Literary Devices In Sandra Cisneros Eleven

Literary Devices in Sandra Cisneros’ Eleven
The irony of life is that as one grows older they are found wanting youth, while being young one is found wanting to be older and “wiser”. Sandra Cisneros’ short story Eleven puts the reader in the characters shoes, the character being Rachel the narrator. Eleven is told in first person point of view and has many literary devices used. The setting is mainly in the classroom and other than that it is just Rachel’s thoughts. In the short story “Eleven”, author Sandra Cisneros presents a young girl named Rachel, being the narrator, who realizes that in order to get the respect that many have she needs to be older. Cisneros is able to put any reader in the Rachel’s shoes by making one emotion that

she gives go for all ages at one point in their life. On Rachel’s eleventh birthday she has a bad encounter that causes her to reflect on growing up. The situation Rachel has takes place in her classroom with her teacher Mrs. Jones that makes her ponder that maybe if she was “one hundred and two” years old she could then have the intelligence to respond. While Rachel thinks back she is also teaching her self that as she gets older aging does help for maturity, knowledge and even respect that she did not get as much while she was younger. In this short story Cisneros shows that in time experience comes into the picture and plays a big part while a person gets closer to the age of one hundred and two. There are a lot of literary devices used in Eleven. Three main literary devices that are used in Cisneros’ short story Eleven are language, repetition and similes.
To begin with, the language that is used is simple broad language, which is usually for a child’s understanding, but in Cisneros’ short story she uses it to show Rachel’s thoughts and feelings. The way Cisneros composes permits the reader to enter Rachel's dialogue. The decision of words and style are a child's. The utilization of dialog makes the story appear to be more individual as the reader recounts the teacher in the story's words in their mind at the same time as the character does making it seem as if the reader was Rachel (the character). An example of Rachel’s simple language would be Rachel wants to be “one hundred and two” so that she could tell the teacher that “the ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out” did not belong to her. The language she uses is pretty childish but at the same time the tone makes her seem as if she wants to be able to stand up for herself. This stories simple language shows that even as a child there is still the same feeling of wanting to go back in time. An example of Rachel wanting to be younger is when she says, "And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three, and it's okay." The tone in Eleven, is a minor literary device that is used and Rachel’s youth is the tone shown throughout the whole story. She always speaks as a young girl but the irony shows with her wanting to be a mature adult already. In Shmoop I found a great example of Rachel’s tone being explained, “Since she lacks the hindsight of adulthood, Rachel must explain to us what happened and how she felt with the words and concepts at her disposal as an eleven-year-old. Consider this choice example:
Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box. 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 (5).
These two images perfectly illustrate the eleven-year-old tone. A Band-Aid box is an intricate part of life in a world of scraped knees and monkey bar-induced blisters, so it makes sense Rachel would use it in her simile” (Shmoop Editorial Team).

