Eleven By Sandra Cisneros Summary

Humiliation is a part of being eleven. In the short story eleven by Sandra Cisneros, she shows us Rachels attitude toward age and characterizes her through the use of several different literary devices. Eleven is about a girl who has her eleventh birthday, and finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation, in which she reacts differently.

One of the first things that I can closely relate to is the way Rachel describes life as “ the way you grow is like an onion or like the rings of a tree trunk or like the wooden dolls that fit one inside the other.” (19-21) This speaks to me because Rachel seems like as a soft spoken girl Since she is reflecting on age, it shows us that Rachel does a lot more thinking than she ever does when she when she is talking. Cisneros through the use of simile, shows us a very basic comparison of how years in a person can show up at any time or point in life. It shows us that you don't exactly feel old but eventually you do. A good example of this is when Cisneros states, “You don't feel eleven not right away… and you don't feel smart eleven not until you're almost twelve.”

The next thing that I see is when rachel says “ … I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody…” (103-105) This shows how childish rachel can be, this is important all through out the story because one of the main themes as Rachel states in the text: “only I wish today I didn't have 11 years rattling inside of me like pennies inside of a tin band aid box” it shows us that rachel is a very immature person and does not know what to do when someone forces her into a situation.

This also tells us that people at any given point in their life can experience and emotion and be any age at any time, again though the uses of simile. The simile shows us exactly how rachel feels; it shows us how humans can at one point can feel like they want to be older or younger based on life

experiences.
The last quote that i can connect rachel's character to is when she says “not mine” (40, 53, 75). Rachels character comes of across as anxious especially in line 53: “thats not, I dont youre not… not mine” this line tells us that she does not know really what to say and is very nervous when it is her turn to go and speak up. All throughout the entire piece you will see she repeats the phrase over and over again. This shows rachels angst throughout the entire text. She continually regrets her inability to speak up when the sweater comes her way. she also refers to how she “Finally [said] in a little voice that was maybe me when I was was four.” (54) constantly she refers to how she wished she acted her age when she was asked the question if the sweater was hers. This tells the audience that sometime people don't act their age and its okay because that way you can learn from your experience and next time act your age.