Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self By Danielle Evans

Before you suffocate your own fool self by Danielle Evans is written as a set of short stories which cover multiple social issues. These short stories often have a main character who has come upon hardship or are having a coming of age moment within their lives. During these stories the main character is having an internal struggle with rationality and logic vs. raw emotion and outside influence. The main characters are usually intelligent and self-aware yet they still knowingly make irresponsible decisions which are not in their best interest. These decisions are usually because they are at a crossroads or breaking point where they no longer can accept things for what they are. Danielle Evans tends to end her stories with cliffhangers. You

Lee is dead. This story is about very intellectually gifted and socially awkward African American girl named Crystal. Crystal does not fit in with the poor and uneducated people at her school while at the same time she is held back by school administrators because she is not their ideal color of gifted student. This shows another side of the difficulties of female black minority within society and a personality minority within her community. Although she has all the physical attributes of her peers her personality makes her an outsider due to her high intelligence and introverted nature. Crystal is caught between the two opposing sides having nowhere to fit in. Eventually luck has it she finds a friend in a popular cheerleader named Geena who has enough attitude to protect herself and Crystal. Throughout this story, Crystal evolves realizing that she is a pawn in the administrator’s game and that it is not her place to fit in. She feels that even though she is superior she is being patronized by her administrators and not fully accepted by her fellow classmates. It manifests itself in her accidentally nearly burning down the entire school and football field while confessing her anger through graffiti. Her friend Geena steps in and takes the blame knowing that Crystal is the only one with a chance of beating the system and that she was trapped with nowhere to

Throughout all her stories she has socially or internally awkward characters who break societal norms. She also shows the internal struggles which take place on a regular basis with them trying to find happiness and balance. I feel that she consistently portrays an understanding that there is inequality within all of society. Also, injustice and inequality within our own communities and families. Along with outside inequality and injustice there are personal issues of unwarranted mistrust or the inability to perceive other’s emotions. The combination of external and internal struggle while having coming of age experiences represents the balance I speak of within my introductory paragraph. These short stories although fiction have roots in societal truths. Things that although changing, are still alive presently. I feel that Danielle Evans leaves her character’s stories without ending because it is up to us to create an ending. An ending not in her fictional book of short stories but within the lives and people around us. We can take these short stories that give us a glimpse of how it feels to be on the losing end of multiple social issues and to sympathize and care for people. Nearly everyone has experienced or will experience a friend or family member who has or will deal with the issues