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The maturing fifteen-year-old Franky Pierson is living, on the surface, a very

normal and fun life. The book opens with her attending a college party at the age of

fourteen where she¶s ditched at meets a college boy named Cameron who she bonds with.

He tries to persuade her to have sex, but she refuses. He almost rapes her, but she

manages to get away. He calls her crazy; he says she has Freaky Green [Link] runs

home afterwards and tells no one about it.

Franky, only called Francesca by her mother Krista, knows that her famous

sportscaster father Reid Pierson has a bad temper. She knows that her mother is sick of

being Mrs. Reid Pierson and isuncomfortable around her husband¶s famous friends and

hates attending gatherings and celebrations with them. She goes to support Reid, and also

because he demands her to. Franky also knows that her parents do not get along and that

sometimes violence erupts. Franky's mother starts to spend time away from the family,

little by little, building a new life around her work as an artist. He seems resentful that his

wife is trying to separate herself from the family circle, when he travels and is gone

constantly with his [Link] Krista moves into a cabin she owns and only visits a few

days a week, Franky thinks they just need their own space for a little while. It makes

Franky angry too. Franky's little sister, Sam, obviously feels that way too.

It takes a while before Franky even begins to consider the reasons why her mother

might be choosing to live alone. And when she does start to think about it, she doesn't
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like to delve too deeply into her own memories. As things seem to get worse, however,

and her father's behavior becomes more ? ??ly frightening, she begins to get a clue.

Franky's alter ego, Freaky Green Eyes, is a tough personality that acts as her inner

strength and alter ego that saves her from dangerous and difficult situations and is now

needed more and more often at home. Franky seems to have two voices inside her head,

offering two interpretations for every event.

When her mother disappears, Franky does not want to know what happened. But

the truth always seems to have a way of getting out. It's fairly obvious early on in the

book what's going to happen and who will be to blame for it. While Franky's denial of her

terrible home life is realistic, it goes on for far too long for the patience of readers. The

message about domestic violence is diluted in the run-on story telling. The dragging on

can be somewhat understandable as it is written similar to a diary of Franky¶s, where she

is noting and documenting events that affect her personally, not necessarily an audience,

even though it is STILL a book. And in reading it, I wish I had skipped the first chapter

completely. It served no further purpose to the story at all except for giving applying a

reason or link to the strange book¶ title.

Analysis:

The main character conflict is between the father and mother. They argue more

than normal early in the book, and as problems progress, so does the intensity of the

fights. For example, very early in the book, Reid yells about how she¶s not there to

celebrate his god news of getting a great sports-caster job with the family. Obvious signs

of a serious issue between the parents are there the entire time and continues throughout
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the book. Sub-conflicts include each parent¶s side of the family, work, family life, social

life, and personal time.

Another conflict is with Franky and her mother. Most of the time, everyone

blames the mother of the problems in the family. Reid constantly brings up ³don¶t¶ you

like our lifestyle,´ to Krista to make it seem like she¶s keeping him from succeeding.

Franky doesn¶t want to, but does agree with him. In May when Franky and Sam hear the

two fighting in their bedroom, Franky tells Sam, ³Ask Mom, then. Ask Mom about it.

She¶s causing all this.´ When the mother leaves she becomes even more upset with her.

To her, the mother seems to be splitting up the family for no apparent reason, and Franky

wants her mother back at home, where she's always been.

Another conflict is between Franky and her twenty-year old brother Todd. They

never really connected and he always takes the dad¶s side immediately whenever there is

an argument.

Although she is upset with her mother, a Franky V. Dad V. Mom divergence is

still present. The night the mother goes to Santa Barbra for an arts and crafts convention,

the father mocks the mother¶s voice. Todd laughs immediately, but Franky keeps a stone

face. She didn¶t want to laugh because she felt like she would be betraying her mother.

But she didn¶t want to make her father seem like she didn¶t like his sense of humor

because she truly did.

The symbolism is very spoon-fed to the readers. Little to no decoding is even

necessary. Ô? ??

personality that she reaches to when she needs vigor and confidence, even if Freaky¶s

ideas are never expressed vocally. Most of the time she trusts that Reid tells her the truth.
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But that's where Freaky comes in. She tries to make Franky see the truth beyond Reid's

lies, even though its not something Franky wants to believe. For example, when Reid

tells Franky Krista will come back and Franky wants to believe him, Freaky tells her,

"You know your mother is gone. You know she isn't coming back. Freaky knows.´ Deep

down, Franky knows her father had something to do with her mother's disappearance and

that Krista was not coming back, but she didn't want to believe it. Freaky was trying to

help Franky accept the truth.

Freaky was not only a guide to help Franky seek the truth, but she was also the

source of Franky's ethics. During Franky's trip for the Fourth of July, she meets the boys

who had been taking animals out of a wildlife refuge and placing them in cages on their

property. They were under-feeding the animals and treating them poorly, so Franky does

what's right, saying it was out of "Freaky Green Eyes rush" and tells the authorities.

The main themes are trust your instincts, which Franky learns to do as Freaky

Green Eyes, and domestic violence. I¶m not sure if that¶s a theme, though.

In the beginning of the story, it seems as though the setting is important to the

story. She describes how her family is at a fancy party in a really nice, really rich

neighborhood and how they don¶t live in that community. But they live in Washington

State and other than explaining Franky¶s lifestyle and social status, setting plays no

further role. One could delve for a metaphor that gloomy Washington weather is a

symbol for the gloomy events in her life. One night while the parents were fighting, se

pretended that it was just the thunderstorm outside. Nevertheless as I said earlier, most of

the symbolism and metaphors are obvious and given to the reader and this would seem

like a stretch.
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I disliked this book. People who like to read depressing books that have obvious

plots and endings can read this. I prefer not to be spoon-fed my literature, though. It¶s

written very well and I can see how this book won awards, but I would not recommend it

to anyone I know. On a scale of one to ten, I would hand this book an easy six. If the

writing and base-plot wasn¶t interesting, this book would be a lump of predictable pages.

Joyce Carol Oats should try putting her writing skills somewhere where her brittle

creativity wouldn¶t injure her writing competence.