The setting of story can often be overlooked as merely the place in which the characters of a story live in, work in, exist in, etc. Again and again, authors employ the setting to give context clues of the world in which their story takes place, helping the reader understand cultural and time period specific minutiaes of the story. Nonetheless, Patrick Süskind engages the setting in a more literary fashion, in his novel Perfume. Like similes, metaphors, or recurring motifs, Süskind exploits the setting to comment on the aspects of setting and its significance. In order to assault the judgemental and malevolent behavior of humans, Süskind wields people, specifically defined settings, and their connection or relationship to it. Suskind manipulates
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The judgement of the person comes from learning of the place in which that person has come from. Almost indefinitely, people have preconceived ideas of a specific place, and stereotypes of the people that come from there. So when a person mentions where they’re from, those biased thoughts arise in the mind and make a judgment of said person. A prejudice against Grenouille 's mother is created around the whole city, where she is preferrably known as, “The bastard of that women from the rue aux Fers who killed her babies!” (8). Instead of being known for her horrendous crime of murdering her children, the first thing that identifies her is her setting, or the street she’s from. The first impression people have of her will be where she resides, considering that 's the first piece of information they hear about her. Therefore, their first perception of her is the setting she lives in, which will culture prepossessed thoughts of that specific setting and the stereotypical person that comes from there, based on previous knowledge and the newly founded material. People are so heavily anchored and connected to where they 're from that it has affected the language, where every person is always known as “the girl from the Rue de Marais” (170) or “... the wet nurse, Jeanne Bussie, from the Rue Saint Denis” (11) throughout the entirety …show more content…
As society progresses, the severity of morals decreases leaving us humans to become abhorrent beings with no moral compass. To the point where we no longer see deadly wars or beastly murders as anything special. We become desensitized to the atrocities of the world and continue to commit them, without any signs of stopping. During his travels Grenouille, “often goes to the spot where they had beheaded his mother to the Place de Greve.” (35). Despite the horrific nature of the specific setting, Grenouille continues to visit often, like a tourist attraction. He uses the to-the-point sentence to diminish the severity of the situation. One would expect to treat the place in which his mother was killed with more sentiment and remorse; however, society exposes the general public to atrocities, numbing their reactions, like Grenouille. Therefore, Grenouille treats the place no different than any other, expressed in Suskind’s blunt structure. In the town of Grasse, Grenouille’s boss, Druot “did his duty in Madame’s bed” (181). The bluntness and lack of sentiment, as used in the word “duty”, illuminates the deadened
The judgement of the person comes from learning of the place in which that person has come from. Almost indefinitely, people have preconceived ideas of a specific place, and stereotypes of the people that come from there. So when a person mentions where they’re from, those biased thoughts arise in the mind and make a judgment of said person. A prejudice against Grenouille 's mother is created around the whole city, where she is preferrably known as, “The bastard of that women from the rue aux Fers who killed her babies!” (8). Instead of being known for her horrendous crime of murdering her children, the first thing that identifies her is her setting, or the street she’s from. The first impression people have of her will be where she resides, considering that 's the first piece of information they hear about her. Therefore, their first perception of her is the setting she lives in, which will culture prepossessed thoughts of that specific setting and the stereotypical person that comes from there, based on previous knowledge and the newly founded material. People are so heavily anchored and connected to where they 're from that it has affected the language, where every person is always known as “the girl from the Rue de Marais” (170) or “... the wet nurse, Jeanne Bussie, from the Rue Saint Denis” (11) throughout the entirety …show more content…
As society progresses, the severity of morals decreases leaving us humans to become abhorrent beings with no moral compass. To the point where we no longer see deadly wars or beastly murders as anything special. We become desensitized to the atrocities of the world and continue to commit them, without any signs of stopping. During his travels Grenouille, “often goes to the spot where they had beheaded his mother to the Place de Greve.” (35). Despite the horrific nature of the specific setting, Grenouille continues to visit often, like a tourist attraction. He uses the to-the-point sentence to diminish the severity of the situation. One would expect to treat the place in which his mother was killed with more sentiment and remorse; however, society exposes the general public to atrocities, numbing their reactions, like Grenouille. Therefore, Grenouille treats the place no different than any other, expressed in Suskind’s blunt structure. In the town of Grasse, Grenouille’s boss, Druot “did his duty in Madame’s bed” (181). The bluntness and lack of sentiment, as used in the word “duty”, illuminates the deadened