Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self Analysis
Coming of Age
In Danielle Evans book, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self , three African-american girls find their true identity within their faults and experiences struggling with modern day issues such as sexism, racism, and differences of age amongst the characters. It is expected as young girls to follow society’s rules that is in the environment to which they live and belong to. Each girl attempts to be and do things that are not of their own natural state of character. All not entirely understanding themselves that they are questioning their own identities.
In the short story “Virgins”, the narrator is a young african american female who is fifteen years of age by the name of Erica. She lives in an impoverished neighborhood along …show more content…
It is something every person desires to have. However, we can not control what others do around us, only what we can do. The story “Snakes”, involves a young nine year old molata girl, we later find out is narrated by her older self, by the name of Tara. Her parents are on vacation and her mother drops her off to live with her grandmother Lydia for the summer. What initially started out as an inability to tame Tara’s hair later becomes a control issue that is also hinted at as a racial issue as well. The idea of Lydia controlling not only Tara’s aesthetics but also her movements leads to Tara’s ultimate choice, “Once we spent an entire morning locked in the bathroom. I'd been ordered not to come out until I had done something with my hair” (Evans 39). The control Tara’s white grandmother has over her is logical considering her Grandmother was in fact that, an older lady who did not appreciate her own daughter’s decision and rebellious behavior by marrying an african american man and having a mixed child. Lydia’s actions of controlling Tara could also be said that she wishes to control her daughter. Tara freezes when Lydia begins to cut her hair away, she freezes knowing that she had no control in the relationship and no authority of herself, her only solution was to be physically lead away by her cousin Allison. Later, when we realize that Tara is older and wiser now and is narrating, she herself realizes that her grandmother used and abused her to try and makeup
In Danielle Evans book, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self , three African-american girls find their true identity within their faults and experiences struggling with modern day issues such as sexism, racism, and differences of age amongst the characters. It is expected as young girls to follow society’s rules that is in the environment to which they live and belong to. Each girl attempts to be and do things that are not of their own natural state of character. All not entirely understanding themselves that they are questioning their own identities.
In the short story “Virgins”, the narrator is a young african american female who is fifteen years of age by the name of Erica. She lives in an impoverished neighborhood along …show more content…
It is something every person desires to have. However, we can not control what others do around us, only what we can do. The story “Snakes”, involves a young nine year old molata girl, we later find out is narrated by her older self, by the name of Tara. Her parents are on vacation and her mother drops her off to live with her grandmother Lydia for the summer. What initially started out as an inability to tame Tara’s hair later becomes a control issue that is also hinted at as a racial issue as well. The idea of Lydia controlling not only Tara’s aesthetics but also her movements leads to Tara’s ultimate choice, “Once we spent an entire morning locked in the bathroom. I'd been ordered not to come out until I had done something with my hair” (Evans 39). The control Tara’s white grandmother has over her is logical considering her Grandmother was in fact that, an older lady who did not appreciate her own daughter’s decision and rebellious behavior by marrying an african american man and having a mixed child. Lydia’s actions of controlling Tara could also be said that she wishes to control her daughter. Tara freezes when Lydia begins to cut her hair away, she freezes knowing that she had no control in the relationship and no authority of herself, her only solution was to be physically lead away by her cousin Allison. Later, when we realize that Tara is older and wiser now and is narrating, she herself realizes that her grandmother used and abused her to try and makeup