Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Point Of View

420 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Eleven sandra cisneros literary devices

In the short story “Eleven,” through the continuing use of first person, readers become emotionally attached and acquire a firsthand experience during Rachel, the main character’s, plight and not simply a perspective of the story from another character’s point of view. Since Cisneros incorporates first person repeatedly throughout the story with no change in point of view, the reader is able to grasp Rachel’s true thoughts and feelings. “…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. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms” (Cisneros 37). Point of view considerably impacts the reader’s …show more content…

Additionally, Sandra Cineros expresses Rachel not only as the main character of the story, but also the narrator. From one perspective, we know we can label her as a reliable narrator since what she says we can believe is true because she believes it herself. However, though she might not intent on deceiving us, readers might consider her unreliable because of her age and how she might over or under express her experience. Moreover, she has a limited range to what she can relate her feelings too which communicates her narrow point of view. “…like my wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is” (36). Rachel compares her age to her wooden dolls which illustrates her eleven year old mindset; therefore, she attains a limited and unreliable point of view. Overall, Rachel’s reliability and unreliability as a narrator shapes the story as a whole because readers now understand her emotional delicacy brought upon by her age which changes how readers perceive her thoughts and feelings. In the end, as first person persistently appears throughout the story “Eleven,” readers acquire a more profound and insightful understanding of Rachel’s emotions and thoughts and the powerful effect those feelings convey on the

Show More
Related

  • Similes In Eleven By Sandra Cisneros

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine it’s your 11th birthday, an exciting event that should be fun and happy, but it turns out to be depressing and disgraceful. Well, that is what happened to the main character, Rachel from Eleven. Rachel is forced to wear an ugly red sweater that isn't hers which makes her cry. She repeatedly wishes she were wiser than eleven because she doesn't know how to respond to her situation properly. Similes and repetition contribute to the depressing mood of Eleven by Sandra Cisneros.

    Read More

  • Use of Literary Techniques to Characterize Rachel in Cisneros’ Eleven

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Point Of View In Love Medicine By Louise Erdrich

    1982 Words  | 4 Pages

    Point of view is one of the single greatest assets an author can use. It helps to move the plot along and show what is happening from a character’s perspective. An author can make the plot more complex by introducing several characters that the reader has to view events through. The events can then be seen through different eyes and mindsets forcing the reader to view the character in a different light. From one perspective a character can seem cruel, yet, from another, the same character can seem like a hero. These vastly contrasting views can be influenced based on the point of view, a character’s background, and the emotions towards them. The novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich showcases some examples of events seen from different points

    Read More

  • Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Theme

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    One way that the cumulative issue is apparent is, though Rachel is only eleven years old, she views younger generations as a representation of childish behavior. Cisneros wrote,“What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one” (1). From the first word, "Eleven" introduces the reader to its unique take on the coming-of-age theme. People are all of their ages and

    Read More

  • Analysis of Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.

    Read More

  • Analysis Paper

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Point of view is defined as the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters. The point of view in the story The Yellow Wallpaper is first person with a central narrator. The narrator in the story is a lonely woman in a decent into madness; it makes for a wild ride as the reader follows the narrator into that madness. In the complete opposite of the spectrum the narrator in The Lottery is written in third person objective. The narrator does not go into the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The use of “I” in the story causes the reader to follow along into the lottery drawing and conclusion of the story.

    Read More

  • Ellen Foster

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining.

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros Eleven

    209 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the story “Eleven” Sandra Cisneros creates the voice of the main character Rachel by the repetition of the word “and”. For example in the text it states, “And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven,...”, in the text it also states, “And you don't feel eleven at all.”.The text also

    Read More

  • Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Summary

    511 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story, “Eleven”, by Sandra Cisneros, the main character, Rachel, had just turned eleven. Throughout the story, Rachel explains how a person is never one specific age and will demonstrate different age characteristics throughout life. Rachel states that “some days you might say something stupid, and that’s the part of you that’s still ten.” She conveys how age is just a number and a person will never let that part of you go. The author, Sandra Cisneros, uses several literary devices throughout the short story to characterize Rachel.

    Read More

  • The Tell Tale Heart And The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, there are different points of view for various genres of literature. However, when the plot involves internal conflict like the mental illness shown in these two stories, it is important to narrate in the first person. This ensures that the reader perceives the story the way it was intended by the author. Using first person point of view for these two stories was critical for creating the suspense in the story and also making them interesting literature.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Sylvia Saldivar's Eleven

    105 Words  | 1 Pages

    In “Eleven,” when Mrs.Price gave Rachel the sweater and she said she remembered Rachel wearing it she probably confused her with someone else. She also might find it hard to believe that it is Rachel's because Rachel is so persistent on getting rid of the sweater that Mrs.Price might think she is trying to leave the sweater at school.

    Read More

  • Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Analysis

    216 Words  | 1 Pages

    Sandra Cisneros purpose for writing “Eleven” is to persuade us to believe her that no matter how old you are, you will always be treated less than that.Because you’re not only your age but all the ages that come before that one.In the text when Rachel the protagonist says,”This is when I wish I wasn’t eleven because all the years inside of me are pushing at the back of my eyes.” That quote shows how she wants to act like how she did when she was younger and just “let all the years out”, but she can’t because she has to act her age. That’s why in the text Rachel keeps telling herself it’s her birthday and reminding herself she is now eleven. But she doesn’t feel eleven, she feels lesser. When I was little, this still happens to me even as I

    Read More

  • Theme Of Everything That Rises Must Converge

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    Breaking down point of view in stories can be helpful in determining the central idea, as the two concepts typically support one another. An author such as O’Connor has the ability when writing narrative to use whichever point of view they feel best portrays the story they are telling in the way they would like readers to understand it. By including and excluding certain bits of information, the author can present the story the way they choose, with the option to leave as many or as few subtle or obvious details within the narration as they would like to reveal to

    Read More

  • D.H. Lawrence's Odour of Chrysanthemums

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    The writer uses third-person limited omniscient point of view to tell the story. The author can read through Elizabeth Bates’s mind and perc...

    Read More

  • A contradiction between reality and the imaginary in Joyce’s “Araby” and Ross’s “One’s a Heifer”

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Point of view is a main aspect of a story. It can tell the view of a story from a first-person, second-person, or a third-person angle. A first-person point of view is when a character narrates the story, the author allowing the reader to hear the person’s thoughts, and visioning the world through their eyes. A second-person point of view is when the author speaks directly to the reader. A third-person point of view is of an outside character looking in at the action – meaning either one or multiple character’s thoughts can be shown, but are written from the narrator’s text, not from the character themselves. With these different points of views, the mood for the reader can be set throughout the entire story, helping to understand the setting, theme, and other part/components of the tale. In the short stories “Araby” by James Joyce and “One’s a Heifer” by Sinclair Ross, they have a similar theme. For the main characters, their courses of action are driven by the contradiction between reality and a hallucinatory world.

    Read More

More about Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Point Of View

Open Document