Patrick Süskind's novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, published in 1985, delves into the significance of olfactory senses and the emotions they evoke. The book follows the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan with supernaturally enhanced olfactory senses. Grenouille's birth was nothing short of appalling, taking place at a fish market, the most putrid spot in the kingdom, to a mother who had previously given birth to four stillborns. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Throughout his childhood, he was passed from one wet nurse to another, as they found him peculiar and complained about him. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| She was secretly relieved when the cloister didn't pay her yearly fees, as it gave her an opportunity to get rid of Grenouille, whom she considered an ominous presence. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| His childhood was similar to his infancy, as he was passed from keeper to keeper. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Baldini, who was on the verge of bankruptcy due to competition in the perfumery business, saw Grenouille as his saving grace. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Thus, two more people were destroyed because of their association with Grenouille.

As Grenouille wandered through Orleans, he realized the strength of his misanthropy and found himself shying away from villages and towns to reside in nature. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| On his journey to Grasse, he finds that he has been freed from the shackles of the fragrances of Paris and the smells of his own kind. Ironically, he smells like nothing, and he connects with the wilderness in a way that humanity cannot.

Although readers may sympathize with Grenouille, who has been exploited and mistreated by his fellow human beings, they may also question whether Grenouille is significantly less human because he has chosen the life of an extreme hermit.

From the beginning, Grenouille has been regarded as abnormal and not fully human. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| It is ironic that in a society with strict laws protecting victims of infanticide, Grenouille himself was not considered a human being.

Throughout Grenouille's life, he was marginalized and considered subhuman, and this had a profound effect on him. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| His lack of emotions made him a recluse, invincible to everything that would make him human.

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