Foil

Character Role Analysis

Greenie and Pearl

Pearl's childhood BFF Greenie is your typical teenager. Or one of the typical teen types, anyway—she's madly in love with her boyfriend and ditches her friends to spend more time with him, regardless of what anyone thinks. Greenie might not have the most stable relationship on the planet, but it still stands in contrast to Pearl's dalliance with Amiel.

Both Greenie and Pearl are figuring out how to be with a boyfriend and what love really means in the novel, but they go about it in very different ways. That makes Greenie the foil to our leading lady—in going through a similar situation, the differences in their relationships (and as such, in Greenie and Pearl) really stand out.