Perfume: Story of a murderer, a novel written by Patrick Suskind tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a character that seems to have come into the world to face many challenges of rejection by a society that did not deal with “different” very well. The novel takes place in France. Since his birth, Grenouille was automatically treated unusual and rejected because of an abnormal condition, he actually did not have body scent, and people seem to take that as a terrible offense. He developed such hatred towards people because of their mistreatment, judgment and social alienation. His hatred for humanity was so intense that he went on a seven year journey to Massif Centrale to get away from society, putting himself in solitary confinement; which he ended up enjoying. Despite not having a scent of his own, Grenouille develops a strong sensitivity to smell scents and a tremendous ability to create perfumes, which ultimately becomes the cause of his rise and downfall in society, pushing him to do gruesome acts driven by his out of control desire to be “someone” in society. Grenouille’s character was so shaped by people’s mistreatment and rejection, that I consider him to be an example of a socially isolated individual. According to the Psychology Dictionary, “social isolation is the voluntary or involuntary absence of having contact with others.” In other words, and individual lacking frequent interaction with others.Throughout the novel, there are a couple of key moments and characters that can be somewhat considered as impacting Grenouille’s life in a positive ora negative way. The interactions with these characters illustrate reasons why Grenouille fell into social isolation. After his birth, and the lynching of his mother... ... middle of paper ... ...p of Massif Centrale is what leads him to solitary confinement. He was not doing this for self-punishment or to seek wisdom by any means. He had withdrawn entirely for his own personal pleasure. No longer distracted by anything from the world, he lied within his on presence and found it pleasing. As readers, we would think he would have his “happy ending” of finding himself or finding someone or something to fill his void without selfish motives. His ending showed that there was nothing that was or would fill the void caused mainly the mistreatment of others and him allowing them to do so. He accepted the fact that being himself wasn’t enough for him or others, so he had no purpose in this world. Finding his happiness in others was never going to happen no matter how good and true his intentions were. Grenouille never accepted himself, so why would anyone else?
Agatha Christie once stated, “Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions” (Thompson). In a perfect world, there is no such thing as crime and every action committed by a person has a positive outcome. But knowing there is no such thing as a perfect world, incidents happen. The Federal Bureau of Investigation declared recently that crime has risen .7 percent since 2011 (Department, U.S Justice). With a brief love for crime and violence, Joyce Carol Oates conveys these unjust acts of disobedience into short stories. Though her stories prove intriguing, and her details of physical characteristics are exact, she lacks the realistic details of an actual killer. Presented in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Oates character Arnold Friend lacks the potential to kill in comparison to Charles Schmid. The real life serial killer Arnold depicts. Schmid is a much scarier killer with a more demented mindset.
The sentencing of underage criminals has remained a logistical and moral issue in the world for a very long time. The issue is brought to our perspective in the documentary Making a Murderer and the audio podcast Serial. When trying to overcome this issue, we ask ourselves, “When should juveniles receive life sentences?” or “Should young inmates be housed with adults?” or “Was the Supreme Court right to make it illegal to sentence a minor to death?”. There are multiple answers to these questions, and it’s necessary to either take a moral or logical approach to the problem.
Isolation can be a somber subject. Whether it be self-inflicted or from the hands of others, isolation can be the make or break for anyone. In simpler terms, isolation could range anywhere from not fitting into being a complete outcast due to personal, physical, or environmental factors. It is not only introverted personalities or depression that can bring upon isolation. Extroverts and active individuals can develop it, but they tend to hide it around crowds of other people. In “Richard Cory,” “Miniver Cheevy,” The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “Not Waving but Drowning,” E.A. Robinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stevie Smith illustrate the diverse themes of isolation.
