Perfume Chapters 1-10

1) Describe Grenouille so far; how does Suskind begin creating his character (in other words, how can you justify your understanding/interpretations of Grenouille using the text itself)?

Grenouille seems to be neglected and has spent most of his life being treated as an outsider because most people view him as different and something to be feared. His own mother cast him aside at birth, choosing to not acknowledge his presence, and then his nurses all gave him away because they believed he was too greedy. One wet nurse went to the priest and he dismissed her claims at first, but once he saw the baby and the way its nose twitched, and the priest sent him to an orphanage where his likelihood of survival was slim. The other children were also afraid of Grenouille and tried to kill him, although they were never able to kill him. Suskind sets up Grenouille to be someone who very much should not be alive at this point in his life and story, but due to a series of fortunate circumstances, he was able to survive. Suskind also often compares Grenouille to a tick, which further sets up Grenouille as a greedy and parasitical character. Grenouille also often reads as lacking empathy, most likely because he has never experienced love himself. This is especially apparent in his comparison to a tick and his general lack of emotion, except for when he spells something extremely pleasant, specifically the young girl he murders.

2) We've never really read about a main character whose chief trait is his superhuman sense of smell. What is this all about? What might we learn from this character or story? Is scent a symbol for something else?

I think the author uses scent as a way to both connect the reader more to Grenouille while also setting him apart from any other character out there. Most readers can relate to the most extreme sensations from smell, when there is a truly repugnant or delicious smell, so the readers can relate to some of what Grenouille is feeling and experiencing. However, readers do not have the superhuman sense of smell that Grenouille has, so they will never be able to truly be able to feel and smell what Grenouille has and the relation only goes so far, but this makes him a somewhat sympathetic character (not entirely, but at least a bit). Scent, so far, seems to symbolize a more primal human instinct (at least to the priest), while Baldini, someone born upper class, is a perfumer and seems to hold scent above other senses generally.