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Andrew Shealy
Dr. Leila Pazargadi
Education 490
15 April 2013
The Foil:
An Exploration of Identity Through Another
In literature, a foil character is a character that serves to fully flesh out the main character
by contrasting his traits. It is only through the comparison and contrasts of the two characters
that they are able to become fully alive on the page. Without their foil characters, a major
character loses his emotional impact and takes the risk of becoming one sided. Gene Luen Yang
in American Born Chinese uses Chin-Kee as a foil to Danny; while John Okada in No-No Boy
uses Kenji as a foil to Ichiro. This paper will explore how the foil characters contrast with the
main characters appearance or demeanor; how the foil characters illustrate the fears of the main
characters; and lastly, how the foil characters show the reader that the main characters feel as if
they do not belong in the world. This is important because without the foil characters, the main
characters lack substance and are one dimensional.
To begin with, the authors use the foil characters of Chin-Kee and Kenji to highlight and
reinforce the images of the main characters. The first appearance of Chin-Kee with Danny in
American Born Chinese highlights the difference in stereotypes:
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Both characters are stereotypical. Chin-Kee’s skin is a sickly yellow. He has two very large buck
teeth, and his eyes are squinty. He bows to Danny, which is a distinct characteristic of Japanese
people not Chinese. His clothes are very imperialistic Chinese as well. Furthermore, his speech is
slurred as he recites what could be a bad knockoff of a Confucius saying. While Danny appears
to be your typical white American kid. He has a strong jaw. His skin is peachy white. He is
wearing a nondescript sweater. He has an average every-man haircut. He is shown as ordinary as
possible which contrasts completely with Chin-Kee’s extraordinary Chinese stereotype. ChinKee is wholly Chinese and Danny is fully white American. The juxtaposition of their differences
serves to highlight and reinforce Danny’s lack of self-image.
In No-No Boy, John Okada highlights the difference in demeanor of Kenji and Ichiro:
They drank in silence, Kenji taking his leisurely and Ichiro gulping his purposefully.
“Take it slow,” warned Kenji in a voice which was softer than usual because the whisky
made him that way.
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“Doesn’t help,” grumbled Ichiro thickly, “not a goddamned bit it doesn’t help.” He
swung around on his stool and surveyed the crowd, which had long since forgotten about
him. He noticed hazily that Taro and his friends were gone: “Son-of-bitches. That’s what
they are, all of them. Dirty, no-good son-of-bitches.”
“I agree,” said Kenji peacefully. (76)
While they drink together in silence, Kenji is taking his time with his drink. He drinks his
“leisurely.” His voice is “softer than usual.” And when responding to Ichiro’s talk of hate, he
agrees “peacefully” instead of any form of protest. On the other hand, Ichiro is “gulping his
(drink) purposefully.” He “grumbles thickly.” Also his talk is angry and full of hatred. The
difference in speech and demeanor serve to highlight and reinforce Ichiro’s image of a very
angry young man.
Secondly, the authors use the foil characters to highlight the fears of Danny and Ichiro. In
American Born Chinese this scene appears:
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Danny’s fear is that his classmates see him as the Chinese stereotype that Chin-Kee represents.
Although he does not appear in this scene, his presence is felt through the use of the rolling
laughter at the bottom as if it was a television sitcom. Buck teeth is one of Chin-Kee’s many
Chinese stereotypes. By pointing it out, Melanie inadvertently triggers Danny’s fear of being
thought of as Chinese and not white All-American. As soon as she does, he uses his hand to hide
his teeth as if he could hide the part of himself that he hates. Even as she turns around and can no
longer see him, he still has his mouth covered as the rolling laughter at the bottom of each panel
stops signifying that the Chinese caricature has stopped and his own fears have begun. Danny’s
fear of being reduced to a Chinese stereotype needs the phsyical manifestation of that fear, in the
form of Chin-Kee, to be fully showcased.
In No-No Boy, Ichiro fears that Kenji has the better deal:
I’ll change with you, Kenji, he thought. Give me the stump which gives you the right to
hold your head high. Give me the eleven inches which are beginning to hurt again and
bring ever closer the fear of approaching death, and give me with it the fulness of
yourself which is also yours because you were man enough to wish the thing which
destroyed your leg and, perhaps, you with it but, at the same time, made it so that you can
put your one good foot in the dirt of America and know that the wet coolness of it is
yours beyond a single doubt. (64)
While Kenji has literally lost a part of himself, Ichiro feels as if he has figuratively lost a part of
himself. Ichiro feels that by refusing to be “man enough to wish the thing which destroyed your
leg.”, by refusing to goto war for his country. He has foresworn his right to be American to
“know that the wet coolness of it is yours.” Kenji’s stump is a symbol for his ownership of
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America. Even though Kenji has lost a body part and is no longer whole, Kenji is more of an
American than Ichiro and therefor more whole than Ichiro. And even though Kenji will die soon,
Ichiro feels as he has the better deal because Kenji will be dying for America. And Ichiro feels as
if he no longer has a right to America. Ichiro’s sense of mental incompleteness needs Kenji’s
physical incompleteness to be fully showcased.
Finally, the authors use the foil characters to show how the main characters feel as if they
do not belong and are not worthy of being in their school and country respectively. In American
Born Chinese, Chin-Kee fulfills the model minority myth of a dedicated student who knows all
of the answers:
The rolling laughter at the bottom is only in the two panels with Chin-Kee and Danny signifying
the stereotypical sitcom nature of their events compared to the real life nature of the teachers
asking their class a question. Furthermore, Chin-Kee is content with himself. Every panel shows
him with his hand raised in exactly the same pose with the exact same look of glee. In opposition
to Danny who is shown to be more and more distressed with embarrassment. However, it is not
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Chin-Kee that he is embarrassed of, but rather the idea that his classmates will see him as the
stereotype that Chin-Kee represents. He has gone to new school after new school with the
intention of distancing himself from the image of this Chinese stereotype that he fears. It is only
through their differences that Danny becomes a full character.
In No-No Boy, Ichiro struggles with his sense of belonging in America while Kenji is
fully American:
So they sat silently through the next drink, one already dead but still alive and
contemplating fifty or sixty years more of dead aliveness, and the other, living and dying
slowly. They were two extremes, the Japanese who was more American than most
Americans because he had crept to the brink of death for America, and the other who was
neither Japanese nor American because he had failed to recognize the gift of his birthright
when recognition meant everything. (73)
Ichiro, throughout the story, feels as if his choice made him less American. But he also does not
feel Japanese. He was fully raised in America, so he is American, but because he answered NoNo, he feels as if he can not make the claim. He feels as if he is already dead. But he is
physically healthy, and he is not dying. His feelings are contrasted sharply with Kenji. Kenji is
literally dying. Kenji said yes-yes. Kenji is fully American and because of his choice, he seems
to be more American than other Americans. Kenji’s experience is essential to understanding
Ichiro’s experience. It is only through the idea of what could have been that Ichiro’s experience
is able to come fully alive.
Although Danny and Ichiro are almost complete characters without their foils, it is
through the use of their foils that they come alive. It is through the use of the foils that the
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authors are able to employ the basic creative writing technique of “Show, don’t tell.” By showing
the reader the opposite of who the main characters are, the author of these two books is able to
fully flesh out the main characters without seeming heavy handed. It is only because of Chin-Kee
and Kenji that the reader is able to fully sympathize with the main characters and their struggle
with personal identity.
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Works Cited
Okada, John. No-No Boy. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979. Print
Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese. New York: Square Fish, 2006. Print