The Impressions of Perfume and The Cannibals Discussion

Please make sure you post your impressions of Perfume and respond to your classmates in your group.  I’d like to begin this final lesson by covering four points or topics regarding Suskind’s Perfume. One topic that I’ve chosen to stay silent on is the final scene since may not have made it to the end of the novel yet. I’ll call this final scene “the spectacle.” I’ll leave that up to you to “flesh out” later. Anyhow, the four topics are:  Grenouille as an Outcast; The murders as a response to the “trauma”; The cave episode and the historical parallels/coincidences; and the way in which, arguably, Grenouille embodies the “revolutionary spirit.” Grenouille as an Outcast: Grenouille remains an outcast his entire childhood. Part of the reason for this is because he has never been loved; in other words, he does not know what love means since he never received any. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why he might understand “hate” better, and confines himself in dark, sinister thoughts. As we read in chapter 23: