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Brom enters the story as Ichabod’s foil, his opposite in both physical appearance and personality. Where Ichabod is skinny and disdainful of rigorous farm labor, Brom is known for his strength and his prowess as a horseman. Where Ichabod takes himself very seriously, Brom is a practical joker. Brom is a local and regarded fondly in town, while Ichabod is an interloper who is a financial burden to the town’s simple farmers. Ichabod is educated and views himself as refined, while Brom is likely a farmer and therefore rough around the edges. Brom’s choice to resort to playing pranks on Ichabod could be interpreted as crude bullying. However, presented alongside Ichabod’s misguided self-perception as intellectually superior, Brom’s pranks challenge the assumption that a person must be educated to be clever. Brom’s character traits are also juxtaposed with Ichabod’s as the two men vie for Katrina’s hand in marriage. Brom, for all his brutishness, courts Katrina in a socially appropriate way. By contrast, Ichabod’s attempt to corner Katrina on her own and without parental supervision puts her reputation in jeopardy. At the very end of the tale, the narrator provides three lessons, all squarely aimed at chastising Ichabod Crane. Thus, the juxtaposition between the two men provides the lesson, wherein Ichabod is judged a fool and Brom is presented as exemplar.

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