Constructing the world through the sense of smell in the novel Crocodile soup by Julia Darling

Food: At the top of the landing I smelt roasted dinner and heard tinkling voices, the colour of confetti..... I left the aroma of luncheon meat, tinned mandarin segments and margarine and smelt the incinerator instead.

House: Gert remembers her room in the attic where she spent her childhood through the smell which dominated there: There was suddenly a strong and unbearable smell, of spa water... Gloomy recollections and the fear of the attic are preserved in the memory through the particular smell sensation: Carmen was cleaning the back parlour; a room with no windows, like a priest's hole. It smelt of mice and punishment. It was a room I never played in.

Nature: There was a smell of roses in the air.... The air smelt of hamsters.

In her childhood Gert felt her life filled with the presence of other people, surrounded by crowds of tourists who were walking and peering through the windows with their heavy cameras at Gert and her family as they were living in the house where a famous poet had lived and died:

Our lives were acted out in front of this perpetual audience ... pressing their faces to the glass with their hands cupping out the light.... Like monkeys in a zoo we became accustomed to being stared at. We were just shadows flitting behind the thick glass windows. My shadow inhabits photograph albums all over the world.

One day she felt haunted by the shadow of the poet and Gert decided to burn her books. The fire stank of burning skin, and the words wound into the sky in italic grey smoke.

Things: Smell stirs memory and thoughts, it is also a special indication of history, time, fashion, taste, and everyday nuances. Л5 I tiptoed through the monumental doors I thought I smelt unfamiliar uniforms. The swimming baths were very old and smelt of feet.

Profession: According to Gert's perception any profession has its own smell which is attached to people. Doctor Diamond laughed inappropriately. And asked me to strip off to my vest and to lie on a hard bed ... her brown hands smelt of saddle soap. Some of Doctor Diamond had stuck to my skin, and I could still smell her on my hands.

Memory: It must have been Sunday because the stairs stank of gravy. In her memories Gert remembers ""when guests came to the house Jean often pretended that she had no children, and put on airs that were made of brandy and aspic, and demanded sophisticated conversation ”. Jean enjoyed herself giving great parties while the children were forbidden to go downstairs. Jean on her part considers Gert to be an imaginative and difficult child, who constantly makes up awful stories and tragedies out of things. The reality for Gert seems dangerous and unpleasant. Receiving letters from her Dad who worked on a crocodile farm in Africa Gert describes his postcards: the paper smelt of curry.

Smell reveals some additional information about social and professional status, illustrates individual features of a person and denotes invisible (subjective) emotional signs which become psychologically dominant, transferring figurative associations and creating strong emotional effects. The scale of emotional reactions caused by smell is extremely wide - from delight to disgust. The qualitative characteristic of smell is also transferred by means of verbs and nouns with positive or negative connotations: to stink, to scent, to smell, whiff, scent, aroma, smell, pong. She had no special scent that she kept in a bottle until the dark hours when it was safe to splash it on her wrists and smell out others with the same pong.

Gert's mother after the death of her second husband finds herself in a desperate situation living on her own with nobody to look after her and nowhere to go. She finds the world unfamiliar and hostile: I can hardly bear the smell of the streets around here. It stinks of trains and chips. I never noticed when Cameron was alive. Though the space between Gert and her mother was full of misunderstanding and loneliness, Gert forgives Jean and reconstructs the bridge of their relationship writing a letter and letting her come:

Later she thought about me most of the time. She wrote many letters, but I never wrote back. The space between us was full of grief. Then on the last day of her tenancy she came downstairs to discover a letter, the paper calloused, the ink faded, smelling of old men s furniture. ... The letter was from me.

In the novel Crocodile Soup the concept smell acts as a plot forming factor influencing the emotional condition of characters, creates clear and distinct images which produce an impact on the reader. It brings to life additional background information involving semantic and pragmatic implications.