Childhood of Protagonists in Duang Thu Huongs Paradise of the Blind and Patrick Suskinds Perfume - Essay Example

 The Effect of Social Upheaval on the childhood of protagonists in Duang Thu Huong’s “Paradise of the Blind” and Patrick Suskind’s “Perfume”. Social upheaval often has a disastrous effect on childhood, producing deprivation and depravity in equal measure. In the book titled “Paradise of the Blind” by Duong Thu Huong, the protagonist Hang is torn between the self sacrificing values of her poverty stricken mother and the bitterness of her aunt - a victim of the Vietnamese Communist land reforms. Hang, who works as an imported laborer in Russia, must struggle to find dignity and integrity in an atmosphere of deprivation and deception. In the book titled “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind, the protagonist Grenouille, is a scrawny infant who is abandoned in a fish gutter in eighteenth century Paris. Hia major objective is the discovery of the perfect scent and his heinous acts are fashioned by the filth and squalor of the environment in which he grows up. One of the most distinctive feature in both these books is the use of imagery to demonstrate the filth and squalor of poverty during the growing years of the protagonists and the devastating effects on their childhood. Both authors Huong and Suskind use the vehicle of smells to impart to the reader, a vivid sense of the atmosphere of poverty. Huong skillfully juxtaposes repulsive images of filth and squalor next to beautiful ones in describing smells, textures and colors in graphic detail: You could smell the evening smells melting into one: straw fires burning, bean shells mixed with young rice roasting, the pungent stench of fresh buffalo dung, guavas ripening in the garden" (Huong 75). The sweet smell of guavas ripening right next to the stench of dung eloquently expresses the existence of both beauty and filth in the environment. Hang’s memories of the tiny shack in which she grew up remind her that it was made of “sheet metal patched together with tar paper. On rainy days, the roof leaked. In the heat of summer, the acrid smell of tar was overpowering, nauseating.” (Huong 12) She describes how children played in the black rainy tar and how the stench of urine was always in the air. Yet, in the midst of poverty, Hang struggles to find dignity as she acknowledges that this environment is her “home”. Suskind leads the reader straight into the world of smell, conveying the same despair, the filth and squalor that surround poverty and crush the human spirit in its stench. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of onions, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease. The rivers stank, the marketplaces stank, the churches stank, it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces.(Suskind 11). However, while both the protagonists arise from a similar background of poverty and face the turmoil and rejection of society, Hang’s story portrays the struggle towards uplifting values and towards the discovery of self, freed of the burden of the cruelty of poverty and oppression. In “Perfume” however, the protagonist faces death on numerous occasions but does not emerge as an elevated human being, on the contrary, society’s rejection makes him a misfit and a sociopath, leading him down into the depths of sensual depravity. His lack of odor and acute sense of smell is perceived by those around him as something evil. Grenouille portrays the descent of the human spirit into evil deeds of cruel, inhuman murder – shaped by the acute lack in his childhood and the cruel rejection by his own mother and society itself, into an inhuman monster who delights in the stench of the kill. The lack of family identity is another theme that is common to both books. Suskind’s book shows a protagonist whose mother is guilty of post partum neglect and abandons her child in a fish gutter, strewn into the rubbish. The abandoned infant is passed from one nurse to another until a clergyman finally takes pity on him. Yet, even in the orphanage, he faces rejection. His unusual appearance seems evil to his fellow inmates who hate him and seek to murder him. Grenouille falls prey to one life threatening disease after another – emerging from them all – alone, friendless and bereft of family as he moves around in the Parisian poverty stricken underworld. This was a society where the seeds of rebellion were fermenting among the working class and Grenouille’s experiences symbolize the feelings of alienation, frustration and helplessness that was experienced by them. Later, Grenouille withdraws from society – taking himself off into a cave and hibernating there as he discovers the profound truth about himself – he has no smell! Through the vehicle of smell, Suskind eloquently portrays the alienation his protagonist from the family of human kind, the alienation that pushes him progressively into a mad, inhuman state – the sociopathic murderer, who kills without remorse or conscience. The reader is left in a state of mingled sympathy and disgust, wondering whether to empathize with the protagonist who is shunned by society or recoil in horror at his inhuman acts. In Huong’s book, the protagonist Hang is fatherless and has a mother who is so traumatized by her husband’s death that she becomes