Young Grenouille is quite resilient and thrives during his childhood. He requires very little to get by, but “for his soul he [requires] nothing.” (p. 20-21) Grenouille does not need the things that most children need, like security and love. Considering his circumstances, life is possible only without the need for love. Living in his own little world, Grenouille is compared to a lonely tick who “stubborn, sullen, and loathsome, huddles there and lives and waits.” (p. 22) Just like the tick, Grenouille patiently waits, hoping for better times.
Even though Grenouille has no scent of his own, he is born with a sublime gift of smell. By the time Grenouille is an adult, he becomes enthralled with scents and hopes to discover all the odors of Paris. He believes his destiny is to be the greatest perfumer of all time. Grenouille seeks help from a famous perfumer who teaches the art of distillation, which Grenouille quickly masters. After many disappointing experiments, Grenouille realizes he is unable to distill new scents that had never existed before. He stops his experiments and falls very ill. The dying Grenouille learns that there are ways to make scents from things other than pressing and distillation. These things can be done in the town of Grasse. The possibilities of discovering these new processes in Grasse provide Grenouille with a glimmer of hope. He is driven to stay alive in order to come closer to realizing his fate of becoming the world’s greatest perfumer.
On Grenouille’s way to Grasse, he comes to a mountain where he discovers a natural tunnel where no living creature has ever been. He ends up living in the cave for seven years. One night in his lair, Grenouille has a dream. In his dream, he has thoughts of being Grenouille the Great and having “the incomparable Empire of Grenouille!” In reality, though, he is not “Grenouille the Great,” the fictional character he created; rather, he is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who struggles to survive his miserable life. This dream reveals the life he hopes to have, which is the polar opposite of his actual life. Who he hopes to become bears no resemblance to the person he is now. In his dream, Grenouille called his imaginary servants to bring him something to drink from the cellars. The first drink Grenouille chose contained “the scent from the end of his first night spent roaming about Paris without [his employer’s] permission… That odor had been the pledge of freedom. It had been the pledge of a different life. The odor of that morning was for Grenouille the odor of hope. He guarded it carefully. And he drank of it daily.” (p. 129) Grenouille drew upon that hope every day to endure his miserable existence.
In reality, many people are dealt cruel hands in life. Without hope, the will to live would surely be diminished. Some of the less fortunate actually laugh in the face of fate – they choose to survive out of a stubborn vision of a better tomorrow. Even loathsome, tick-like creatures, of which Grenouille is a prime example, serve some purpose in life. Grenouille struggles along life’s journeys to acquire the requisite knowledge to become the best perfumer in the world. Against all odds, Grenouille’s hope and steadfast will to survive eventually lead him to achieve his dream. The road of life for Grenouille was anything but straight, yet during the ups and downs, trials and tribulations, Grenouille’s hope and the will to survive saw him through to the end.
