Jean Echenoz's Cherokee marks a watershed in French literature concerning the depiction of l'Amérique and its cultural impact. In the works previously discussed, there has been a consistent developing pattern in the image projected of Americans. They were financially powerful and scientifically gifted, yet culturally naïve and psychologically immature. As such, the increasingly triumphant United States presented a growing danger to a France whose international reputation was on the wane. This tension reached its height immediately after World War II, when French intellectuals in particular perceived the United States as an imperialist power whose ambitions constituted a major threat to European peace and French independence. In addition, the influx of American products into France (household appliances, movies, fast food, etc.) was perceived as a threat to French values and the nation's traditions.

Georges Perec's Les Choses (1965) provides an eloquent expression of the widespread concern about burgeoning American-inspired French consumerism. The novel deals with a young, ambitious couple, Jérôme and Sylvie, who see themselves as part of the new, hip generation destined to profit from France's growing economic prosperity. They are psychosociologues, a trendy term for poll-takers. They chart the rampant consumerism among young French people. However, what started out as a wish to buy becomes a need to buy, and Sylvie and Jérôme themselves fall victim to this new disease. They fill their lives with things, fail to finish their degrees, escape for a time to North Africa, only to return to France as impoverished as they had been when they left. Ultimately, they recognize the failure of their dreams, symbolized by their decision to abandon the soul of contemporary France, Paris, for the wilds of Bordeaux. Les Choses may be read as a cautionary tale concerning the potential dangers of les Trentes Glorieuses. Perec was certainly expressing a justifiable fear among intellectuals and politicians in France that the economic boom was something other than an aubaine for the French public.