Elizabeth Rhein- Smelling- Till We Have Faces

In the book “Till We Have Faces” smelling is a common theme brought up a few times. On page 11, the smell from the priest is that of blood. When we went over this section in class, it was interesting to me how we talked about how memories can be brought up just by smelling something. Even though it seems a little odd, every time I smell cigarette smoke I am instantly reminded of all of the times I’ve played poker when I’m home. One of my favorite things to do for the past year and a half has been to play poker in a league that meets almost every night of the week in different bars. Even though it’s really unhealthy to be around that much smoke, the smell always makes me feel happy and sad at the same time because I really do miss going when I am at school. When we went over the power of smells in class, I was instantly reminded of this example. As for what they smelled from the priest, that too can symbolize something more. To Christians, blood is very important because in some specific Christian groups, they believe that the wine they drink in Eucharist is truly the blood of Christ or in others, a symbol of his blood. Smells also bring up certain emotions. In the book, the feeling of fear came up when they smelled the priest. Smells are very powerful because they have the ability to bring strong emotions with them.