Cave

1. Cave Analysed By Joe, Joe, Rohit & Puneet

2. Why does Grenouille Get in the cave? Is it his choice? • He chooses to go there because the cave is “devoid of humanity”. • A he exits Paris he realizes that the air is purer as he gets further and further away from human beings • Grenouille decides ““only to go away, away from human beings.” • Grenouille lives life through his nose, and since the cave is at the “pole of solitude”, it provides the freedom that his nose yearns and recently discovered.

3. How Long does he Stay there? • “There were only events in the outside world of which he took notice for seven years. Otherwise he lived only within his mountain, only within the self-made empire of his soul. And he would have remained there until his death (since he lacked for nothing), if catastrophe had not struck, driving him from his mountain, vomiting him back out into the world.”(Page 137 chapter 28) • He spends 7 years in the cave.

4. The Significance of the cave • “If he curled up, could even lie down” • He is curved up in the cave which symbolizes him being curved up in the mother’s womb. • Significance of cave is that it symbolizes a mother’s womb and that he is reborn when he comes out of it. He has a new purpose in life and a new path and knows what his job and purpose is. • “Never in his life had he felt so secure, certainly not in his mother’s belly.” • The cave is more secure than his mother’s womb – cave protects him from outside world. • (Page 126 chapter 25)

5. The Departure • Survival- Starvation – ‘He fed himself on the stiff carcasses of frozen bats. • His inability to smell his own odour- ‘although he knew that this odour was his odour, could not smell it. This leaves him mortified and extremely distressed because he can smell everything and anything except himself. ‘He gave a scream as dreadful and loud as if he were being burned alive. • The dream frightens him at the thought of him being unable to smell his own body odour but he then realizes that he is unable to smell himself when he is awake. All he sees is the fog which is in fact the body odour perspiring off him. • ‘He, Grenouille, who could smell other people miles away, was incapable of smelling his own genitals not a handspan away.

6. How did he change? • “for well over twenty hours a day in total darkness and in total silence and in total immobility” • When Grenouille is in the cave, it emphasizes his misanthropy and his isolation. • “no longer distracted by anything external, basked in his own existence and found it splendid” • He seems to be content with his own existence. • With no external disturbances in his way, he feels like he’s home.