Foil

Character Role Analysis

Reverend Ambrose & Grant

These guys are at each other's throats most of the time because they're so different. While Reverend Ambrose worries about Jefferson's soul, Grant worries about Jefferson's ice cream supply. This shows us that the Rev is looking toward the spiritual future of Jefferson's afterlife, and Grant is thinking about right this minute in the material world.

This distinction is important because it shows us that, at least for these people in this time and place, heaven and earth are two very different places. Earth looks a lot more like hell than heaven, and the characters feel like they have to choose which place they're going to focus on.

If they plan on working to make things better on earth, then they have to put matters of the soul on the back burner. If they're going to focus on the soul, then they just accept things on earth.

What Miss Emma suggests is that the two men work together…and really that might be what the book is trying to teach us. There has to be a middle ground, where living in the present but working for a better future are both important.