Dana Johnson's Break Any Woman Down

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Dana Johnson is a Los Angeles native author, who won the Flannery O’Connor Award for the collection of short stories, Break Any Woman Down, in 2001. “Melvin in the Sixth Grade” is the opening story in the fiction. This short story takes place in the early 1980’s, discussing the conflicts of self-identity with coming of age, and interracial relationships applied in a school setting. The narrator of the story is a black girl named Avery who has moved from south central L.A to Los Angeles suburbs. Being the only African-American in her class, she immediately experiences difficulties as she tries to belong to a new community with other classmates at school. She becomes obsessed with fitting in, burying herself to be accepted by her classmates.