Today's Demon: Common Scents By Lynda Barry

“Today’s Demon: Common Scents” Lynda Barry represents that being an individual and not conforming to societies idea of perfection is better than pretending to be someone she is not. “Common Scents” tells of a young girl, N’ako who notices the specific smell in each house; although, she is told her house has a foul smell she states that should prefer that smell because it represents her own identity. The message presented throughout the story is first shown when the young girl notices a distinct smell that is unique to each home she enters, then again when she realizes the lady who sprays air freshener in her home does this to reach an image of perfection, and finally, during a conversation with her grandmother she decides that there was no

She said, “…There was something she was trying to spray away” (Barry 555). The girl states that she knows her neighbor is not a criminal but there was something she was attempting to cover up, her individualism. The neighbor was trying to please society and change the smell of her home to something it is not. The adolescent was later shown grown up, as she is in bed a text box her is shown speaking to her partner. He tells how he believes that by using the false scents the lady was trying to hide her ‘“ dark secrets.’” By hiding her secrets, I understood she wants to put up an image so that her bad qualities will never be

N’ako states, “Our house smelled like grease and fish and dogs like jade east and pork and dogs like all the wild food my grandma boiled and fried and if they could get that into a spray can I would buy it." (Barry 557). By this the young girl means she would rather be herself and have what others consider a foul smell than pretend to be something she is not. The final image in the short story shows the young girl with her grandmother. The grandmother has a bowl filled with one of her strange creations, she tells her granddaughter, ‘“This Duran frits smells so badly but taste so Goodly!”’ (Barry 557.) with seeing the happiness and excitement the food brings to her grandmother she realizes that the food they eat and smells they have may be different but they are what make them