A Separate Peace: Antagonists and Gene We all confront antagonists in everyday life. In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Gene, the protagonist confronts several different antagonists as he tries to mature throughout the book. The antagonists Finny, the war, and Gene’s own inner issues affect how fast he is able to start this process of maturing. All of them developing him as a person. Finny is one of the many antagonists who shows Gene’s maturing process down by making all of Gene’s decisions for him. First, Finny pressures Gene to climb up in a tree and jump into a river. “What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny tal