Nowlan uses the everlasting scent of the potato-chip factory as a symbol throughout the story. In the first few lines of Anointed with Oils, scent becomes an apparent theme. Once Edith returns from her day shift, the first thing she gets her hands on is her “cologne-scented underwear” (82). Before long the protagonist cleans herself connoting the smell she brought home negatively, “The first thin cloud of steam reeked of the frying oils that clung to her body” (82). This action, in addition to wearing perfume, reveals the importance Edith places on smelling nice. Yet a few hours later as the story progresses, she can’t help but smell once again the grease from the factory, “She sighed and scrubbed the stink of grease from her arms” (86). Even