Brian Leung showcases a childhood friendship between two boys in the short story, “Executing Dexter”. Grant and Herschel are character foils and this is exposed when Hershel has an epiphany that brings the boys together. The two boys meet in the fourth grade and at this age, they start to analyze and make sense of the world around them. They both attempt to escape their horrid domestic lives by creating “babies” with household items and murdering them. The “murder” is the only outlet for pain that they have and what’s significant about it is, they do it together. During these acts, Grant poses some deep, philosophical questions such as, “How do we even know if we’re people yet?” (Page 29). Death usually signifies the end of something but for the boys, the killing off of the negative circumstances around them, gives birth to the possibility of change. Herschel and Grant are both outcasts but in different ways. Hershel is one of the only Black students in their class and Grant is extremely tall, awkward and is made fun of for his clothes and his female love interests. It is their inability to fit in that allows them to stand out together.

Hershel and Grant serve as foils in that they are opposites yet they invite so much comparison. Hershel is Black and Grant is white. Grant’s mother was pregnant and seeking more children while Hershel’s mother was opposed to having more than one child. Hershel’s father is judgmental and critical. Leung writes, “My father had a way of making me feel that I didn’t have a clue as to what was valuable in life,” (Page 27). This is very different from Grant’s experience with his step dad, “I saw Dude with some lady,” (Page 30). Hershel envies Grant because of the seemingly care-free and lax parenting style of Grant’s stepdad Dude. Herschel doesn’t realize that Dude’s relaxed attitude is representative of his lack of care for Grant’s mother and their family. Herschel has an epiphany when Grant tells him that he’s lucky to have a good father. Hershel is shocked and he states, “I’ve never heard anyone say that. But somehow I understood why he would. My dad gave me hardly any freedom and Grant had all he wanted, and it didn’t make him any happier,” (Page 30). He realizes that Grant is actually suffering just as much as he is. While murdering baby Dexter, Hershel says, “He was real because with each pull of the line connecting us to him we felt we were saving ourselves,” (Page 34).  In the end, its Hershel’s epiphany that brings them that much closer. It is clear that they are united in the death of their fight to break free from the oppressive forces in their lives.