The Smell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Smell - Essay Example " "Yeah." his friend agreed, "He was really good looking and smart. But his personality doesn't really match his intelligence and appearance." I believe that this is the typical way we assess someone. We might look at their appearance and their behavior. We might listen to them while they're talking and sometimes hear about their reputation from other people. These are the basic interactions we encounter and do everyday. The senses used to assess an individual are not without restrictions. We cannot simply judge the person based on just seeing, hearing, tasting or feeling them. And we cannot simply just touch a person without reason; the same goes with taste. However there is one among the five senses that is oftentimes undervalued as a basis for judging a person's character. Nobody evaluates someone by starting with, "That guy smells." in a normal conversations. They can be read in some forms of literature like romantic novels or poetic impressions. But the writers had these words thought of prior to producing their literary works. In other words, they were planned. These things do not really happen instantly. Now that we look at it, does it mean that the sense of smell as a judge for a person's character is not worthy of merit Is the sense of smell being overlooked Probably some people think of smell as simply saying, "I have a great fragrance." or "I do not stink!" There is, however, another defi nition. When writers or chatters mention "the smell" in their writing or in conversations to describe someone, the role of smell doesn't end in the statement, "I do not stink!" Smell is further defined as the faint aroma coming from the body. I want to say that this is a more sophisticated way of judging a person, when we merge each part into one big package. I have had a very inspirational and sensational impression from one book called Das Parfum by Patrick Suskind. The main character, Grenouille, was extremely gifted in the fleeting realm of scent. Unfortunately he went through a difficult childhood and had only hatred in him. The combination of the two-his gift and his hate-drove him to his erroneous cling to "the perfume." His obsession led him to murder a woman so that he can use every part of her body, including her hair, to make the greatest scent that is the only one in existence in the entire world. The scent he created was not artificial, but rather it contained the natural essence of the woman while she was still alive. What Grenouille did was to preserve her every waking moment as fresh as possible. The people who experienced to get a whiff of the perfume felt as if they reached the goal of desire, as if the snow melts in the radiance of the morning sun and collapses down on the ground. Grenouille was not only an expert in c ompounding but he also had an amazing skill of pulling out what's real from the public. That skill was his unique sense of smell which distinguished the real meaning of other peoples scent. Today, people are still conscious about how they smell. To illustrate, what is normally our task after rising from our beds What is our top priority; the first thing in our minds that we should do We could have a coffee with toast, or if we had more time, we could read the newspaper. Normally after finishing our morning routines, we would then go to work or school. Sometimes though, when we are really in a hurry, we tend to skip or forget to eat our bountiful