Foil

Character Role Analysis

Webb and Jude

From the time Jude enters the lives of the original five, he and Webb become instant best friends. And yet, they don't really have a lot in common: "Where Webb's memories of childhood were idyllic and earthy, Jude's reeked of indifference," Hannah's manuscript relates. "Webb read fantasy; Jude read realism" (2.85). Overall, Webb's the dreamer while Jude's the realist. Hannah even paraphrases one of the group's favorite songs, "The Whole of the Moon," to illustrate the differences between them: "Jude saw the rain-dirty valley; Webb saw Brigadoon" (2.85).

Taylor and Raffaela

In the present day, Marchetta plants another foil pair with Taylor and Raffaela. While Taylor is a loner who lacks connections with people, Raffaela has tons of friends and tends to be the life of the party. At the twenty-first birthday party they attend, Taylor finds herself "in a world full of people Raffy knows […] It seems her feet hardly ever touch the ground because every second person picks her up and spins her around" (16.166).

Like Jude and Webb's differences in their views of the world, Taylor and Raffaela also are opposites in terms of spirituality. Raffaela is a professed Christian who frequently uses her faith to comfort others or explain circumstances. By contrast, Taylor declares, "Don't believe in God. Love the world just the way it is" (9.21).