Foil

Character Role Analysis

Shiva and Saleem

Nose and knees, knees and nose. Shiva and Saleem are obvious foils, but not because one is violent and the other is peaceful. Let's remember that Saleem caused the death of many people with his revenge plot. No, it's because through Shiva and Saleem we get to see two socioeconomic groups and two views of reality. Saleem, rich and educated, thinks that life must have a purpose. Shiva, poor and uneducated, knows that life has no purpose. This idea scares Saleem down to his tiniest nose hairs, so we don't get to hear much more of Shiva's philosophical musings. Even though we don't hear much from him, Saleem never lets us forget that he's out there, so we never forget that he's totally different from Saleem just because of a freak random event.