Death Kills Grenouille

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Recommended: Symbolic interactionist perspective on death

Death’s ability to traumatize people results in the person surrounded by death making unethical decisions. More specifically, having negative emotional experiences alters how people will perceive humanity in the future. The more negative experiences a person has with people, the more that person will refrain from associating her/himself with humanity. In the novel Perfume by Patrick Sϋskind, the main character, Grenouille suffers from lack of support from others. Anyone associated with Grenouille does not feel any positive emotions towards him and eventually dies. The constant theme of death allows Grenouille to fully evolve until he can no longer relate to humanity.
People not caring whether or not Grenouille dies teaches him to live without emotional support. Grenouille does not receive the average affection most children do during childhood. In Grenouille’s early life, both Madame Gaillard and Baldini have fantasies about killing Grenouille but do not, and instead show him no affection which affects his …show more content…

After Baldini shares the information about extracting scent with Grenouille, he feels “a pang in his heart” and begins to feel “very depressed,” a symptom of the potential absence of Grenouille (105). Baldini experiences emotional pain when he believes Grenouille will die and mentally crumbles once he realizes his source of fortune will disappear. Grenouille’s use of his olfactory senses allow him to manipulate “the greatest preserve for odors in all the world,” the city of Paris, then take all Paris has to offer and leave the city scrambling to put itself back together (33). By committing murders, the people of Paris and Grasse live in constant fear of not knowing when the next kill will occur, The murders affect their mental stability and leave them figuratively dead. Grenouille manipulates all of the people in Paris into giving him what he needs to conduct a series of

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