Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer By Patrick Süskine

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How does Grenouille 's realization that he has no scent of his own inform his future decisions and affect his methods in obtaining a god-like status? Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a novel written by Patrick Süskind tells the story of Grenouille, a man who knows he is a god amongst humans and his life 's goal is to make humanity view him this way. Observing the Süskind 's use of bildungsroman, anthropomorphism and foreshadowing, it can be stated that Grenouille 's realization that he had no scent of his own, was detrimental to his future decisions, to achieve his goal of being revered as though he was god on earth. Bildungsroman is used by Süskind during and after Grenouille 's realization that he has no scent of his own to relay the significance of the passage in informing Grenouille 's future decisions …show more content…

Bildungsroman focuses on the growth and development of a character throughout a novel. Prior to Grenouille 's realization that he had no scent of his own, he lived in fantasy up in his cave, living in solitude, having no true knowledge as to why he was not viewed like a god. In a very rapid manner, Grenouille, whilst having a dream about, “scraps of odour”( Süskind, 133) Grenouille begins to drown in his lack of odour. The description Süskind gives of the pain felt by Grenouille when being, suffocated by his own odourless fog(134) shows pain in realization that he has no scent of his own. The realization he lacked a scent of his own pushed Grenouille out of his cave, he removed his clothes, “for the first time in seven years”(135) and also climbed to the peak of the mountain, such immediate change, brought on by his discovery that he lacked a scent of his own shows that it develops Grenouille as a character

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