The Smell Sense as a Sophisticated Way of Judging a Person - Essay Example

The Smell I became lighthearted. The greetings from restless hearts were coming from here and there. Someone who seemed to be the promoter of the class reunion then said, "Okay, everyone get together." As always, a number of people in the group could not be seen. Those were the people who used to be the topic of conversations. They used to be the center of attention, which at one point of their lives they might have enjoyed. This time though, they just want to avoid hearing any stories about themselves. One guy opened his mouth quietly and said to his friend nearby, "What a shamehe used to be always like this!" "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 definition. 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 compounding 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 breakfast. We could also forget to do our morning tasks altogether; or even suffer from temporary lost of memory and forget about what had happened the day before. But what we could never forget in our routine-one of the major tasks we do when we wake up-is to wash ourselves, even if it's as simple as washing our face. Since we are social creatures we would always like to be clean. There is this one common item next to a bathtub that we use everyday. Even if we plan to travel to a place that doesn't exist, we would still want to carry it. The soap, it's very tiny, but very powerful. It had been one of the basic necessities for human beings since the 19th century, when soap was no longer considered a luxury. Oddly speaking, our desire to keep ourselves fragrant was once considered an indulgence, a display of how the smell plays a big role in the society. In those days, when we smell good, it means that if we are members of the high members of the society. We all have been blessed with a unique smell. But if we think about it, are we truly confident in our own scents We all think our smell is too common amongst the public, so the smell is not enough to secure our confidence. Let's turn this cause and effect relationship around. What do you think will happen to our smell if we are confident Try to imagine our fathers who just finished their jobs at 10:00 PM as hard physical laborers: their clothes all covered with sweat and they want to hug their children to say good night and yet they restrain themselves since they worry that the smell of their clothes might annoy their kids. Can we say that this is a foul smell Our fathers must be proud of their work since they do their best to feed their children even when they are tired. They are the people who deserve to be confident about them and the people who deserve to be respected. They have one of the finest aromas in the world. The smell is a song for all of us. Sometimes, it sings about who we are; sometimes it sings how much anger we have; and sometimes it sings how much we love. We all start from the beginning as poor composers having an empty score on the white. How we are going to make up the white score is our assignment. It often could be drawn as dissonant harmonies, but as monotonous music is not interesting, it is worth of a try by itself. The smell of our bodies can be one of the aspects that truly tell others what kind of individuals we are. I hope we all have a chance to smell beautifully while we live in this world. Read More