The Novel “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Pan, one of the pagan ancient Greek gods, is a popular character in mass culture. The novel “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins also features the deity as one of its protagonists, which allows the author to add meaning to the plot. The action takes place in the 8th century, the time of the cultural transition from the pagan worldview to the Christian one. Not all people forgot the pagan heritage instantly, and it required many centuries for the culture to change completely. In the novel, Pan disappears gradually because, at the beginning of the Christian era, people started to forget about him. The main character of the story searches for the secret of immortality, and the case of Pan correlates with it. It is possible to assume that the parallels between the secret of immortality and Pan’s image are based on the importance of memory. In this case, the person or the deity is immortal if people remember them, and it is the main issue in preserving the balance in the universe.

Discussion

Ancient Greek religion was paganism, as was already mentioned, which supposes the division of responsibilities between various deities. The classical traits of Pan suppose that he is the god of the wilderness, and his duties were to rule in the pastures and forests (Sabetai 2). People worshiped Pan actively in the rural areas because their lives were interconnected with these places, and it was impossible to imagine their existence without hunting or keeping shepherds Canevaro (Canevaro 345). Therefore, all these territories were the realm of Pan, and other more minor deities, including the spirits of the forests or nymphs, were subordinate to him, which explains Pan’s authority among ordinary people (Sabetai 3). According to the classical description of Pan, he enjoyed playing music in the wilderness, and he made romantic advances to the nymphs in the wood, that were well known for their exceptional beauty (Sabetai 3). The deity is traditionally depicted with the flute as a half-human and half-goat, completely naked (Sabetai 1). This image is regarded as the typical representation of Pan that reflects all his significant characteristics.

Pan symbolizes the movement of humanity from the natural, spontaneous world to the rational perception of reality. In the story, Alobar meets the deity when he travels to the East, searching for the secret of eternal life and perfume. The ancient pagan god disappears physically in exile because people do not believe in him anymore and do not worship him. Pan is the personification of the chaotic, ancient power that should be restricted in the age of morality and reason, as Christian ethics supposes (Kalligas 167). Therefore, it is possible to call Pan the deity in exile who lost his authority in the new reality because the culture and the religious views changed how people looked at the surrounding world.

The protagonist of the novel thinks about the rational slant in the way people started to perceive the surrounding world, and these thoughts are connected with the image of Pan. It is written in the novel in the following lines: “Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received” (Robbins 383). Therefore, the new way of understanding reality is waiting for accurate, logical answers to the questions people ask, which does not give good results because no one knows these answers.

The truth is hidden from people who operate only with logic and reason but do not know other ways of interacting with reality and learning the truth about life and themselves. In ancient times, people believed that everything extraordinary and supernatural that hidden in the surrounding nature, and the air was filled with spirits. They came to the wilderness, searching for answers and peace in their minds, and Pan gave them these feelings. Though, nature loses its mysterious essence when it is perceived from a rational point of view instead of the mythical one. This change in the way of thinking most people acquired in the Christian culture led to the loss of Pan’s authority and his physical decay.

Pan is the appropriate Greek god to play this role in the novel because he personifies the wilderness opposite to the civilization. After humanity started developing technologically, it became more rational, as already mentioned. Worshiping Pan in the wilderness, in its turn, is a vivid representation of the pagan illogical spirit. Society started to structure the existence of its members, making it safer, but depriving them of the opportunities to feel the genuine reunion with the wild essence of their souls. It is possible to illustrate this hypothesis with the following lines from the novel:

“Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life’s bittersweet route” (Robbins 222).

This excerpt shows that people found stability and security in the new society, bu they reject their free spirit and understanding of the wilderness instead. Pan was the perfect choice of the pagan god to illustrate the shift of the pagan community to a rational, structured, and civilized life.

Conclusion

The story “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins is centered around the attempts of the main protagonist to find the secret of immortality while searching for magical perfume. During his travel to the East, he meets Pan, the pagan deity in exile, who is the metaphorical representation of the concept of immortality. The god has eternal life in the pagan religion, which is the thing that the main character searches for in his journey. Though Pan physically disappears and can lose his ability to be immortal. The reason that leads to this situation is the memory of people who forgot about Pan when they were converted to Christianity. Even though this process was not instant and required many centuries because some people remembered the ancients, it was irreversible.

This metaphor shows that people can be immortal when other individuals remember them. In the case of the deity, when people believe in them and worship them, the god is immortal. When no one recalls the person or the god, they die. It allows assuming that Pan’s significance to the meaning of “Jitterbug Perfume” is connected with adding metaphorical meaning about the secret of immortality to the plot.

Works Cited

Canevaro, Mirko, Erskine, Andrew,Gray, Benjamin, and Josiah Ober, Josiah. Ancient Greek History and Contemporary Social Science. Edinburgh University Press, 2018.

Kalligas, Paul. “Honey from Hymettus: Platonic Philosophy in the Cave of Pan.” Classics Ireland, vol. 27, 2020, pp. 165–96.

Robbins, Tom. Jitterbug Perfume. Bantam USA, 1985.

Sabetai, Victoria. “Pan, God of Wilderness, in Boeotian Landscapes: Fear, Laughter and Coming of Age,” Mythos, vol. 13, 2019, pp. 1-20.

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The Novel “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins

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