The ending is a brutal descent into nihilism. Returning to the stinking cemetery of Paris, Grenouille pours the last of his god-like perfume over himself. To the assembled crowd of thieves, outcasts, and murderers, he no longer smells like an angel but like the most delicious feast imaginable. They do not bow to him; they tear him apart and devour him with “animal satisfaction.” It is the only genuine, unforced act of the entire novel—a mob’s love expressed as cannibalism. Grenouille gets what he always wanted: to be consumed. But it is not a sacred transcendence; it is a return to the biological horror of his birth. The man who sought to become a god through scent ends as nothing more than a meal.
Grenouille is born in the most fetid, putrid place in Paris: the Cimetière des Innocents fish market. His mother, a fishmonger, delivers him on her cutting table amidst the guts and stench of her trade. Expecting yet another stillbirth (she has already disposed of four others), she carelessly abandons the newborn, only to have his cries reveal her infanticidal intent. She is later beheaded for her crime. Thus, Grenouille enters the world unwanted, unloved, and utterly alone. El Perfume- Historia de un Asesino