Foil

Character Role Analysis

Heinrich, Jack

Jack's a pretty big fan of common sense, but guess who isn't? That's right, his fourteen-year-old son Heinrich. You ever talked to one of those philosophy kids (black sweater, bags under their eyes, twitchy eyebrows) who just keep asking "Why?" no matter what you say? Well Heinrich's kind of like that, except possibly way smarter. Even when his dad tries to make him admit that it's raining outside, Heinrich has a way of verbally dancing and saying that it's all just a matter of perspective. What the what?

Oh yeah, and Heinrich isn't the least bit concerned about death, which makes his dad nearly lose his mind. You see, Jack's biggest fear in life is death, and Heinrich's biggest hero is a high school kid who wants to sit in a room full of deadly snakes. You can sort of see the difference there.

The great thing about Heinrich though is that he constantly makes Jack aware of the fact that the things he assumes are universal (like fear of death) aren't experienced in the same way by everybody. Heinrich shows us that there are different ways of relating to the idea of death, and he shows us that Jack might be wrong to try and force his fear of death onto younger generations.