Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and The Edible Woman by Margaret AtwoodThe adolescent years are often associated with turbulence, illusion,and self-discovery; however, Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim and MargaretAtwood’s The Edible Woman demonstrate that more often than not, thetwenties possess these qualities to a greater extent thanadolescence. The age period of the twenties often consists ofrelationships, employment and self issues and using the premise ofthese uncertain times, Amis and Atwood effectively satire varioussocietal systems. Moreover, Amis and Atwood both implement the use ofthe foil, a character who, by contrast with another character,accentuates that character’s distinctive characteristics. Inparticular, each author uses the protagonist’s two love interests asfoils to each other not only for the purpose of character contrast,but also, to further the development of each novel. {Thus, – omit?}Amis and Atwood use Margaret and Christine, and Peter and Duncan,respectively as foils to each other to fully develop and promote thegrowth of their respective protagonists, Jim and Marian; to developprevailing themes in each novel; and to illustrate the escape of theprotagonist from the trappings of a system.
Amis and Atwood both use the love interests of the protagonist asfoils to facilitate the development and maturation of Jim and Marianrespectively. In fact, both protagonists have opposing outward andinward attributes which finally merge towards the end of the novel tosignify the maturation of the protagonist. In Lucky Jim, Amisportrays Jim’s outward characteristics as meek and appeasing towardsantagonist individuals; however, Amis illustrates Jim’s inwardcharacter as comical a…
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…ance of their relationshipwith their respective pairs of suitors.
The use of foils in regards to the suitors of the respectiveprotagonists in Lucky Jim and The Edible Woman effectively promotesthe character development and maturation of the protagonists, Jim andMarian; develops different themes in each novel; and demonstrates thestruggle and final flight of the protagonist from a restrictingsystem. Consequently, the stylistic device of a foil can not only beused to emphasize differences between characters, but it can also beused to further the development of outside characters, themes, symbolsand more. As a result, one could argue that Amis and Atwood’s use ofthe foil has resulted in the foil overcoming the restrictions that thewriting system imposed upon it for its original use and instead, hasdeveloped into a multipurpose writing device.
