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Grenouille is Born
During the first part of the novel the main character Grenouille, is born. Grenouille is born to a mother who works at fish shop in France and he is born on the smelliest day in Paris. Grenouille's mother hides him and waits for him to die, but Grenouille starts to cry and the townspeople notice and try to help him. Ultimately, Grenouille's mother is hung for the crimes that she committed. -
Grenouille is sent to Father Terrier
After the death of Grenouille's mother he becomes an oprhan and is sent to the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie by Father Terrier. Some time passes and the wet nurse decides that she can no longer keep Grenouille because he is greedy and drinks all of the milk and he also does not smell like a baby should. So, she sends him to Father Terrier., who eventually gets creeped out by baby Grenouille and sends him to live at Madame Gaillard's orphanage. -
Grenouille and the Orphanage
Being sent to the orphanage is described as the best thing to have happened to Grenouille. There at the orphanage, Grenouille's bourgening sense of smell starts to develop and he is able to smell the most obscure of all smells. Eventually, the money that Father Terrier sends to the orphanage to pay for Grenouille runs out and Gaillard sells him to the tanner Grimal. -
Grenouille and Grimal
Grenouille's time as a tanner apprentice is not that significant as his life is filled with meaningless and boring work while he is there. However, while he is there Grenouille is able to smell even more smells than he was able to at the orphanage. This excites Grenouille because of his great sense of smell. -
Grenouille is sold to Baldini
Because of Grenouille's extraordinary sense of smell, it becomes necessary for him to get the ideas for scents that he has out of his head. So one day while working for Grimal he goes to Baldini, the greatest perfumer in Paris, and asks for a job as an apprentice. Eventually, Baldini agrees to this and he gives Grimal a huge amount for Grenouille. However, the day that Grimal recieves this money he tragically dies in the river. -
Grenouille and Baldini
Although it is clear that Grenouille clearly knows more than Baldiini when it comes to smells, Grenouille is still forced to be subordinate to him so that he can get what he wants. Grenouille's ultimate goal is to be able to recreate the scents that he is consistently thinking about. While, Grenouille knows how they smell he needs Baldinid in order to learn how to make these smells. -
Grenouille becomes a Journeyman
During his time at Baldini's he is walking one night and smells the best scent that he has ever smelled in his entire life and he is convinced that he has to have it. The smell comes from a girl who is selling plums and eventually Grenouille kills her so that he can have her scent. After, this Grenouille decides that he wants ot be able to make perfume for the most obscure scent of them all, the human scent. Baldidni agrees to give Grenouille his journeyman papers so that he can go to Grasse. -
Grenouille and the Cave
After Grenouille recieves his journeyman paper he starts walking through France and then realizes that he is completely fed up with smelling humans all the time. So he decides to live in a cave completely free from humans so that he can clear his mind. He stays in this cave for seven years and eventually leaves after he realizes that he can't smell himself even though he has the best nose in the world. -
Grenouille and Marquis de la Taillard
After Grenouille leaves the cave he says that he has been held their hostage because that is easy then explaining that he wanted to be in ther.e During, this time he meets the Marquis de la Taillard he uses Grenouille in order to prove his ridiculous theory. After the Marquis de la Taillard proves his theory, Grenouille continues on his journey to Grasse where he will be able to learn how to make even the most obscure scents. -
Grenouille and Grasse
Grenouille once he makes it to Grasse eventually becomes a journeyman for Madame Arnulfi, who is a master perfumer. Madame Arnulif and her other journeyman Druot teach Grenouille different techniques on perfumery that help him to be able to make perfume out of very obscure scents. -
Grenouille and Murders
Since Grenouille is able to make the most obscure scents into perfume, he decides that since he does nothave an order he will make one for himself from the best smelling people so that the world will stop ignoring him and love him. This leads Grenouille to start murdering the girls in Grasse so that he can acquire their scent. This leads the townpeople of Grasse to become increasingly anxious and scared. -
Grenouille and Richis
In the town of Laure, there is one particular girl that Grenouille needs in order to finsih his perfume. However, her father is smarter than the other townspeople and knows that his daughter Laure is in great danger if they stay in Grase. So, in an effort to save her life he moves his daughter. However, because of Gernouilles' amazing sense of smell he is able to track them down and he eventually gets what he wants and is able to kill Laure so that he can get the last scent that he needs. -
Grenouille's Capture
After a couple of weeks pass Grenouille is eventually captured for all of the murders that he has committed and is senteced to death in one of the bigggest trials that the people of Grasse have ever seen. However, since Grenouille was able to create the perfume with all of the different human scents once he puts it on the people of Grasse falll in love with him and they decide that he possibly could not have been the one responsible for the murders, and they release Grenouille. -
Grenouille's Death
Although Grenouille has this all powerful perfume, he still does not have the one thing that he truly wants. Even though he has the power to make poeple all over the world fall in love with him, all he wants is to have a smell of his own and sense he will never have that he decides that he must kill himself. So, he goes back to Paris and pours the entire perfume on him in front of homeless people whose love for him is so deep that they end up eating him.
