writer concludes that Grenouille is described as an ambitious character according to his reactions toward events and according to the speech.
B. The Portrayal of Jean-
Baptiste Grenouille’s Alienation
During Grenouille’s life time, he always makes interactions with other characters as long as he lives in order to be matured and developed. These
interactions are aimed to make him mingle in the society where he lives. In the process of interactions, somehow Grenouille is able to mingle in the society. Yet,
he may also feel that he does not able to mingle in the society because of several reasons healthline.com, 2013.
As mentioned by Barclay and Monicvaiz, there are several reasons on why a person feels that heshe does not able to mingle in the society. The reasons are
the feeling of helplessness, the feeling of being different, the refusal to obey rules, the difficulty in approaching and speaking with others, and the feeling of
depression. Consequently, the person encounters several experiences of having alienation symptoms during his life in order to mingle in the society as well as
Grenouille. During Grenouille’s life in the story—from infancy through young
adulthood —he experiences numerous alienation. Significantly, he faces much
alienation as seen through his life with other characters such as Jeanne Bussie the wet nurse; housemates in Madame
Gaillard’s orphanage; Madame Gaillard the foster
mother; Grimal
the tanner;
and Baldini
the perfumer.
Grenouille receives much alienation because his qualities fulfill the alienation symptoms. The alienation symptoms in Grenouille go reasonably with the reason
on why he cannot mingle in the society. Specifically, the alienation symptoms exist in Grenouille are also pictured
through several ways such personal description, conversation of others, speech, how he is seen by other characters, direct comment by the author, and past life
Murphy, 1972. Besides those ways of characterizations, the writer also finds Grenouille’s alienation through several characterization methods such
Grenouille’s speech, actions, thoughts, feelings, and responsiveness to events Abrams, 1999.
1. The Feeling of Helplessness
Madame Gaillard is the foster mother of Grenouille and other orphan kids in her orphanage. Grenouille lives in Madame
Gaillard’s orphanage from a year old until ten years old. Grenouille’s custody is handed over to Madame Gaillard’s
orphanage after he is raised in ecclesiastical institution. When Grenouille lives with Madame Gaillard, he gets lack of meals and
his meals are much in the lowest quality. Fortunately, although he gets the lowest meals, he is able to survive from diseases such dysentery, chicken pox, and
cholera. In addition, he also survives from accidents such falling into a well and burn so his skin is full of scabs. Those things show Grenouille in his childhood is
nurtured in a situation where he does not receive much affection protection as what children in common are being nurtured. No one cares about what he does so
that he gets much hardship. Unlike other children who get much attention either
from their parents or family, Greonouille never gets these stuffs from his surrounding for he has been an orphan since newly born baby.
He could eat watery soup for days on end, he managed on the thinnest milk, digested the rottenest vegetables and spoiled meat. In the course of
his childhood he survived the measles, dysentery, chicken pox, cholera, a twenty-foot fall into a well, and a scalding with boiling water poured over
his chest. True, he bore scars and chafings and scabs from it all, and a slightly crippled foot left him with a limp, but he lived. He was a tough as
a resistant bacterium and as content as a tick sitting quietly on a tree and living off a tiny drop of blood plundered years before. He required a
minimum ration of food and clothing for his body. For his soul he required nothing. Security, attention, tenderness, love
– or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require
– were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille Süskind, 2006: 20-21.
As time goes by, Grenouille is grown to be a young man. Since Grenouille is eleven years old, Grenouille lives with Grimal. Grimal is a tanner who becomes
Grenouille’s master after his custody is handed over from Madame Gaillard. Grenouille lives with Grimal since he is 11 years old. With Grimal, Grenouille is
forced to work as a tanner worker with uncivilized working hours. Grimal forces Grenouille to work up to 16 hours in summer and 8 hours during winter season.
As a tanner, Grenouille is also assigned to tan hides. It has a long and exhausting process to tan hides but Grenouille never complains.
He scraped the meat from bestially stinking hides, watered them down, dehaired them, limed, bated, and fulled them, rubbed them down with
pickling dung, chopped wood, stripped bark from birch and yew, climbed down into the tanning pits filled with caustic fumes, layered the hides and
pelts just as the journeymen ordered him, spread them with smashed gallnuts, covered this funeral pyre with yew branches and earth. Years
later, he would have to dig them up again and retrieve these mummified hide carcasses
—now tanned leather—from their grave Süskind, 2006: 31- 32.
In this description, Grenouille is described for having one of alienation symptoms. The symptom is the feeling of helplessness. The feeling of
helplessness is exposed on how Grimal uncivilized Grenouille. Grenouille is assigned to work for hours both in summer and winter with limited break time. He
also has to work in a dirty workshop, does not get adequate meals and does not get a proper place to sleep at night. Until at one moment, Grenouille suffers
anthrax: “a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal” Süskind, 2006: 32. Fortunately, Grenouille is able to escape from that disease but then his skin is full
of scars from the large black carbuncles behind his ears and on his hands and cheeks. In short, Grenouille’s physical appearance is far from attractive.
Therefore, Grenouille is estranged from the society for he rarely makes interactions with other due to his physical unattractiveness.
Knowing those circumstances makes the writer highlights one of alienation symptoms delivered by Barclay and Moncivaiz. The symptom is the
feeling of helplessness. Grenouille is pictured in the state of being alienated through the description of the author and also through the other characters see
Grenouille according to their perspective. Süskind describes Grenouille having the feeling of helplessness because Grenouille is pictured like an unusual human
being who does not get sufficient needs, even for his primary needs. Grenouille ’s
feeling of helplessness is reflected through his weakness in term of does not have any authority to fight for a civilized treatment from Grimal since Grenouille is
Grimal ’s apprentice. Grimal is supposed to guarantee Grenouille’s life for Grimal
is Grenouille ’s master.
2. The Feeling of being Different
Jeanne Bussie is a wet nurse who breastfeeds Grenouille after he is left by his mother. Grenouille’s mother leaves Grenouille and does not take care of him
anymore. It happens because Grenouille’s mother is not able to afford her son and family’s needs. Thus, Grenouille’s mother is sentenced death penalty according to
the law for she abandons Grenouille. As result, Grenouille’s custody is handed over to Father Terrier from ecclesiastical institution “so that there they could
baptize him and decide his further fate” Süskind, 2006: 7. Thereafter, he is given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie in order to breastfeed Grenouille as
prescribed by law. To breastfeed Grenouille, Jeanne Bussie receives 3 francs per week from the ecclesiastical institution.
Unexpectedly, Jeanne Bussie brings Grenouille back to Father Terrier because she assumes that Grenouille possesses the spirit of evil and Bussie is
afraid of it. As an infant, Grenouille is recognized as a greedy baby and she cannot breastfeed a greedy baby. In her ideology, Grenouille does not require any
qualities that an infant should possess so she assumes that Grenouille possesses the spirit of evil. The qualities that a baby should have are they smell like a
smooth, warm stone, fresh butter, and their head smell like caramel. Therefore, she decides to stop breastfeed Grenouille and bring him back to Father Terrier.
“I don’t want any money, period,” said the wet nurse. “I want this bastard out of my house.”
“But why my good woman?” said Terrier, poking his finger in the basket again. “He really is an adorable child. He’s rosy pink, he doesn’t cry, and
he’s been baptized.” “He’s possessed by the devil.”
Terrier quickly withdrew his finger from the basket.
