El olor como símbolo de identidad: El Perfume. Historia de un asesino, de Patrick Süskind

Abstract

In this paper I am going to analize the sense of smell and, specially the smell as an identity symbol in the novel The perfume. Story of an assassin, witten by the German author Patrick Süskind. The main character, Jean Baptiste Grenouille, is a deformed man who has a privileged smell and knows his social environment through this sense. The things that he can’t recognize by the smell don’t exist. But he doesn’t have his own smell and, because of this, he is obsessed by creating a perfume that has the soul, the essence of things and persons. He wants to obtain a perfume that makes people recognize him. And in this way he becames an assassin.