Symbols In "The Perfume"

Symbols in: “Perfume The story of a Murderer”
The symbols play an indispensable role in the novel “Perfume The story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind. The three major symbols inthis story are: The red hair of the girl from the rue des Marais, the human smell and the perfume. These three symbols are the most relevant because with them, the reader can understandGrenouille’s mind. Perfume is a form to disguise the bad smell that human sinful nature secretes, yet virgin girls have a different smell.
The first symbol is the red hair. Thissymbol represents innocence, for the girls that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille kills are virgins. These virgins are not yet contaminated with sin; therefore, the scent that these girls have ispure. Grenouille is looking for these girls because he dislike the smell that humans produce, for they are all taint with destruction. The Second symbol is the human smell becauseGrenouille lacks of it, making him something else. The human smell is full of sin and people have to mask it. Human smell is how Grenouille knows how a person is; even though, he just met him.At the end people forgive Grenouille for his scent because his smell lacks of sin.
The Third symbol is the perfume. The perfume is a form to disguise bad smell, but in Grenouille’scase is made to have a smell. The perfume that Grenouille creates is made with the scent of virgin girls. By smelling this perfume people want him. The desire for this scent is so neededfor humans that they do not know what they want. This perfume causes his freedom and his dead.
All in all, the symbols are an indispensable part of this novel because they reveal thetrue identity of Grenouille. Grenouille is something more than human, for he needs perfume. He does not need it to cover his sins like all the humans, he needs it to have everything.