Foil

Character Role Analysis

Doug and Tom Spaulding

Foil: Doug and Tom Spaulding

Doug and Tom are a study in opposites, and although they're brothers, Doug definitely got the getting-sad-young gene, while Tom got the hey-look-at-the-shiny-thing gene. Because Tom looks up to Doug as his big brother, he's willing to go along with the pontificating in the notebook, but only up to a certain point. Whenever we see Doug getting too deep, dipping his toes into the shark-infested waters of adulthood and almost falling in, Tom's there to pull him back to the safe shores of childhood.

Here is their dynamic in a nutshell: If these two were at a high school party, Doug would be the one serenading the unreachable girl on the staircase, while Tom ran around the room with his underwear on his head.