Foil

Character Role Analysis

Hopkins

Hopkins is the only other character in this story, and he doesn’t even bother showing up to the party. How rude. Oh wait, it’s because he can’t. He’s Nick’s foil in a very simple way: basically, they were both young men, living it large, going on fishing trips—Hopkins was even significantly better off than Nick, being a millionaire and all—but the key difference between them is that Hopkins died in the war and Nick didn’t. So who’s better off now?

It goes to show how war can turn things on their head. While alive, Hopkins has it made, but in the end it doesn’t matter. Dude still dies. This move of making Hopkins rich and successful is meant to make Nick’s survival arbitrary; their positions could have just as easily been reversed.