A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Foil 1 key example

Miss Briggs and Miss Bernstone are foils for one another, both in personality and in the way they treat their less fortunate pupils. While Miss Briggs treats her poor students like the scum of the earth, Miss Bernstone treats them like fellow human beings, taking the time to sketch even the poorest among them with dignity. Note the following passage from Chapter 21, in which the narrator explains Francie's affinity with Miss Bernstone:

On a rainy day, [Miss Bernstone] wouldn't give a lesson. She'd take a block of paper and a stick of charcoal and sketch the poorest, meanest kid in the room. And when the picture was finished, you didn't see the dirt or the meanness; you saw the glory of innocence and the poignancy of a baby growing up too soon.

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