close minded and fails to be a source of emotional support for her daughter. Bereft of the love and support she needs, the little girl turns to her aunt and Uncle, only to face the cruel betrayal of trust by her Uncle and the bitterness of an aunt obsessed with the loss of her fortune to the Land reform Act of the Communists. This Act pushes the working class into poverty and hardship, even as it promises them a progress that proves to be no more than an illusion. The growing disillusionment of the people towards Communism is portrayed in the deteriorating character of Uncle Chinh from an idealistic devotion to Communist principles into selfish corruption and black market dealing. The young Hang has to go through the struggle to discover her own identity, being forced to fashion it in the fire of adversity. She soon realizes that the only way to forge her own destiny is to move away from the land of her childhood, away from the legacy of crime and corruption that characterize the Communist regime that she has fought for; “I can't squander my life tending these faded flowers, the legacy of past crimes," (Huong 57). In this, Huong portrays the uplifting struggle of her protagonist to find her place within the comity of humankind – to belong, as she never has in her childhood. Another overriding theme is the shaping of character within the framework of social upheaval – one book sketches the evolution of a revolutionary, the other sketches the evolution of a murderer, both fashioned out of putrid poverty. Rejection and betrayal, struggle and illness are an inherent part of both books. Hang is aware of the effect of poverty on her appearance; “I walked with my shoulder hunched over like an old drug addict, my tiny breasts floating under a baggy shirt.” (Huong 11) while Suskind establishes his character, fashioned by poverty into an inhuman monster; “one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages." (Suskind). While Huong’s book is set in the aftermath of the victory of the Communist regime in Vietnam, Suskind’s book is set in eighteenth century Paris, profiling a world where scent is the highest principle and forms the vehicle by which the character Grenouille is able to surmount his low social origins. This central character, through his perseverance and creativity, succeeds in rising above the low social order he has been born into and his creative striving after the perfect scent creates a mass appeal that intoxicates the common reader. This represents the quest for perfection, so far removed from the lives of the working poor. While Hang sets out on a crusade to tear apart the deception and lies that characterize the Communist regime and thereby embarks into the path of social revival and reconstruction, Suskind’s protagonist does exactly the opposite. The protagonist Hang is shaped by poverty into a crusader for the moral, just path for human kind, but the character Grenouille emerges from poverty obsessed with himself and his insatiable quest for the perfect scent. This lies in the murder of a virgin and Grenouille “drinking” it in - demonstrating the shocking depths into which humankind will sink, as a result of deprivation and poverty. In the culmination of the novels, both protagonists arrive at significant turning points in their lives. In the search for her own identity, Hang must face betrayal and pain. She discovers that her beloved Uncle is the one who has betrayed the family, sacrificing their interests to further his own greed for power and wealth. Shocked and dismayed, Hang finally finds love and understanding in her mother, who had been emotionally closed in for so long. In the closeness with her mother, Hang is able to fashion her own identity and sets herself on the uplifting path of revival and reconstruction, educating people about the evils of Communism. For Grenouille however, there is no love in his life. Love has been lacking so long, rejection has plagued his life for so long that he has remained untouched by love’s healing powers. Later, the driving purpose and mission of his life are centered around his obsession to recreate the scent of the virgin – only, she is dead. In his quest, he discovers what sets him apart from the rest of human kind – the lack of a smell and he recreates this scent in a shocking manner that should have been condemned by humankind, because it is fashioned through destruction and murder rather than reconstruction. Yet, in the despicable nature of his acts, there is no definitive condemnation by society that is revealed in the novel. The ambiguity of society’s response to the heinous, despicable protagonist is unsettling and reveals the darker side of humanity itself. As a helpless infant, Grenouille is condemned but as a heartless murderer, he goes off scot free, leaving a reader feeling unsettled, unsure whether to sympathize with or condemn such a protagonist, even as his creativity and perseverance evoke a hypnotic mass appeal and allure that’s difficult to resist. Works Cited: Huong, Thu Duong. (1991). “Paradise of the Blind” Harper Collins Publishers, New York. * Suskind, Patrick. (1985). “Perfume”. Penguin Books, New York. Wu, Steven. (2003). “Perfume: The story of a Murderer”: A Book Review. Available at: http://www.booklore.co.uk/PastReviews/SuskindPatrick/ Perfume/PerfumeReview.htm Read More