Analyzing Sandra Cisneros Eleven

Eleven is a story that talks about a little girl named Rachel who turns eleven, but feels as if she is anything but. She says it takes her months before she can remember that she is in fact, eleven. The author also says that we will never just be one age we will be three sometimes and cry and cry until our hearts ache no more. Or sometimes you need someone to hold you and tell you everything is okay, this part of you is five. In the short story ‘Eleven’ the author uses many literary devices like figurative language, imagery, and repetition.

In “Eleven”, written by Sandra Cisneros, Cisneros uses literary techniques such as diction and imagery to characterize Rachel’s character during her transition from age ten to age 11. These literary techniques help to describe how Rachel feels in certain situations while also explaining her qualities and traits. Through the use of these literary techniques Cisneros also collaborated on Rachel’s feelings when she was other ages and how she felt at that time during her life.

In the story Eleven by Sandra Cisneros I can infer that Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Price is fed up with having that raggedy old red sweater in the coatroom. In paragraph 6 the author writes, ‘“Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for months’” This quote supports the claim because Mrs. Price is trying to figure out who sweater it is so it could be gone from the coatroom. Another quote to support this claim is through paragraphs 15-17 a tiny argument happens. “‘Rachel’ Mrs. Price says. She says it like she getting mad. ‘You put that sweater on and no more nonsense’ ‘But it's not-’ ‘Now!’ Mrs. Price says.” These quotes the claim because Mrs. Price wants out that sweater out of her coat room and Rachel has the sweater now. She makes her the sweater

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 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].

Amanda Claire Curcio has worked in a plethora of work fields such as in the U.S. Army, a special education assistant, an English teacher, and now she is a journalist for the Tallahassee Democrat, a USA-Today associated paper, working there for one and a half years. This article is about a real-life incident of how a gender-neutral, 8th grade boy, who decides one day to attend school in a dress and gets sent home for “violating school policy” (4). Throughout the whole article, there is no bias, just factual information and quotes from the people that were questioned about the incident. This article will be beneficial to my paper because I am going this incident as an example to help back up my thesis in my issue analysis paper.

Eleven is a very confusing age according o Rachel. She believes that when you are eleven you don't feel like it and on certain days act like a different age leading up to elven. In the short story Cisneros uses symbolism to show how soft spoken and shy Rachel is. There was a red hat in Rachel's classroom that her teacher believed was her's, because of her classmate Sylvia. Rachel was humiliated and felt very embarrassed,

In the story “Eleven”, the narrator Rachel acts more like a child than a tween. For example, the narrator states “I don’t know why but all of the sudden I’m feeling sick inside, like the part of me that is three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut and bite down real hard and try to remember that today I am eleven, eleven.” This sentence shows that Rachel is acting like a child because she is about ready to cry and most tweens don’t cry very much. The second reason that Rachel acts more like a child than a tween is “That’s when everything I have been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lets go, and all of the sudden I am crying in front of everybody.”

In the short story, “Eleven”, by Sandra Cisnero, Rachel demonstrates her multiple “years” of her eleven-year-old self two important times. One time Rachel represents being a different age than eleven is when she cried in front of the class because she was forced to put an ugly red sweater on. Another time when Rachel acted ten when her birthday first started she felt ten because she did not know the knowledge of what she thought an eleven-year-old had. She said that when you are eleven you don’t feel eleven you still feel ten. Also, she said she wanted to be one hundred and two so that she can be right in having the red sweater, not hers.

As individuals grow, they learn new ways to act and speak through actions of another in which they may look up towards. Many young students experience this reoccurring pressure as it can be seen as bullying. Bullying can be noticed in almost any circumstance, whether it is within arguments or even jokes it is shown to have a great toll on individuals’ lives as they grow. Clear examples of this are seen greatly throughout the story “Eleven” written by Sandra Cisneros in many actions of the characters. Individuals grow through the observation of older mentors, due to this, forms of bullying such as judgment, peer-pressure, and even genocide has shown to become prevalent throughout many centuries.

Sandra Cisneros explores gender preference within her Mexican-American heritage with strong usage of imagery and the variation of her tone. First, the imagery found in “Only Daughter” helps portray the sacrifices Cisneros father made for his children. For instance, Cisneros writes how ecstatic their father was that his children would use their smarts instead of their hands like he once had to. Cisneros describes her father's hands saying, “Even now my father's hands are thick and yellow, stubbed by a history of hammer and nails and twine and coils and springs” (Cisneros 99). Cisneros use of imagery creates a vivid picture of how her father has worked extensively to make sure his seven children do not have to work as hard as he did to live in

In the story, “Eleven,” by Sandra Cisneros, it explains, “Today I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven because if I was one hundred and two I’d have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk,” (Cisneros 247). Rachel feels as if she could only speak up for herself, if she was older. Therefore she is rushing her childhood, causing her to overthink what it means to grow up. For example, “‘You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense,’” (Cisneros 248).

Price, holds up a ragged red sweater and asks for its owner. Everyone denies the sweater belongs to them, and Sylvia Saldivar says it is Rachel's. Rachel's reaction to the red sweater conflict differs through the story. Rachel responds in three sentence fragments: the first time, “That's not, I don't, you're not…Not mine.” The second time, Mrs. Price asks Rachel to wear the sweater, she responds in a single sentence fragment: “But it's not--.” The third time, she cries: “crying like I'm three in front of everybody.” Her voice disappears: “I can't stop the little animal noises from coming out of

My favorite story is the story of Eleven by Sandra Cisneros. The reason that it is my favorite because It was the first story that I heard as a child. But this story has much greater meaning for me. It was my junior year in high school, My reading teacher's name was Mrs. Morning. She assigned us the task to pick a story and she told us it was due by the end of the year. We would be telling the story in front of the class. That we should be able by year end to do this easily. I was not looking forward to it. And I must have rolled my eyes or something, I think she noticed because she asked me what my favorite story was. I told her Eleven. She continued to tell me that I would be able to tell the story. Being a teenager I just shrugged her off and pretty much labeled the class easy A but to my surprise as we got closer to end of the year.

In the short story, “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, a young child named Rachel experienced her eleventh birthday in a classroom. As the story progresses there is a change in the tone- from nonchalant to sadness to anger. Cisneros uses various forms of figurative language throughout “Eleven”, such as repetition, metaphors and similes, and symbolism.