What do you think is the definining moment for the main character/person in your book? Why?

G00d Omens doesn't really have one main character, but for the purposes of this blog I will pick Adam, the Antichrist, to be our protagonist. His defining moment is easily spotted. It happens at the end of the book, and also the end of the world. He is speaking to his gang of children, the Them, about what will happen after the Rapture. At this moment his destiny is overtaking his personality, and he doesn't really know what is coming over him. He has a plan to rebuild the world after the Apocalypse, since all of the grown ups have messed everything up. He plans to give each of his friends a corner of the world, while he himself just wants Tadfield, the small village they live in.

"'But I'll have Tadfield,' said Adam.

They stared at him.

'An', an' Lower Tadfield, and Norton, and Norton Woods--'

They still stared.

Adam's gaze dragged itself across their faces.

'They're all I've ever wanted,' he said.

They shook their heads.

'I can have 'em if I want,' said Adam, his voice tinged with sullen defiance and his defiance edged with sudden doubt. 'I can make them better, too. Better trees to climb, better ponds, better . . .'

He stopped, his ears listening in horror to the words his mouth was speaking. THe Them were backing away.

Dog put his paws over his head.

Adam's face looked like an impersonation of the collapse of empire.

'No,' he said hoarsely. 'No. Come back! I command you!'

They froze in mid-dash. . . .

Adam opened his mouth and screamed. It was a sound that a merely mortal throat should not have been able to utter; it wound out of the quarry, mingled with the storm, caused the clouds to curdle into new and unpleasant shapes. . . .

It spoke of loss, and it did not stop for a very long time.

And then it did.

Something drained away.

Adam's head tilted down again. His eyes opened.

Whatever had been standing in the old quarry before, Adam Young was standing there now. A more knowledgeable Adam Young, but Adam Young nevertheless. Possibly more of Adam Young than there had ever been before. . . . 'It's all right,' said Adam quietly. 'Pepper? Wensley? Brian? Come back here. It's all right. It's all right. I know everything now. And you've got to help me. Otherwise it's all goin' to happen. It's really all goin' to happen. It's all goin' to happen, if we don't do somethin'.'"

I might be completely misinterpreting this passage, but I think that Adam overcomes his fate. Since his birth he was destined to bring about Armageddon, and now he realizes that that isn't who he wants to be, so he has to be stronger than himself in order to do what is right and good and not what he was meant to do.