Foil

Character Role Analysis

Teddy and Mr. McArdle

You won't easily find two people more different than Teddy and his father. Read the first page of "Teddy" and the dialogue makes it painfully clear: Mr. McArdle is materialistic, egotistical, loud, pushy, and hopelessly "American" (in Salinger's understanding of the term as exemplifying consumerism). Teddy, on the other hand, is Eastern in his perspective. He is also calm, accepting, thoughtful, and detached. Looks like the apple fell far from the tree after all.