Tom is a romanticist, thru and thru. Let's check out the definition of romantic from Merriam Webster: 1. consisting or resembling a romance. 2. having no basis in fact: imaginary 3. impractical in conception or plan: visionary 4. a) marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, mysterious, or idealized. There's more, but that is word or word what's found in the dictionary with my emphasis on certain words. With regards to the relationship between Tom and Summer, Tom sees something idealized in her. Rather than the stereotypical fireworks symbolizing sex, Tom envisions a day in the life of a flash mob. On the flip side, when things are on the low, we get another expressive bit with the split screen of reality vs. expectations, the latter being a romanticized sense of self that creates the gap sending him into the abyss. All of these go back to the concept of Tom being blinded by love, his romantic sensibilities causing him to form an idealized sense of a relationship that doesn't exist other than within his own perspective and head. Conversely, Summer is almost always kept hidden from an objective viewpoint because it's important for the audience to experience her through Tom's eyes. As such, she feels somewhat distancing on purpose as we're not really allowed to get to know her outside of "the realm of Tom". Case in point, when she first shows up in the office, what we learn from her is subjective through a third character who paints a negative portrait. Tom adapts this view from his co-worker, only to formulate his own opinion upon meeting her in the elevator - an opinion colored by his own perceptions and taste in music (it's conceivable to say the story would have been 10 minutes long had she said "are you listening to The Smiths? They should be called The Sucks". While they might have enjoyed a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" moment, it proves to be superficial because at her core, Summer is diametrically opposite of Tom's beliefs: he's the romanticist, she's the skeptic who doesn't believe in love so it's a bit of a twist that she's eventually the one who ends up getting married... and fairly damn quick, too I might add (what's up with THAT?).

TBBB, excellent analysis. Springboarding from your take, while everything may seem to point to Summer being an Attractor character [most associated with the Protagonist's emotional development], I prefer to look at Summer as a Trickster. Why? * One of the defining qualities of a Trickster is they are a shapeshifter: Ally, Enemy, Enemy, Ally. If we track Summer's relationship with Tom, both at the macro and micro level, we see her shifting all over the place, to the point where even Tom's perception of her shifts. * Another defining quality of a Trickster is they test the Protagonist. Again from macro to micro, Summer provides challenges throughout. Her theme song seems to be 'uncertainty' insofar as Tom is concerned. * Another defining quality of a Trickster is they tend to have a mind of their own. Sometimes this can express itself as Ego, sometimes as Id, but they generally in touch with what they want, and they go for it. This is one of the primary reasons why they shift from enemy to ally, back and forth. If their wants and needs align with the Protagonist, they are an ally. If not, they can become an enemy. Summer is clearly much more settled [or at least thinks she is] in her attitudes and desires than Tom who has, as a result of looking at life through highly romanticized lenses, is stuck in a diffuse state of being. For example on P. 16, Summer explains how she came to move to LA: "Got tired of what I was doing, who I was with. Figured I'd try something new, exciting." Easy as that. Meanwhile Tom has been working a job he doesn't really like ignoring his own need for expression [symbolized by architecture] for years. Perhaps the finest example of Summer as a Trickster is the fact that it is she who -- shockingly -- falls in love albeit with some other guy. In other words, she did what Tom so desperately wanted her to do... but not with him. So in sum, I look at Summer as a Trickster.

Summer is definitively the trickster. The other are harder to identify because they aren't actually people, but are part of Tom's personality. The attractor here is Tom's romanticized view of Love that he forces onto his relationship with Summer. Tom wants his relationship to be perfect/more than it really is. He doesn't really want to have a relationship with Summer, he wants to have a perfect relationship with the perfect girl. He just thinks it's Summer. The nemesis is Tom's own blinders to reality. His goal is to be in that perfect relationship. What's keeping him from that goal is his refusal to see that it's not going to happen with Summer. The mentor characters are pretty much everyone else. His sister, his boss, and his friends try to get him to acknowledge his flawed outlook on love and life.

Ryan, you and I are very much in sync. When I get some time tonight or tomorrow, I'll follow up, but there is Summer. Then there is Tom's PERCEPTION of Summer. Then there is the root cause of Tom's perception of Summer: HIS FANTASY VIEW OF LIFE. Granted it's a more psychological interpretation, but I think it works.