Indifference+&+callousness+of+people

=**Indifference & Callousness of People** =

In the novel __Perfume: A Story of a Murder__ by Patrick Suskind, the author uses the character of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to capture life through scent. Because he was originally born with no scent, and due to his supernatural sense of smell, Grenouille is depicted as a separate and unfamilar individual to the people, and is therefore rejected and shunned from society. This uniqueness of Grenouille's character causes those around him to be apathetic, uncaring, and insensitive towards him. During his entire life, the people that he lives around always display an indifferent attitude towards him, and consequently, Grenouille expresses the same callous outlook towards them. Through the lack of concern and love for Grenouille as a child, to the ignorance of people in his adulthood, Grenouille goes on a destructive path that was meant to create, and as a result leads to his demise.

==**The heartless personality of Madame Gaillard draws a parallel with Grenouille's character, subtly foreshadowing the life that Grenouille will undergo.**   ==

//**“When she was a child, her father had struck her across the forehead with a poker […] and she had lost for good […] every sense of human warmth and human coldness—indeed, every human passion.” (pg. 19)**//
 * Madame Gaillard was treated harshly and seemingly without love when she was little. The harsh conditions that she lived up with and severe consequences as a result are similar to that of Grenouille when he was a child.
 * The abusive actions of Madame Gaillard's father towards Madame Gaillard is like that of Grenouille's mother towards Grenouille. Just like Madame Gaillard's father “struck” her ruthlessly, Grenouille's mother heartlessly tried to kill Grenouille immediately after his birth without second thoughts. Due to this lack of concern of Madame Gaillard's father and Grenouille's mother towards the two, both show similar qualities: being devoid of any human emotions or passion.

“There they put her in a ward populated with hundreds of the mortally ill, the same ward in which her husband had died.” (pg. 30)//**
 * //“[...] she dreaded a communal, public death among hundreds of strangers. She wanted to afford a private death.” (pg. 20)
 * Madame Gaillard “dreaded” dying the same way her husband did, and although she was indifferent to most things in her life, there was one thing that she had a strong opinion about—the wish to die a private death.
 * This simple and direct wish of Madame Gaillard's way of dying is similar to Grenouille's lucid desire to obtain the perfect scent to create a perfume in which all who smell him will be spellbound by his 'beauty' and love him. Both desires are brought up early on their lives, and remain with them for their entire lifetime.
 * However, both wishes are not fulfilled in the end. Madame Gaillard's one wish that she carries with her throughout her life is not attained as she dies a lowly death, one that occurs in the exact same way that she hoped it would not be like. Similarly, although Grenouille makes the perfume that he wanted which causes everyone to feel compelled by his presence, he realises that creating the perfume and the effect that it generates is completely meaningless. As a result, he kills himself in the recognition that making the perfume was not his ultimate goal.
 * Madame Gaillard's death is regarded with little care as she is put into her death bed with “hundred” of others. This corresponds to Grenouille's death as he is heartlessly eaten up by others who do not care to identify or acknowledge him. Both situations emphasize the callous attitude of the people towards others.

==**The uncaring and insensitive treatment of people towards Grenouille during his childhood causes him to go on a journey to obtain the 'perfect scent' later on in his life.** ==

//**“She only wanted the pain to stop, she wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible. It was her fifth […] for the bloody meat that emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already.” (pg. 5)**//
 * Even before his birth, Grenouille is regarded as a nobody. As seen here, Grenouille's mother seems not to care about the healthy birth of Grenouille as to her own physical comfort. This selfishness manifest in the actions of the mother as she tries to kill Grenouille shows the priority for people to indulge in their own satisfaction or comfort before considering others first, if at all.
 * The reference to Grenouille as a “fifth” and similar to “fish guts” gives a detached and indifferent tone towards Grenouille, implying that Grenouille's own mother has little concern for him, let alone anybody else.

