Martin Character Analysis

Martin is an American man Sedaris encounters on the metro in Paris. Turning to Carol—the woman with whom he’s traveling—Martin speaks loudly about Sedaris, saying that he smells awful and that this is characteristic of French people. Martin then insists that Sedaris is a pickpocket and that he wants to steal Carol’s wallet. Sedaris knows that Martin says these things under the assumption that Sedaris can’t understand English, and this arrogance makes Sedaris feel as if he has permission to hate Martin. However, he also realizes that his disdain for Martin and Carol is somewhat pretentious, but this realization only makes Sedaris hate them all the more. In the grand scheme of things, Sedaris uses both Martin and Carol as representations of the kind of American arrogance and ignorance from which he hopes to distance himself by living in Paris.