Analysis Of Eleven By Sandra Cisneros

The most important lesson for Rachel that comes out of this situation is that after wearing the disgusted sweater she has become even older, and it was tied to the experience instead of the birthday itself. She understands that it is the challenge she needs to grow up faster as she will receive additional benefits of behaving the way she wants and resisting to the outside irritators. As for the literature techniques, the author applies language, diction and symbolism to reveal the issues of experience, aging, knowledge, power, authority and freedom. The discovering is gaining age are conveyed with the help of the memories of eleven-year-old girl on her birthday. Rachel resists her humiliation from Mrs. Pierce, and that is the exact moment when her “smart eleven” comes as well[2].

Three of the quotes have already been explained and related above. One quote which defines Rachel the most displays how she feels in regards to her sisters and mother. “I was so excited to be getting out of that horrid mud hole I couldn’t think straight. I’m sure I said goodbye to Mother and Adah and Leah, though I really don’t remember giving second thought to when I would ever see them again, if ever.

However, the way Rachel narrates the short-story represents her mature perspective and adult precision. Each story written by Sandra Cisneros both show the point of view from which the story is told and the effect it has on the thematic purposes, the characterization and diction present in the stories, and the stylistic choice chosen by Cisneros, which is figurative language.

Diction is the word choice used by an author. Syntax is the way words are used to create a sentence. Imagery is using descriptive words to create a sensory experience for the reader. In the story “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, diction, syntax, and imagery are used to give the speaker a youthful voice.

Imagery is another literary technique that is used to characterize Rachel. In the incident over the red sweater, Rachel states, “That’s not, I don’t, you’re not… Not mine.” I finally say in a little voice that was maybe when I was four. “From this line, a picture is painted through words to show Rachel’s facial expression and her reaction to having to admit that the sweater belonged to her. Cisneros also paints a picture of Rachel when she states, “all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I’m not. I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody”; in reference to Rachel having to wear “the ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope”. From that statement, Cisneros shows how sad and upset Rachel was about having to put on that sweater.

In the short stories Eleven by Sandra Cisneros and On Turning Ten by Billy Collins both authors use multiple literary devices to achieve the theme of aging. In Eleven Sandra Cisneros uses figurative language, symbolism and mood to create the theme of aging. While in On Turning Ten the author uses word choice, figurative language and mood. The two of these authors use these literary devices to add to the theme but in different ways. These short stories both compare and contrast in their ways of achieving the theme of mood through figurative language.

This inner defiance gives evidence to Rachel’s determination and individuality. The sweater now represents a sort of barrier and if she submits herself to it, she fears the world of ages and maturity.

The story is mainly comprised of comparisons, metaphors and similes that tie into the ironic situations Baby finds herself in. Comparisons and contrasts are used to illustrate the different influences in Baby’s life.

This memoir has very deep meaning in its choices of words and various details that make the memoir more interesting and helps there be more of a connection between the text and the reader. You can even see the use of some of the ninth grade expectations in this piece. This includes syntax, Connotation, and imagery. Syntax is used in this piece by creating pauses and emphasis using punctuation on certain phrases to make the reader feel the effect. Connotation is also used carefully in the writing in certain words to make a phrase or word have a strong effect on the reader. Imagery is also used several times, as it

Birthday Party by Katharine Brush is a unique short story that captivates the reader in little words. Brush’s purpose with this story is to bring emotion to the reader, not their own, but a specific emotion, and vivid imagery that seems literal and realistic to the reader. She wanted to put the reader right in the middle of a realistic scene and she does that with few, but clever, literary devices: bland adjectives, the point of view, imagery, and the absence of metaphors and similes. Blunt description and the “dropping off” of the reader into the story without any detailed exposition drives the author successfully towards her purpose for the reader.

, she is giving the readers a way she knows how to describe her feelings. This shows her character because its her describing her feelings in a personal way. The point-of-view of the story helps to characterize Rachel. By the story being in Rachel’s point-of-view, the reader gets first person responses to events.

Cisneros benefits from her usage of voice to show how Rachel, the main character, struggles with growing up and to help readers relate to her. Rachel describes that “when you wake up you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t” (Cisneros 1). Explaining how she doesn’t feel a year older on her birthday, she says that she expects to. This shows how eager she is to grow up, but she’s impatient at the thought of it. However, although she wishes to be older, growing up doesn’t happen all at once. Rachel also illustrates how she’s eleven, but she says “I wish I was one hundred and two” (Cisneros

60) Although Rachel is not the only “other” in her class, as is evident by the names of the students she mentions, Lopez and Saldivar, she is nonetheless one of ‘the other’ as is evidenced by the teacher’s treatment of her. As a result, Mrs. Price has robbed Rachel of her innocence, and for this wound, there is no Band-Aid, the symbolic container for the eleven pennies representing her meager eleven years. Anzaldua further elucidates the attainment and subsequent development of la facultad: “Confronting anything that tears at the fabric of our everyday mode of consciousness and thrusts us into a less literal and more psychic sense of reality increases

“Birthday Party” by Katherine Brush uses literary devices such as tone, point of view, diction, and sensory details to achieve her purpose.

The main symbol in the story is how the young lady and her mother have insecurities in their relationship, how the young lady has insecurities on her view of high school, and the Christmas dance. These events are experienced and emotionally seen by a thirteen year-old girl. She is confronted with the experiences of meeting people at the Christmas dance and this causes her to make assumptions about what makes a person “happy”. Since the young lady is only thirteen, emotions are hard to handle and experiences can be taken with a larger emotion. In this story, the young lady is not impressed with the dress that her mother is hand making (“She worked at an old treadle machine”) for the Christmas dance. The young lady didn’t want to go to the dance;