Point of View

The point of view in Patsy is third-person, told through a following of the lives of Patsy and Tru. The novel alternates between Patsy's experiences and Tru's experiences, often drawing parallels and similarities between what each person is doing in their separate lives. By living through the experiences of each person, the reader is privy to the particularities and perspectives of each, and gains an understanding of why each person takes actions that may seem inexplicable to others.

From the beginning of the book, Patsy's point of view comes from a conflicted place where she feels inadequate and undeserving on the one hand, but also entitled to be able to develop herself into the person she wants to be. She is deeply self-conscious, particularly about the way she looks, and spends a great deal of time agonizing about her weight, hair and clothes. She recognizes...