As one of the novel’s main supporting characters, Thomas Effing functions as a mentor for Fogg in the absence of Uncle Victor. By telling Fogg the story of his life and explaining how he changed his identity, Effing provides Fogg with the framework for the reinvention that he undergoes at the end of the novel.

Born Julian Barber, Effing is a consummate unreliable narrator. As the magazine editor tells Fogg after Effing’s death in Chapter 6, there is no concrete evidence that any of Effing’s story is true, including his assertion that he and Barber are the same person. Fogg even acknowledges this issue in Chapter 5 when he comments that Effing’s story feels too outlandish to be true, but even so, he accepts the man’s tale at face value because it resonates with his own experiences. This dynamic suggests that Fogg finds meaning in Effing’s story because its details evoke deep emotional truths that transcend the question of its historical reliability. In this context, the truth behind Effing’s claim that he is the father of Solomon Barber is also deeply ambiguous. Fogg only accepts this assertion as true because he chooses to accept Effing’s story. Similarly, Solomon accepts the claim because it resonates with his experience of losing his father at an early age. Like Fogg, Solomon is drawn to the emotional truth that Effing’s story invokes.

During the time that Fogg spends with him, Effing is depicted as an ill-tempered, wealthy man whose misbehavior comes from a place of mistrust and paranoia. Even when Fogg gains Effing’s trust, Effing doesn’t hesitate to accuse him of planning to steal from Effing’s wealth. He later comes to regret this outburst, underscoring the personal weakness that his irascible behavior is designed to hide. In fact, the more Fogg gets to know Effing, the more he understands the man’s vulnerability and sensitivity. Fogg learns, for instance, that Effing previously had another male companion, Pavel Shum. Fogg always speaks affectionately of Shum, which sets a precedent for Fogg to earn his way into his employer’s good graces over time. Fogg also uses the last days of his life to destroy the identity he has built for himself, redistributing the wealth he claimed to have stolen outlaws and making himself sick in order to accelerate his own death.

Fogg’s loyalty to Effing points to the deep influence that the older man has on him, which Effing validates when he shows his concern toward Fogg while on his deathbed. As he tells Fogg, “You need someone to look after you, to make sure you have food in your belly and a bit of cash in your pocket. Once I’m gone, you’ll be right back where you started” (216). In this sense, Effing functions as a surrogate for Fogg’s absent father, succeeding Victor in this role.

Solomon Barber is another major supporting character who functions as a foil for Fogg. In Chapter 6, the novel reveals that Solomon is Fogg’s father, though Fogg-as-protagonist does not find this out for himself until Chapter 7. The preemptive exposition of Solomon’s identity is necessary to establish his function in the narrative, inviting comparisons between Fogg and Solomon as Solomon’s backstory is revealed.

The most important aspect of Solomon’s backstory is the fact that he and Fogg grew up in similar circumstances. Like Fogg, Solomon was raised by relatives after his father disappeared and was presumed dead; his mother experienced a mental health crisis that eventually caused her to move to a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. However, the divergence between Fogg and Solomon occurs in how they respond to their family circumstances. Whereas Fogg builds his identity around his family life, Solomon uses his intellect to confront the impact that his family life has had on his personal identity, and he ultimately distances himself from it. Kepler’s Blood, the novel that Solomon writes as a young man, allows him to vent his feelings about the absence of his father, conveying his paradoxical grief over the loss of his father and his anger over the possibility that his father could still be alive.

Solomon is characterized by his large size, though the novel makes a distinction between his size at birth and the obesity that he experiences for most of his life. It is revealed at one point that Solomon’s mother experienced her mental health crisis while in labor, believing that Solomon was trying to kill her with his size. This origin story cemented the conviction that Solomon’s mother rejected him because of his natural qualities. In response, Solomon embraced his large size, intensifying the severity of his obesity to transform his girth into a source of personal strength. In contrast to Effing, who reinvents himself by rejecting his material circumstances, Solomon radically accepts the realities of his life, and this approach offers Fogg an alternate way of living. Fogg comes to see Solomon as one of his closest friends, though he also admittedly views the man with pity after learning that Emily’s retreat from Ohio denied Solomon his right to parenthood.