Foil

Character Role Analysis

Private Evidence Goring and Octavian

If Octavian is serious, smart, and somber, flip it all around and you get Goring. Not that Goring doesn't have any emotional depth—he cares about his sister (so much that he writes to her practically every day), and he really feels the intensity and trauma of the war. But that's not who Goring is, fundamentally. Goring's an optimist, who unquestioningly has faith in all the things that are supposed to be good—like, God, America, and human nature. It's his naiveté that contrasts so sharply to Octavian's grave understanding of life in America.