protaaaaaaaaaagonist!

for some reason I wanted to type Antigone, but that's not related at all to the task at hand.

this fellow Nick is the protagonist. this surprises me some. I expected there to be some mention of the title character beyond

"Or, rather, as I didn't know Mr. Gatsby..."

but nope. Mostly Nick thinking. and talking. but, since he's the narrator as well, that's to be expected. looks like Nick's the one that's going to be going through things and introducing us to people. so anything he sees, we see. and not much else. he's calling the shots here. he's the head honcho of what the reader knows. it looks like we're going to be moving right along with what he does. could call for some bias along the road, but I'm not seeing any so far.

I'm anxiously awaiting the start of House

blogs are a good filler, right?

so now, to analyze protagonists, antagonists, foils, ect. yay!

I'm thinking that Willy and Biff are definitely foils. I mean, they bicker all the time. no wait, they're cool and Willy is supporti- oh, wait, nope. they're arguing again. I can't really tell who THE protagonist is... I mean, it's about Willy. and Biff plays a big role in Willy's actions, but Linda is ALWAYS there... if I had to pick one, it'd be Willy. Biff is definitely an antagonist, but whatever mental issue Willy has serves as an antagonist of its own. Happy kinda mellows things out (imagine that!). The rest of the characters just kinda float in and out (literally for some, I think [Ben?]). I think Linda and Happy serve as foils for Willy and Biff, respectively. like I said, I'm still pretty confused by the whole thing.

Hey, there, Mr. Light Bulb!

hahaha, that line makes me laugh.

I'm gonna answer question 3 in this post.
protagonists, antagonists, foils, blahblahblahblahblah - I mean... YAAAY!
okay, but really.

protagonist is Amanda. straight up. she drives the story. she's the one that's making things happen. the mover, shaker, producer, etc... without her, the story would be going even less nowhere. (even more nowhere?) so she's the main character.
antagonists then would be Tom and Laura. mostly because, well, they're the other two. they're important to the story, and they motivate a lot of Amanda's behavior. I would also put the father in as an antagonist since multiple times (especially when talking about courting) Amanda refers to him, which introduces a revival of a glory-day memory for Amanda.

they're all foils of each other as well, I think.
Tom is a go-getter. he wants to make things better for himself - Laura is pretty content with falling through the cracks - Amanda wants the best for her children and tries to motivate them (maybe too strongly) to do what SHE thinks they should be doing.
Jim foils all three of them as well because he seems to be very socially adept and friendly, while the others tend to err on the side of awkward and too forthright/quiet.

the values speech, an-/pro- tagonists - TSAR

Brett wants to know all about values. mostly, I think, how people manage to maintain theirs.

"Doesn't anything ever happen to your values?"
"No. Not any more."
"Never fall in love?"
"Always, I'm always in love."
"What does that do to your values?"
"That, too, has got a place in my values."
"You haven't got any values. You're dead, that's all."
"No, my dear. You're not right. I'm not dead at all."

p. 67, 8

how true is this? everything, when properly monitored has place in life. being in love is not an inherent threat, but being recklessly amorous can be. eating icecream is not inherently unhealthy, but eating a pint every day can be.

I'm starting to nail down my people now.
I'm seeing Jake as the protagonist and Brett as an antagonist, but I'm not sure if she's the only one yet.