The strong moral sense Easy displays is unusual for the sort of childhood he has endured, and it signals a keen intelligence at work. Easy seems to have been content to let his remarkable potential remain undeveloped until Mouse and Pariah tax his introspective mental energies. In this novel constructed with characters who are quite unique, Easy is the most striking for his thoughtful interpretations of people and events, and for the changes he undergoes. Easy begins as a semiliterate, naive, rather aimless, and friendly youth. He ends as an adult whose tender concern for truth and justice is reworked to fit life as it really is, especially life as survival under the cruel conditions of white racist oppression. The potential in Easy is enhanced by contrast with seventeen-year-old fugitive Clifton, who is honest but foolish.

The important agent in Easy's change is Mouse, who is cold-blooded, violent...