“Foreigners Admiration for Cleanliness”

In this article entitled “Foreigners Admiration for Cleanliness,” the author recounts a story of a particular Englishman who journeyed to Sardinia and encountered a bit of culture shock. When preparing a bath to wash himself after a long day, he noticed that the people of Sardinia were peering at him. Interestingly, the author writes “It is presumable that the people of the inn had never before seen an Englishman.” The people were supposedly so shocked and fascinated by this behavior that they hosted a grand celebration in awe of the behavior. The description of the behavior of the people of Sardinia is rather outrageous, and often times reads as rather satirical.

The Englishman is described almost like a zoo animal, with the Sardinian people all gathering around to stare and watch in amazement as he bathes himself. While having someone watch you bathe is uncomfortable for obvious reasons, bathing is a rather customary thing in English society. It is not seen of as something strange or exotic, and so this description of the Sardiniain fascination with the Englishman’s behavior is pretty ironic. The Sardinian people observing his every move and viewing this man as a strange foreigner whose behavior is so unlike anything that they know reminds readers of the descriptions so often published by Englishman describing the customs and daily tasks of the natives in countries they colonized. This change in perspective allows us to view the English as the strange, uncustomary people.