Foil

Character Role Analysis

Reese Anderson and Toon Trevedi

Reese and Toon don't seem much alike on the outside. Reese is good with his fists when he has to be, whereas Toon, who's almost three years his junior, is scrawny and scared. But for Reese, Toon embodies his vulnerabilities. "Sometimes, when I see Toon, I think he looks like how I would look if I could see inside myself," Reese tells us. "Little and stupid looking and scared, knowing I was going to get beat up every day" (22.2). In other words, these two aren't so different as they first seem.

Reese and Mr. Hooft

Mr. Hooft is a racist old man who lives in the eldercare facility where Reese works. At first, he comes across as an antagonist ('cause, you know, racism). But when Reese tells him about King Kong, Mr. Hooft begins to see the ways in which Reese life experience parallels his own. "That happened to me once," Mr. Hooft tells him. "You want to hear how it happened?" (12.30) The relationship begins to build from that moment. These are two opposites who ultimately attract.