Tommy boy

Identify the protagonist. Are there any foil characters?

The protagonist of this story is Tom, which he notifies the audience of immediately when he says that he is "the narrator and a character in the play". Tom is a character who seems to be unhappy with where he is in life and craves the chance to pursue adventure. Because of this reason, he goes to the movies every night and watches them for their adventures. He speaks of how he is like is his father and dreams of leaving his family to live his life freely. As for foil characters, I don't think that Amanda and Laura can be considered ones. Through their interactions, they don't really represent characters who bring out opposite qualities in one another, but more accurately represent a complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. Amanda wants what's best for her children, but has an odd way of showing it. Despite moments of nurturing, like when she encourages Tom to put cream in his coffee, she is slightly crazy and has an odd way of taking care of her children. Her obsession with finding Laura a suitor, for instance, would be an example of this. Laura is a girl who lacks confidence and is incredibly shy. She is crippled and has a glass collection of animals that she plays with on a daily basis. It is evident that she somewhat fears her mother and tries with difficulty to please her. It almost makes the audience pity her and how she feels the need to pretend to be something she's not for Amanda's approval. An example of this would be when she gets dismissed from business school and is too frightened to tell her mother so she leaves the house and merely pretends to go there everyday. Instead, she is walking around the city for 8 hours a day before returning home to maintain the facade that she is going there.