Foil

Character Role Analysis

Hobbs and McPherson; Esther and Dr. Fried; Mental Patients and New Student Nurses

Hobbs and McPherson are like the good cop and bad cop of D ward.

All the patients in D ward hate Hobbs because he's judgmental and cruel in an attempt to mask his own fear of having a little crazy in himself. He even smacks a patient while she's restrained.

McPherson, on the other hand, doesn't distance himself from the patients. He gets Deborah to see that other people suffer, not just the patients at the hospital. It's just that not everyone shows his or her crazy on the outside. McPherson is honest and compassionate with the patients, and they love him for it.

Moving on, there are liars and truth-tellers in this world. Dr. Fried is a truth-teller. Esther Blau is not. Dr. Fried is very candid and upfront about everything. She is honest and forthcoming, while Esther strains to keep up a front and smile through pain in a way that is obvious to Dr. Fried.

Finally, the pairing of the mental patients and the beautiful new student nurses, though only a brief episode in the book, is worth mentioning because it's another example of how the patients feel isolated and distanced and unaccepted.

In this episode, there are gorgeous young nurses standing around the ward, and they contrast with the ill women, who often don't take time to groom themselves. The ill women just don't feel good about themselves, period: "And so the four new students assigned to D ward stood in a tight, scared little clutch, the only beauty, youth, and health present, and in the spring of the year. Never did the bearers of poisonous nganons feel their separation so much as on this day" (18.29).

When the ill women see these young girls, they feel like they'll never make it outside the hospital. They feel like the health and beauty of the students is completely unattainable and out of reach for them. It's not—but that's certainly the way it seems.