Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Time

Stick with us on this one. We could say that one character is an antagonist, since there are certainly characters that stand in Sam's way throughout the book. However, we think it's more accurate to say that time is the real antagonist here. Sam is constantly duking it out with time. He wants more time as a carefree kid, time to go to college and do the stuff he wants, but alas, the clock is ticking as soon as Alicia becomes pregnant. And it isn't going to stop, so Sam can either hustle through growing-up or fail to be the father Rufus deserves.