Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant: Cody As a Foil Character Anonymous 12th Grade

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant follows the lives of each member of the Tull family, the mother and her three kids. The story begins and ends with the mother’s death, while the middle of the novel recounts the lives of each of the family members, following the children from early childhood to their individual adult lives. Each of the children has a distinct personality, and the family often has difficulty getting along. Two of the children especially clash with one another in many regards, Ezra and Cody, who are the oldest two. A foil character has characteristics that greatly contrast those of another character in a book. Through this contrast, the other character’s differing traits are emphasized, so that, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Cody serves as a foil character for Ezra.

Cody comes across as a pretty flat character. His recurring defining quality is his rigid and bitter personality. His mother, Pearl, always refers to him as the troublesome defiant child, and this trait follows him into his adulthood. Since childhood, Cody has perceived Ezra as the favorite child. This makes Cody very jealous of Ezra, and as a result, out of spite and annoyance, he is mean to Ezra and tries his best to shut out both Peal and...