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In the reading of The Liars’ Club, by Mary Karr, one gets bombarded with the use of imagery. Karr uses many different ways to assist in her descriptions. One of the more reoccurring describers though is the use of smell. She helps describe what she wants the reader to feel often through the smell that she relates to something good, or bad, or nice, etc. Ultimately though, Mary uses smell as a tool to set up how she feels about her memory.

The first example of this is when Mary is talking about draining her parents’ alcohol. Karr writes, “Dumping those bottles down the sink drain, I always craned my face away” (236). Literally, when smelling alcohol many people have to lean back because of its strength. This also helps to show how Mary feels about her parents drinking. Other then the obvious fact that she is dumping the alcohol down the drain, she cannot stand what it does to them. She mentions that she is surrounded by poisons, yet that smell she cannot stand. Partially that smell is associated with her negative feelings about her parents drinking.

Karr states that the “brown liquor” seemed dangerous to even breathe showing her unfavorable feelings toward it through the sense of smell. There is a theme of alcohol being related to negative events or feelings. There was alcohol involved during the night of the mother’s breakdown, when Hector’s sister Purty is attacked, and also when mother threatens to shoot Hector. Mary not liking the smell of alcohol is related to those bad experiences, along with always having to take care of her mother. Ultimately it is the reason why Lecia and Mary decided to stay with the mother rather then go back to Texas with Daddy. There is resent in Mary’s mind about alcohol, and it is described by her hating the smell of it, even though she lives near many other poisons or bad smells in the atmosphere.

Another example of how Karr uses smell to help with her descriptions is when Mary is talking about the time she was in her grandmother’s room. Mary says, “It’s not just the smell of death, but the smell of something thriving on death, a smell you link up to maggots, or those bacteria that eat up corpses one cell at a time” (76-77). Karr uses this description in talking about her grandmother, later saying that the smell was her, and actually coming out of her. This is another example of smell is used to bring the reader into a feeling of disgust. The reader can feel pity for Mary at this point for having to deal with such a foul, unthinkable odor.

When Mary looks back to her grandmother, many of her negative feelings are associated with this smell of death. Perhaps this is the reason why she does not feel sadness for her grandmother when she is dead. Mary is still very young and impressionable at this age in her life. If looking back all she can think about her grandmother is the absolute death like smell then her feelings and attitudes toward her grandmother will be diminished as well. That odor could be the reason why Mary showed no hard feelings over the death of her grandmother; it’s the relief of never again having to have the odor being shoved down her nostrils. Looking back on life, if a distinct image about an event or person sticks with someone, very often that is going to be the first way they feel about the person. If it’s a good thing they think about then they will have a good first memory. If it’s like Mary’s memory though, one will think poorly about that memory.

Karr uses smell to help her bring to life the feeling that she is describing. She can do it through both negative and positive ways, as shown through the examples. Karr allows the smell of certain objects to lead into many different feelings, or even more imagery.