Anatomy of a Murder takes place in small-town in Michigan, where a murder has taken place. Lieutenant Frederick Manion (Lt. Manion) murdered Barney Quill a local bar and inn owner, after Mr. Quill raped his wife Laura Manion. Mrs. Manion contacts former state district attorney Paul Biegler to represent her husband, who is facing charges for first degree murder. Knowing nothing about the case, Mr. Biegler is convinced by his friend Parnell McCarthy to take the case. After two visits to Mr.Manion in jail and discussing things over with Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Biegler indirectly helps Lt. Manion enter a plea of not guilty due to temporary insanity. Aside from preparing Lt. Manion for this defense, Mr. Biegler has to worry about Mrs. Manion who is always wearing tight clothing and flirting with other men. Mr. Biegler advises her that for the best interest of her husband’s case, she should refrain from her flirtatious behavior and dress appropriately to court and until the case is over.
The first and most evident example of alienation and isolation in the novel is Len...
In the story Cannery Row Loneliness is a main theme to the characters lives. One of these themes is Loneliness. 'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him. No one cared about him'(Page 6). The severity of his solitude makes this theme one of the most important. The seclusion of this man can penetrate ones innermost thoughts and leave them with a sense of belonging after hearing of this characters anguish. In addition a man who was not entirely alone was still feeling secluded. ?In spite of his friendliness and his friends Doc was a lonely and set- apart man.?(Page 132). An individual could have many people around him but could still not have the one good friend that he needs. Seclusion comes in many different forms that can be d...
The story “A Brutal Murder in a Public Place” by Joyce Carol Oates follows a person in an airport who hears a small bird but cannot seem to find it. Oates uses imagery and symbolism between the narrator and the bird to show how trapped and overlooked the narrator truly feels.
1. What motivates Grenouille to commit his first murder? What does he discover about himself and his destiny after he has killed the red haired girl?
...nouille obtains the love he never had at his moment of death, yet could not experience it as everyone devoured him into non-existence. Grenouille proved himself a monster as he was in seven years of solitude, saw himself as God, and killed himself, leaving his life in vain.
Another Country is possibly the only novel of its time in which every character suffers from a feeling of isolation. All the main characters share in the feeling of isolation. Whether the character's isolation is a result of race, economic situation, or even sexual orientation, each character's life is affected. The feeling of isolation causes the characters to lose touch with reality.
In Death of an Innocent, Chris McCandless goes on a memorable and tragic journey into Alaska, but for most of his expedition he was known, not as Chris McCandless, but as Alexander Supertramp. The reason that he changed his name for his journey was because he is running away from his past and wanted to become the person he believed he really was.
Usually when someone is murdered, people expect the murderer to feel culpable. This though, is not the case in war. When in war, a soldier is taught that the enemy deserves to die, for no other reason than that they are the nation’s enemy. When Tim O’Brien kills a man during the Vietnam War, he is shocked that the man is not the buff, wicked, and terrifying enemy he was expecting. This realization overwhelms him in guilt. O’Brien’s guilt has him so fixated on the life of his victim that his own presence in the story—as protagonist and narrator—fades to the black. Since he doesn’t use the first person to explain his guilt and confusion, he negotiates his feelings by operating in fantasy—by imagining an entire life for his victim, from his boyhood and his family to his feeling about the war and about the Americans. In The Man I Killed, Tim O’Brien explores the truth of The Vietnam War by vividly describing the dead body and the imagined life of the man he has killed to question the morality of killing in a war that seems to have no point to him.
Suskind introduces the readers to the fact that in the novel it is a person’s scent, which makes someone human and gives them an identity. Suskind establishes a setting where everything is described by scent. Scent is given utter importance as everything stank, “the streets stank, the courtyards, the people stank of sweat and unwashed clothes”, which in turn posed them their identity. Since Grenouille lacked the basic scent, it exemplified that he had no identity and lacked ‘humanness’. Since Grenouille wanted to be accepted, he used his skills and his perfume to deceive the society and making them believe them that he existed. But at the same time Suskind enables the readers to come across Grenouille’s real identity through the use of metaphors.
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.
Suskind, Patrick. Perfume, The Story of a Murderer. Trans. John E. Woods. New York: Vintage