"My fear had nothing to do with the actual French people. I didn't know any actual French people. What scared me was the idea of French people I'd gotten from movies and situation comedies" (Sedaris 156).
David Sedaris was supposed to go to France for the first time with his boyfriend, but was too scared because of French people. As this quote states, Sedaris knew no French people, but based his opinion off of what he has learned through the media. Similar to my last post, this has to do with the idea of stereotyping. People in France are stereotyped, along with any other nationality (including Americans). In the movies he watched, he learned that the French are always the ones making fools of themselves, hurting one another, and are stubborn. He thinks he will be treated differently and rudely at France, considering he is American and they have never liked one another. When he actually gets to France, he will obviously feel left out because he has never been there and does not know the language, and it will take him quite a while to get over his "fear". When he actually did go, he only knew one word to last him the Summer, and was recognized by everyone for saying that one word wherever he went.
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