Michael Foster is an well-liked, ambitious young newspaperman in Morley Callaghan’s short story, “Two Fishermen,”. He is the only reporter for the paper in his small town, and wants to move on to bigger things. He wants to, “get a reporter job on a city paper” (Callaghan 1). Michael shows a decent level of sophistication and education through his speech and ambition in his career. He is respected throughout the town due to his profession and education, as people refer to him as, “a smart young fellow” (Callaghan 1). He is tall and long legged, and carries a presence in every room he enters. He lives in a small, well-knit town where big events do not happen without everybody knowing about it. This makes Michael care deeply about his reputation with the townspeople. He fears that the people in the town will associate him with Smitty, and the prejudice that Smitty carries. He went as far as getting off the fishing boat at a different time than Smitty because, “he didn’t want to be seen walking back to town with [Smitty]” (Callaghan 5). Michael cares so much about his reputation that it puts him in an uncomfortable position with Smitty and the towns people, as he must decide which relationship matters to him more. Michael feels guilty when he pretends not to know Smitty, but he doesn’t do anything about it. Michael is an ambitious and smart young man, but he must decide where his loyalties lie in order to deal with his inner guilt.