Repetition is used not as much but is a major theme in my eyes because it is Rachel’s most important purpose of the story that she is telling. The repetition that is used in Eleven is the phrase “I'm eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, but I wish I was one hundred and two.” Another phrase she repeats is wishing that she were one hundred and two. The repetition being used in this story gives an understanding that she is eager to grow up as soon as possible so that her teacher could treat her as she would treat an adult. At eleven Rachel understands that with experience comes certainty and understanding what to do in unfriendly circumstances. As astounding as those contemplations seem to be, Rachel's most great believed is about age. She understands that people don't change how they act until they get older she also understands that despite the fact that she is eleven, she can in any case be frightened like she is five, or cry like she is three. The main dialog in the story is in the middle of Rachel and her teacher. The teacher does not listen to Rachel and this is what makes Rachel believe if she was older she might. Her teacher, Mrs. Prince, is so difficult leading Rachel to believe she can react with what she calls her “four-year-old voice”. While the teacher says the sweater is Rachel’s, in the long run Rachel is repeating, "Not mine, not mine." Rachel is vulnerable and feels wiped out inside as she is then forced to wear that sweater. The repetition being used in this part of the story is to emphasize Rachel’s struggle and frustration to hold back her younger years. Sandra Cisneros' "Eleven" uses perspective, word usage, dialog, and imagery to portray an eleven year olds transitioning. The special qualities of an eleven-year-old have permitted her to make critical revelations about growing up. Rachel survives her mortification, and gets to be shrewd eleven. She feels shrewd eleven, and a just about a year sooner than common. Rachel understands that individuals are the whole of their experience. She frantically needs to be one hundred and two, however understands that her experience means eleven.
A simile is an examination utilizing like or as. Cisneros utilizes an assortment of similes as a part of Eleven. Cisneros' utilization of similes give a decent showing so as to feel of who Rachel is by showing how she feels and thinks. One case is "the way you develop old is somewhat like an onion." In this simile, the way you get older is contrasted with an onion. Like is the word that connects the two words of the simile. Cisneros at one point compares the red sweater on her desk to a “big red mountain”, and claims it is “maybe a thousand years old”. It is an inconspicuous way for showing her age because in reality adults wouldn’t call it a thousand years old, but of course an eleven year-old would. This gives the reader a different outlook on Rachel compared to a normal eleven year old who rather than have a unique voice, just give up. This example gives Rachel an easier way to give characterization. There are many similes in this story, another example being when she describes crying like uncontrollable hiccups. In this part of the story it makes the reader see her childish side. Most of the similes are quite childish now that I think about it. There is another simile that is in the beginning of the story when she is trying to explain what its like to be eleven, “the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one”. This explanation starts off as if an adult would say it, but later when she brings up the wooden dolls then that’s when the reader knows she is a young girl. Another minor literary device is the imagery, Shmoop states, “The imagery employed in "Eleven" is perfectly, exactly, totally what you'd expect an eleven year old to use. When trying to describe concepts that are just out of her reach, Rachel often uses similes to help her get the point across. Here are a couple of examples of what we're talking about:
• When trying to explain how you can be three, ten, and eleven years old at the same time, Rachel says it is like "an onion," "the rings inside a tree trunk," and "my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other" (3).
• When trying to show that her youthful years are too few in number, she says it is "like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box" (5)
• Rachel calls the red sweater a "big red mountain" (13), and says it "smells like cottage cheese" (18) to convey just how humiliating and revolting it is.
• To describe how painful the crying is, Rachel claims the shakes are "like when you have the hiccups" and her head hurts "like when you drink milk too fast" (19).
Rachel wishes the day would end and be far away "like a runaway balloon" (22).”(Shmoop Editorial Team). The imagery really helps in believing this is an eleven year old telling the story. This voice doesn't feel like a grown-up essayist putting his or her words in an eleven year-old storyteller's mouth, and these pictures develop a world originating from a kid's perspective.
To conclude, all devices that are used in this short story really do help the reader relate to Rachel.

Cisneros does a very good job in showing relation to any age group to whatever the reader is. It really does feel as if the reader is the one in the place of writing this instead of reading it. This short story is real enough to make the reader believe that it is their own words and that is exactly what Cisneros is trying to do so that she could show the emotional experience that everyone goes through which most people call growing up. Growing up is not an easy task but once you get past those years that are the hardest you start to sit back and wonder if maybe it would be better to be back there. Rachel states, "When you are eleven, you're also ten and nine and eight and seven and six and five and four and three and two and one."(Cisneros 26). At some point in our lives we demonstrate more youth, regardless of how old we might be. This is valid for all grown-ups. Out of three hundred and sixty-five days there is at least one that involves tears from stress or anger. If Rachel were around our everyday lives she would say, "you are acting like you are three years of age". Cisneros reminds us that there is no exact age inside of us, instead we are many different ages put together. This is where the phrase "age is just a number" comes

in.