Foil

Character Role Analysis

Travis and Tom

Travis contrasts wildly with Tom. When Tom talks with Betsy, it's light, easy banter about work and about whether you can light a match without using certain fingers—things like that.

When Travis talks to Betsy, it's really intense: He's telling her she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen and that he thinks she's a lonely person without having ever met her. Tom, then, is definitely more normal in terms of the way he talks, but he's also less strikingly dramatic.