Foil

Character Role Analysis

Collective 0-0009 to Equality 7-2521

Whereas many members of Society are portrayed as weak and compliant, Collective 0-0009 is powerful and supposedly smart. He's the most important, intelligent, and influential member of Society we meet, since he's the most respected of the Scholars. That makes him Equality 7-2521's opposite in a certain way. Both he and Equality 7-2521 are intelligent, thinking men – "scientists" – yet Collective 0-0009 willfully submits himself and his science completely to society, while Equality 7-2521 refuses to do so. Hence it's fitting that the climactic confrontation of the book occurs between these two.

Equality 7-2521 and Collective 0-0009's differing general philosophies also mean they embody different understandings of science and truth. Equality 7-2521 wants to pursue truth for its own sake, because he wants to know the way things actually are. Collective 0-0009, on the other hand, thinks that whatever society says is true, and whatever society denies is false. The result? Equality 7-2521 invents the light bulb, and Collective 0-0009 is still all hung up on the candle.

Union 5-3992 to Equality 7-2521

Although Equality 7-2521 and Collective 0-0009 form one pair of foils, in a different way the character who offers the biggest (and most obvious) contrast to Equality 7-2521 is Union 5-3992, the man who works with Equality 7-2521 as a Street Sweeper. Union is weak and compliant, and can't help it. He's practically the ideal member of this dystopian society, because he has no will or ability to distinguish himself from others. That makes him Equality 7-2521's polar opposite. Exceptional people like Equality 7-2521 are oppressed because they aren't allowed to stand out from people like Union. Tellingly, Union is the person Equality 7-2521 tries to imitate when he originally feels guilty for not fitting in with everyone else.