Finnerty and Anita represent opposing viewpoints. Whereas Finnerty is tired of the corporate world, Anita obsesses over the prospect of upward mobility, wanting Paul to do whatever it takes to advance his career. This means that Finnerty and Anita pull Paul in different directions—Finnerty tries to get him to renounce the boring, strait-laced lifestyle of an important manager, and Anita tries to get him to
embrace this lifestyle. He is therefore caught in the middle—a perfect representation of his overall passive nature and his ambivalence toward both the corporate world and the idea of leaving that world behind.