Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson

Winesburg, Ohio: Foil 1 key example

21. The Untold Lie
Explanation and Analysis—Hal and Ray:

In "The Untold Lie," Ray and Hal work on a farm outside Winesburg. The two characters function as foils to each other: while they have the same job, they have very different approaches to their work and their lives. Ray is a reserved family man and Hal is a risk-taking, brash young man. As Anderson describes Ray:

Ray was a quiet, rather nervous man of perhaps fifty with a brown beard and shoulders rounded by too much and too hard labor. In his nature he was as unlike Hal Winters as two men can be unlike.

Ray was an altogether serious man and had a little sharp-featured wife who had also a sharp voice. The two, with half a dozen thin-legged children, lived in a tumble-down frame house beside a creek at the back end of the Wills farm where Ray was employed.