Grenouille In Perfume

In Patrick Suskind’s 1985 novel Perfume: the story of a murderer¸ Grenouille is the central character around which all the events in the story circulate. Throughout the novel, Grenouille is shown as being reclusive, tough and persistent in pursuit of goals and aspirations, even when these goals are simply surviving. Near the beginning of the novel, Suskind uses a metaphor comparing Grenouille to a tick to help the development of Grenouille’s character in a way that makes him appear repulsive whilst at the same time making the reader feel apprehensive about him. Ticks are also seen as grotesque due to their parasitic nature and are generally something that people are taught to avoid from a young age. Due to this, the reader feels no sympathy …show more content…
As ticks themselves are parasites, taking the blood from another animal without a thought for it, comparing Grenouille to them implies that his behaviour is similar and enhances his characterisation as an inherently selfish character. When the tick metaphor is first introduced, Grenouille is compared to the tick as “he gave the world nothing but his dung – no smile, no cry, no glimmer in the eye, not even his own scent,” (pg23). As well as making him appear as a selfish and repulsive character, the tick metaphor also succeeds in making the reader distrustful of Grenouille, as it is considered “normal” for a person to smile and have their own scent and as Grenouille doesn’t possess these things he is seen as “unusual” by the audience. Also, the emphasis that is placed on the factors that Grenouille lack makes the reader take notice of them and think about how unusual it is for a child to behave in that way. The author also makes effective use of listing when stating the ‘normal’ things that Grenouille doesn’t have, creating tension and apprehension in the reader. Punctuation is also used effectively by including a dash before the listing, making the reader pause, also enhancing this apprehensive feeling. The way in which Grenouille appears to use up people, like a tick uses up its source of food is continually evident throughout the book, and the metaphor is reiterated by the author during many of these encounters. An example of this is when Grenouille decides he is going to work in Baldini’s perfumery, as “the tick had scented blood,” (pg ). This reaffirms the suggestion that Grenouille uses up the other characters within the book, such as Baldini, without a second thought but to himself and sees them as nothing more than things which he can use for his own gain. Using the tick metaphor helps