grenouille into. This was all developed well by Suskind's writting, which again made me believe I was there in the novel with Grenoulille.

Overall it was a brilliant read, one that I could not put down. I was a little annoyed at times when Suskind seemed to babble on slightly about Baldini's shop for example. Although I see now that the descriptions are what made the novel and helpe us understand Grenoulille alittle more. Suskind was allowing us to see the world from Grenoullie's point of view and the world's view of Grenoulille. This effected us as the readers, appealing to our senses, imaginations and allowing us to enter a world purely consisting of scent.

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 :)

Literature inspires other art forms

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana guitarist and chief lyricist) commented on more than one occasion that his favourite book was Perfume. The lyrics of Scentless Apprentice (from the In Utero album) were inspired by the novel and are based on Grenouille. The voice in the song lyrics shifts - can you identify in what way? On what aspects of character does Cobain choose to focus?

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/n/nirvana/scentless+apprentice_20100988.html

How does literature inspire or prompt us to analyse once we look through the lens that the writer/dramatist/ poet presents to us? ( Remember that understanding the social and historical and cultural context of the time the work was written is vital)

The song Redhead Girl by French band Air is also inspired by Perfume. Click on the name of the song listen to both on Youtube - what moods are evoked by each of the songs? Can you map the journey of the song in descriptive language?

Revise / Familiarise yourself with the literary terms you need for IB

A comprehensive powerpoint outlining over 100+ literary terms with handy picture tags and examples. A must for all of you. You need to be using at least 20- 45 of these terms confidently and comfortably.
http://www.slideshare.net/MattChristensen/literary-terms-presentation


Make sure you visit and re-visit this site again and again... I will be testing you on a selected amount in the near future.

Suskind's Perfume - what is his take on the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment was a period when the world order in Europe was shaken. In the arts, sciences and daily life, its principles meant that the ruling authorities were challenged for their absolute rule and individual rights and ways of life were championed. Like any movement there were positive and negative aspects to Enlightenment and the interpretation of what it meant.

Research the topic to work out what you think Suskind's take on the Enlightenment is:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/enlightenment.html Washington State University web entry. This one is compulsory reading.

http://www.teacheroz.com/Enlightenment.htm This one covers the whole period plus more - you need to select what to read here

Use examples from the novel to support your ideas.

PERFUME - Human fascination and curiosity.

Reading Christian's post lead me to think of how although I felt disgusted by this weird protagonist that was Grenouille, and I felt a great dislike towards him, yet I also realised that i grew very fascinated by the way that he lived and wanted to read on.
The curiosity we all have as human beings makes us want to keep on reading, similar to the curiosity that drew Grenouille to follow the scent that he smelt on that night in Paris to find the first Red headed girl. We see in the book that Grenouille becomes fascinated by what he finds he can do in this life and he becomes curious to see how great he really can become. He wonders if he really can produce a smell that can make everyone love him. His obsession, fascination and the pure sense of curiosity that draws him towards finding all these smells drives the kill that he makes. He is curious to see if there really is a perfect scent that will seduce all who will smell it.

Just a little thought that I wanted to share with everyone! :D
I might add things on later, feel free to comment!

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille

You would be hard pressed to find an endearing quality in Jean Baptiste Grenouille, the protagonist of the novel Perfume. While reading Perfume I was repulsed by the character of Grenouille - I could not relate to him in any way. However, Grenouille's thought processes and his actions were so interesting that I couldn't bring myself to stop reading. Of course, Suskind's skill with words contributed to my enjoyment of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel I neither liked nor disliked Grenouille. In fact, on some level, I felt pity towards him. He was born on a heap of of fish guts and garbage, completely abandoned by his birth mother. From the beginning, Grenouille really had no control over his life and was shuttled from one carer to another, and none of them had any particular liking for him. As if this wasn't enough, he was born without a scent - completely singling him out from the rest of humankind.

However, at the point where Grenouille acquires his journeyman's papers from Baldini and journeys into the mountains I began to dislike him. Once he had found his little cave and bunkered down for seven years, his true character came out. (Well, I already disliked him after he murdered the first girl, but disliked him even more later) His "orgies" of self-worship that he held within "his heart" were repulsive. His imitation of the biblical Creation was such a flagrant power trip that I began to truly despise him.

The Senses

It is clear in Patrick Süskinds’s Perfume, that the senses or in particular the olfactory world that Grenouille exists in, have a somewhat control over our lives. Everyday human beings follow their noses, see new sight things with their eyes, are convinced of new information via their ears and so on. Our senses take us where we want to go, sniff out the nutrients we desire and listen to the various melodies of everyday life that keep us living . For example, I myself often come across certain ‘perfumes’ or odours that remind me of people or places I have known in the past. It can sometimes bring back great memories, or even trick the brain into believing that this smell is in some way linked to a good memory. Perhaps, after his unusual up brining, these scents are the only thing that gives Grenouille his ‘good memories’

Perfume - Grenouille

The main character of the book is written about as if the author despises him and perhaps rightly so. However, Grenouille is so fascinating that the reader cannot help but be drawn to him.
Apart from his incredible sense of smell he has an uncanny ability to survive. Against all odds, Grenouille lives. The source of this life seems to come from pure will for when he experiences failure and loses hope, his life also starts to dwindle. This suggests that Grenouille is hardly a human being, but merely infallible will encased in the husk of one.
He rejects the human world, only using it to help him progress with his goals, and at one point fully withdraws into himself. He has no need for company as the only love he has is for himself and no other. He has no need for a god to worship because he is god enough on his own. This extreme vanity makes him both more despicable and more interesting.
In addition, everyone Grenouille makes contact with seems to end in one horrible way or another. If he was never alive, these people may just have survived for longer or else died happily. His unconcern with others does not reduce his effect on them.
The reader is led to view Grenouille as a sort of mythical creature with the power of immortality and incredible sense of smell with a complete apathy for all of humanity.

Link to Types of Approaches to Psychotherapy

http://www.divisionofpsychotherapy.org/student/Approaches.htm

Munitionette

She,

glittering like streetlamps, yellow

of  her skin, knocking them back

hand on her chin

Bold,

like glaring sunlight, beating

of her heart, so much life

within her

 

She,

of the world behind

the glass, so rippled and he ensnared

by the writhing Dead

Cold,

are the arms that tenderly try

to snuff out the joy

within her

 

Character Analysis : Lizzie.

Lizzie is a friend of Sarah Lumb in the novel. Hopefully by reading the analysis of the quotes below to do with Lizzie in this post you will be able to get a better idea of her character in Regeneration.

P 87 - "Lizzie was keeping the younger girls entertained with a string of stories." - Lizzie is older, confident and witty as she seems to be keeping her companions entertained.

P 89 - "Lizzie said "Howay, lasses, I think our Sarah's clicked." - Lizzie is not afraid to say things, she speaks her mind and tells it like it is. She is blunt and not afraid of judgement and so can be seen to be self-assured.

P 110 - "The others were talking about Lizzie's husband, who'd thrown her into a state of shock by announcing, in his last letter that he was hoping to come home on leave soon." - We also see a slight weakness in her, as her husband may be the only one that can bring her confidence down. Although her husband abuses her, she may be stronger now because of it when he is at war and not there. Lizzie has a tough exterior when she is with the girls, perhaps she has "toughened up" due to the abuse from her Husband. Lizzie likes to be independent and does not seem like the stereotypical "weak" female character on the exterior.

P210 - "She sniffed and remained silent, enjoying the moment of power." - She is self-assured and likes to know that she has an influence/power. Perhaps this is why she does not want her to come back (as well as the obvious fact that he abuses her) she likes to be in charge.