//**“By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days.” (pg. 6) “'Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil.” (pg. 10)**//
 * With wet nurses, Grenouille is seen as a strange and different baby that does not smell, and through this, it is illogically deduced that he is possessed by the “devil”. The rejection of Grenouille by even wet nurses, those that should be compassionate and caring towards any baby (especially since they are female, the gender that seems to be more loving and caring) suggests the inferiority of Grenouille in society.
 * The second quote spoken by Father Terrier, a man of God is followed up by more irrational reasoning. Father Terrier claims that it is “impossible” for Grenouille to be possessed by the devil by giving unreasonable explanations (ex: devil-possesed babies must have an “evil stench” [pg. 10]. Through this, Suskind is mocking the rationality and practicality of religion itself.
 * Although Father Terrier takes in Grenouille into his home, this act of kindness is short lived as Father Terrier is put under an uncomfortable situation that drives him to throw Grenouille out. As a man of God, Father Terrier should be accepting all sorts of people, since in the religious belief, humans are all the work of God. However, Father Terrier's cowardly act of throwing out even a baby criticizes how religious conceptions only apply in certain circumstances.

//**“What he coveted was the odor of certain human beings: that is, those rare humans who inspire love.” (pg. 188)**//
 * After a 7 year period of isolation away from human beings, Grenouille finally sets foot back into civilization in Grasse. As he becomes an apprentice at a local perfume shop, Grenouille acquires new techniques and skills for perfumery. He manipulates these skills to develop one goal: the desire to obtain the scent of humans that “inspire love”.
 * This desire stems from his love-deprived past, and Grenouille feels a strong aspiration to be able to control the emotion of love. Thus, an opportunist Grenouille manipulates his previous knowledge and incorporates it into his newly learned skills in order to seize power over 'love', the feeling that he was denied of from others and in himself.

**Due to the ignorance and lack of concern of people towards Grenouille, he is able to manipulate and deceive them for personal gain.**
//**“From his youth on, he had been accustomed to people's passing him and taking no notice of him whatever […] because they were quite unaware of his existence […]. (pg. 152)**//
 * All his life, Grenouille has been overlooked and neglected from society. This negligence, as Grenouille later finds out, is due to his lack of scent. Since people judge others merely by physical appearance, they are unaware that the scent of a person plays a large role in how someone perceives another person. Seeing that Grenouille has no scent, he is constantly ignored by others since they are not cognizant of his presence.
 * This lack of attention towards Grenouille drives him to make a perfume that not only makes others aware of his existence, but also one that exerts love on the people.

//**“[...] his joy was boundless when he noticed that the others noticed nothing, nothing whatever […] that they could inhale his concoction of cat shit, cheese, and vinegar as an odor just like their own and accept him […] (pg. 153)

“[...] they were so dumb they stank; because they could be deceived by him, let themselves be deceived; because they were nothing, and he was everything!” (pg. 154)**//
 * When Grenouille tests his personal perfume made up of a base layer of “cat shit, cheese, and vinegar”, the result brings him pleasure; that is, seeing the extent of deception the perfume has on the people to accept him as one of their own.
 * The vulgar and blunt diction creates an uncomfortable atmosphere for the reader as it brings out the possible idea that people really //are// that oblivious and ignorant to the truth. The words such as “dumb” and “cat shit” have a definite mocking tone towards the people, and how easily fooled they are to a simple perfume made by a not-even virtuoso perfumer.
 * Therefore, the lack of concern the people have towards Grenouille allows him to take advantage of them for his own personal gain, to achieve what he desires for.

==**Grenouille dedicates his whole life in creating a perfume that the people overlook the value of; therefore, his effort to accomplish his life-long goal proves futile as it only serves to lead him on a path to self-destruction.** ==


 * //“No one knows how good this perfume really is, he thought. No one knows well made it is […] I am the only person for whom it is meaningless.” (pg. 252)//**
 * At this point in the novel, Grenouille has already applied the 'love' perfume on himself and watches the empowering effect it has on the people. As he watches the outcome, he has a sudden realisation that the perfume is only meaningful to the people since they are drawn to the power of the scent, but however, useless to himself.
 * No matter how much perfume he uses on himself, Grenouille cannot cover up the fact that he is scentless. It is this consciousness of the truth that makes him realise that creating this perfume was not his actual goal in life, but instead, it was to have his own innate human odor. As a result, due to the lack of understanding of the people, and the truth itself, Grenouille destroys both the perfume and himself.