Foil

Character Role Analysis

Bill

Bill is Sam's partner in crime, and near polar opposite. Sam is patient and self-assured, while Bill is burdened and rather weak. Johnny might be the kidnapped, but Bill is most certainly the victim. Sam's matter of fact attitude is in pure contrast to Bill's gradual decent into emotional despair. There is a point in the story where Sam describes Bill's screaming as "simply indecent, terrifying, humiliating screams, such as women emit when they see ghosts or caterpillars" (24). He makes a perfect fulcrum for the comedy: a hapless, well-meaning muffinhead completely undone by the antics of a little boy.

Bill isn't strictly the protagonist, but his behavior helps accentuate the story and gives Sam something to bounce off of. Indeed, Sam sometimes "lighted my pipe and sat down on a mossy bank to await developments" (72), while waiting to see what Bill is doing—or rather, what is done to Bill. That fits him pretty readily into the foil category, though he is also a rather stalwart companion to Sam throughout the story. We guess opposites do attract after all.