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Point of view of perfume the story of a murderer
Point of view of perfume the story of a murderer
Point of view of perfume the story of a murderer
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Perfume, written by Patrick Suskind, explores the effect of a loveless life on the main character, Grenouille. From the first breath he draws, Grenouille must fight for himself. Through his tick-like nature, Grenouille absorbs power from his authority figures, leaving them lifeless while simultaneously achieving his goal. As his goals shift Grenouille moves from submission to dominance, and ultimately achieves total control over humanity. Suskind uses Grenouille’s journey to comment on the universal struggle of mankind to find his place in the world.
Grenouille dominates the authoritative figures in his life from a submissive position. At his birth Grenouille recognizes the necessity of bowing to those above him in order to survive. As his mother gives birth and “wishes only for the pain to stop” so she could “live for a while yet and perhaps even marry,” Grenouille lays silent under the fish stand (Suskind 5). This pattern continues as Grenouille fights to find his identity among the rest of the world. Moving on from his mother, Grenouille quietly observes all the rules set by Madame Gaillard, meekly allows Grimal to treat him as a slave, and willingly grants Baldini’s life goal of becoming the best perfumer in all of France. By allowing himself to act submissively, Grenouille earns the trust of the authorities, which gives him the freedom to become a tick. For instance, Grimal sees only the profit in Grenouille whose “Life was worth precisely as much as the work he could accomplish” (Suskind 31). Once Grenouille overcomes his bout of anthrax, Grimal allows Grenouille more freedom. Grenouille maintains his submissiveness, waiting for the right time to strike, just as a tick waits for the right moment to bite.
As Grenouille gain...
... middle of paper ...
...uggle of finding his place among humankind, he achieves total control through a systematic system of feeding off of his authorities. He begins with small goals to overtly dominate these authorities until he becomes strong enough to face and defeat them head on. Once Grenouille becomes the curator of total control and all his goals met, he sees no reason to continue living. In his tick-like nature Grenouille moves from submissiveness to dominance to total control by absorbing the powers from his former authority figures. Suskind uses this representation to demonstrate the brutal nature of society as an ‘every man for them self’ organization. Much like Grenouille, social climbers use their positions to better themselves and achieve their goals.
Works Cited
Süskind, Patrick. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Tr. John E. Woods. New York: Vintage
International, 2001.
The Shaper, a harp-playing bard, tells righteous tales about Hrothgar, the ruler, and his society. The Shaper lies and spins a web of exaggerations that romanticize the violence that has given Hrothgar his power. Grendel witnessed the fighting himself and knew what the Shaper was saying was untrue. However, Grendel cannot help himself but falling for the optimistically distorted reality of the Shaper. Throughout time and across the world, figures similar to the Shaper work to twist the truth into a favorable picture. The human perspective can often be easily controlled. This shows the fragility of independence and humanity. In response to the Shaper, Grendel says I too crept away, my mind aswim in ringing phrases, magnificent, golden, and all of them, incredibly, lies" (Gardner 43), but he also says “I clamped my palms to my ears and stretched up my lips and shrieked again” (Gardner 45). The contrast between these responses to the Shaper show how Grendel is split. He is both charmed and repulsed by the lies. Both ways, the Shaper demonstrates to Grendel the artificiality of truth in this existence. This only furthers Grendel’s dissatisfaction towards
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The presence of a bull prompts a shift in Grendel’s purpose in life from remaining obedient to his mother as a young child to being the creator of the world as he transitions into adulthood. As a young monster, Grendel motive’s coincide with his mother since she is the only person who Grendel is able to communicate with. He feels “Of all the creatures I knew, only my mother really looked at me...We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it… ‘Please, Mama!’ I sobbed as if heartbroken” (Gardner 17-19). His emotions demonstrate that as a child, he doesn’t consider himself as an individual but rather as embodying the same identity as his mother, which is further emphasized by the use of the simile. Additionally, Grendel’s use
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The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
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