Week 10: Essay - Foils

This week, my reading unit was the Legends of the Pacific Northwest. The stories mostly focused on several different characters but there were a few that appeared in multiple stories. Two characters in particular stood out to me: Silver Fox and Coyote. These characters stood out to me because they are apparent foils of one another. The use of a foil is one of my favorite literary devices because it can be used as a very unique method of character analysis. Instead of simply pointing out or emphasizing directly certain key aspects of a character's identity, one is able to examine said important aspects and details through contrast with another character that is, to some degree, the first character's opposite. This allows at times, in my opinion, a deeper understanding of a character than could be gained without the use of a foil. Such is the case with the characters Silver Fox and Coyote.

 

 

 Fox and Coyote

(image source: Professional Wildlife Removal)

 

It is first implied that the relationship between Silver Fox and Coyote will be significant in the very beginning of the first story. In How Silver-Fox Created the World.  it is made immediately clear that the two have nearly opposite views on just about everything. Silver-Fox wishes create the world and make things while Coyote is opposed. We are not told why Coyote would be opposed to creation but I think it speaks to a fundamental difference between the two characters. Silver Fox's eagerness to create and give life indicates a desire for growth and change which highlights lack of such. Coyote, as can be seen in later stories, has a bit of an inferiority complex so it stands to reason that he would not be willing to lend a hand to change and the creation of beings that make take on more importance than he. In this way, this seemingly small detail of the opposing viewpoints of these two character serves to emphasize a major component of Coyote's characterization.

It is not only character traits possessed by Silver Fox that draw attention to important details of Coyote's character, but the other way around as well. Though he does not appear in many other stories as Coyote does, there is still important information about Silver Fox that we glean from contrasting him Coyote. For example, Coyote seems to be a nervous character, always questioning and second guessing everything Silver Fox does or creates. This lack of confidence and overwhelming insecurity not only foreshadows aspects of Coyote's character that will be revisited in future stories, but also strengthens the perception of Silver Fox as a character of confidence and self-assuredness. It would have been simply to merely state that Silver Fox was a possess great confidence and a strong will, but I believed it to be more effective the contrast between the two characters to emphasize Silver Fox's strengths by showing Coyote's weakness.

There are countless methods of characterization, both direct and indirect. Creating a separate character, however, for another character to be set up against, is in my opinion, the most  interesting, and therefore most effective method, because through gazing upon a character right next to another character that has many qualities directly opposite of said original characters may allow a reader to gain important insight of a character concerning details that may have otherwise been overlooked.

Bibliography: "How Silver-Fox Created the World." Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon. Katharine Berry Judson. 1910.