Realistic Teenage Characters Danielle Evans writes short stories based mostly on female characters and the dilemmas they face in their fictional lives. Evans describes her characters as having dysfunctional lives; because of the author’s obsession with the abundant directions she may lead her characters including the depth in which the characters emotions can be taken as well (Young). Evans’ collection of short stories Before you Suffocate Your Own Fool includes the short story “Robert E. Lee Is Dead”, which relates to the inner turmoil felt by teenagers in reality through the dysfunction of teenage characters’ lives, such as feelings of solitude and uncertainty of the future past a conventional high school education. The unclear visions of life after high school and the urgency to have memorable experiences often lead to reckless actions within teenagers’ lives. Evans creates a friendship between Geena and Crystal that captures the impulsive decisions and emotional mindsets of youth, creating a convincing pair of teenage characters who lead readers to empathize with their decisions, causing readers …show more content…
Films and television see-saw between two extremes: mean girl-fests and bestie love-fests…The result is a steady diet of what I call “friendship myths”: find a best friend, and keep her forever. A good friendship is one where you never fight and are always happy. The more friends you have, the cooler you are.
Evans depicts the intense friendship between Geena and Crystal to be one of friendship myths, in which they save one another from a suicide attempt and ostracize others to stay strong with one another. The strength in the emotions behind Geena and Crystal’s friendship relates to the friendships held by readers in their youth, creating genuine teenage characters within Evan’s