Finny is one of the many antagonists who slow Gene's maturing process down by making all of Gene's decisions for him. First, Finny pressures Gene to climb up a tree and jump into a river. "What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into things like this?" (Pg. 9) Gene is obviously too shy and won't speak up for himself. It's hard for him to mature and become his own person, because part of being mature is making your own decisions. Then Finny makes Gene get involved with athletics, which takes time away from Gene's schoolwork, and doesn't allow him to mature by

doing what he already excelled at. Finny also affects Gene's decision to enlist in the army during World War II. When Finny found out about Gene wanting to join the war effort he wasn't supportive of Gene's decision to enlist. That slowed down Gene's maturing because in order to mature you can't back down on your decisions just to please another person.

Gene confronts several different antagonists, which affect him as he tries to mature. Three of the major antagonists Finny, the war, and Gene's own inner issues affect how fast he is able to go through this process. Part of life and growing up is finding out whom you are and what your morals are. You develop these things as you mature and antagonists slow down this process, as they did for Gene.

The war acts as an antagonistic force toward Gene because it forces him to mature too fast. When Gene's friend, Leper is recruited from Devon, Gene realizes that the

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Approximate Word count = 619
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)