Meaning Of Eleven By Sandra Cisneros

In this episode, he reveals his emotional and sensitive side as he attempts to console a tearful Dr. Cuddy who was struggling with maternity. He returns to her house later on in the episode and attempts to cheer her up by bringing Dr. Cuddy an age-enhanced photograph of a teenage Rachel. He tries to get her to understand that the motherly love develops over time. He then admits that the photograph came with the frame and was not Rachel.

Rachel now sees people in two different ways, she says, "People who look like me and people who don't look like me” (Durrow 9). She also said, “I'm not the color of my skin. I'm a story. One with a past and a future unwritten.”

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.

(lines 19-22) By using dolls and trees to explain the concept of age, it can be inferred that these are objects Rachel is often surrounded with. Another reference to her youth is her statement "rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box." (line 30) The extremity that Rachel took the issue of the sweater to shows Rachel's level of maturity. She pushed it to the very top corner of her desk so it was "hanging all over the edge like a waterfall." (line 83) She acted as if the ugly sweater had a disease and would harm her if she was near it.

Able to emulate the voice of a young Chicano girl, Sandra Cisneros is another writer who published The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories after the

Imagine feeling like you don’t belong and never will, or that the odds of your success is a slim chance to none. The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros, leads us into a world of poverty, broken dreams, and slithers of hope. The House on Mango Street follows the life of a young girl by the name of Esperanza Cordero, who occupies her childhood in an indigent Latino neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. The books expresses her dire need to have a place where she can call home, and escape the harsh reality of her expected life. Though, her life on Mango Street is bearable with help of her little sister Nenny, her two best friends Rachel and Lucy, and her other friend Sally. On her journey to adulthood, Sandra Cisneros will show how Esperanza assimilates into a mature young lady, who truly find her identity, and develops emotionally as well as physically.

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.

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.

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

In the short story, Rachel’s parents represent comfort from the outside world. “Mama is making a cake for me tonight, and when Papa gets home everybody will sing Happy birthday, happy birthday to you” (n.p.). The aforesaid quote is mentioned twice

The main idea of the story, “Eleven”, by Sandra Cisneros illustrates that birthdays are symbolic but do not necessarily represent emotional evolution. Cisneros uses examples of this when talking about the main characters, Rachel, mother. “And maybe one day when you’re all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you’re three, and that’s okay. That’s what I tell Mama when she’s sad and needs to cry. Maybe she’s feeling three.” Cisneros talks about the emotional experience that we can all relate to about growing up. The story illustrates how the layers of ages are never fully gone at each birthday instead they are added onto the current age. I agree that a person carries all ages that they have been. Some days you may feel like being childish and silly,

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

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age novel of a young Mexican-American girl developing in a working class Chicago neighborhood. The author is much like the main character Esperanza in many different ways. One being that Cisneros was also a Mexican-American girl growing up in a Chicago working class neighborhood. Esperanza is a foil of Cisneros’ beliefs and opinions of her Mexican culture and heritage. While Esperanza is embarrassed of being a Mexican-American around white Americans, Cisneros is proud to be a Mexican-American girl. In Sara Rimer’s article, “San Antonio Journal; Novelist’s Purple

Throughout the story “Eleven”, Cisneros demonstrates to the reader that Rachel despises her eleventh birthday. In doing so, Cisneros uses rhetorical devices such as tone, simile, dialogue, and repetition. These rhetorical devices serve to further insinuate how Rachel feels about her eleventh birthday. For instance, Rachel uses simile to compare her conflicted emotions to the rattling of pennies in a tin Band-Aid box. Furthermore, Cisneros displays tone and repetition within the story in order to depict Rachel’s attitude. The overall use of rhetorical devices within the story aid the reader in comprehending Cisneros’s characterization of Rachel’s feelings.

Rachel decides to tell the news to Ross, but Ross is not taking the news well. Furthermore, we see Ross is being awfully distressed in this situation and surprised by Rachel’s pregnancy. Ross is experiencing cognitive dissonance because he thinks that he and Rachel were being cautious and he did not want to have a baby with Rachel as it was not planned and had not had a previous romantic relationship with each other. Nevertheless the pregnancy occurred, she wound up pregnant which led to the feeling of discomfort. Ross’s discomfort and tension left him feeling uncomfortable that could possibly effect his ego and self confidence and could make him feeling self conscious and because of that he is feeling