characterization, it helped the writer to have a deep understanding about Grenouill
e’s quality. Second, the further focus was narrowed on how
Grenouille’s characteristics revealed alienation symptoms. After the writer examined the
characteristics of Grenouille, the review on alienation in psychology and social psychology was applied to relate
Grenouille’s characteristics and the details of Grenouille’s portrayal in the state of being alienated. The last, after finishing those
two steps, the writer drew conclusion of the study.
In this discussion, the writer used references and data to support the analysis. The primary source was a novel entitled
Perfume: Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Süskind 1985.While, the secondary references came from the theories on literary works. Theories on literary works were such theory on character,
characteristic, and characterization by Abrams and Harpham 2012 from his book entitled
A Glossary of Literary Terms
, a book entitled
Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for Overseas Student
by Murphy 1972, and also
Theory of Literature
by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren 1990.
Meanwhile, in order to reveal and identify Grenouille’s alienation symptoms, the writer used a book from Caveman 1973 entitled
Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction
, a book from Lindgren 1981 entitled
An Introduction to Social Psychology,
and a review on alienation from Barclay and Moncivaiz 2013. Those secondary references above were important
to support the writer’s analysis.
23
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter exposes the pro blem formulation’s discussion. Here, two
subchapters are presented. The first subchapter explains the characteristics of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in
Perfume: Story of a Murderer
. The second subchapter reveals the alienation symptoms through the characteristics of Jean-Baptiste
Grenouille.
A. The Characteristics of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the main character in
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
. Here, Grenouille is described as someone who feels that he is different from the other characters. Grenouille’s characteristics are pictured through several
ways of characterizations such personal description, conversation of others, speech, a character as seen by another character, char
acter’s reaction towards events, and direct comment by the author.
1. Ignorant
Since Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born, he has no body that is responsible to look after him. In Grenouille’s early life, he is raised in the
ecclesiastical institution because his mother is sentenced in the court and his family does not have any relatives. Grenouille lives in the ecclesiastical institution
for a short time because Father Terrier —a priest from the ecclesiastical
institution —hands over Grenouille to Madame Gaillard’s orphanage.
In Madame Gaillard’s orphanage, Madame Gaillard hardly ever pays attention to any of children in her orphanage.
On the other hand … or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion … Madame Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice.
She showed no preference for any one of the children entrusted to her nor discriminated against any one of them. She served up three meals a day
and not the tiniest snack more. She diapered the little ones three times a day, but only until their second birthday. Whoever shit in his pants after
that received an uncensorious slap and one less meal Süskind, 2006: 19.
Madame Gaillard only focuses on her core duty: feeding the children sufficiently and changing their diapers until they reach two years old. That is all.
Therefore, Madame Gaillard does not care about her children’s other needs such
the needs of cleanliness. Being nurtured in the environment where people are ignorant with one
another, leads Grenouille into a character who is ignorant to his being. Particularly, he is ignorant to his physical appearance. Murphy explains that the
author can describe a person’s quality through hisher appearance and clothes Murphy, 1972: 161. Thereafter, this characterization method is called personal
description. Süskind clearly describes Grenouille as an unpleasant figure that is not significance in the society where Grenouille lives.
Looked at objectively, however, there was nothing at all about him to instill terror. As he grew older, he was not especially big, nor strong
— ugly, true, but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have
taken fright at him. He was not aggressive, nor underhanded, nor furtive, he did not provoke people. He preferred to keep out their way Süskind,
2006: 23.
Physically, Grenouille’s appearance is not attractive. So, it makes sense if people around do not recognize Grenouille’s existence. Süskind tells that
