When Rachel’s classmate betrays her, Rachel begins to lose herself by losing her voice. One day Rachel’s teacher asks who owns a stretched out, itchy red sweater that was left behind in the coatroom. Sylvia Saldivar puts Rachel in the spotlight when she says to Mrs. Price, “I think the sweater is Rachel’s.” Sylvia is challenging Rachel, which makes Rachel feel lost. Sylvia’s betrayal is made worse when Mrs. Price agrees with Sylvia and puts the red sweater on Rachel’s desk. Being challenged by both Sylvia and Mrs. Price causes Rachel to start to lose herself by losing her ability to defend herself. “When I open my mouth, nothing comes out.” If students are dominated by classmates and teachers, they start losing their happiness, their …show more content…
Price claims to have seen Rachel wearing the sweater saying, “Of course it’s yours… I remember you wearing it once.” Rachel protests, trying to tell Mrs. Price it is not hers, but Mrs. Price does not believe her. Rachel reacts to Mrs. Price’s actions by escaping into her imagination where her family loves her, daydreaming of her birthday party. She daydreams about getting her power back. “In my head, I am thinking how long till lunch time, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw it over the school yard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley.” Because she is challenged by people who have power over her, Rachel is forced to lose herself into her …show more content…
The bullying causes Rachel to lose voice and her composure, to be unable to concentrate on learning, and to wish she could escape to be surrounded by her loving family or to a place where she could regain her power. “Eleven” helped me realize that bullying is not just done by students, teachers can bully children, too. Unfortunately, people like teachers and popular students in positions of power humiliate many students. Schools spend a lot of time talking about student bullying. It is time to raise awareness about teachers bullying students, too, so that students can feel safe and learn at
The author’s use of Rachel’s perspective is important because it establishes a connection between the reader and the character. Noting that Rachel is eleven years old justifies her childish point of view that is expressed all throughout the piece. The entire story focuses around Rachel’s teacher trying to give Rachel back a sweater. Since Rachel’s considers the sweater ugly, she believes that she will be made of for it. For example, when Mrs. Price put the
In Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Eleven,” Rachel’s transition into adolescence is filled with anxiety and conflict, but she understands that the experience it brings will help her in future situations. Her building anxiety becomes more and more apparent after Mrs. Price gives her the red sweater; she suddenly feels “sick inside, like the part of [her] that’s three wants to come out of [her] eyes” (Cisneros 35). The red sweater acts as a symbol for Rachel’s looming adolescence, and arouses feelings of unease inside her; she sees it as a threat to the safety of childhood that she longs to remain rooted in. Comparing herself to a rampant three year old, Rachel also highlights the lack of control she has over her emotions in this transition. However,
In this passage, Sandra Cisneros explains the world of a small eleven-year old girl named Rachel who has been disappointed but taught by her experiences. The author uses several literary devices such as simile, imagery, foreshadowing, tone, diction, etc., to address the neglected and sad feelings of Rachel and to portray Rachel as a character who changes as a result of experience. Rachel, as she explains her difficulty in growing up, she is embarrassed and feels helpless. Though she just turned eleven, all the years before eleven are "pushing at the back of her eyes". The author shoots all these emotions out from Rachel and characterize her actions as that of which small kids would do so they can solve problems. Cisneros uses all these various literary techniques to create the development of the character of Rachel in that she is complex and round
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. 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
She spreads print outs of all the pages in the book around the school. When the bell rings everyone sees the pages and the whole school turns into chaos. All the girls are called into a assembly to talk about the book. During assembly girls are told to right down on a card a rumor they have spread, or something there sorry about and apologize. Gretchen being herself puts on her card “I’m sorry everyones so jealous, I can’t help that I’m popular.”. When Janis is up she spills the beans about the mean games Cady did to Regina. Regina freaks out and runs out of the school. Cady chasing after her tries to apologize but Regina only gets more angry at her, as she's running to her car a bus flies by and hits
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.
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.
Have you ever heard of an eleven year old that acts like a three year old? There is a book called,“Eleven” By Sandra Cisnero is a book about a little girl named Rachel who just turned eleven, Rachel starts off having a bad day on her birthday. Throughout the story, Rachel shows multiple years of age and waves of maturity. It all happens because Rachel's teacher, Ms.Price, says that a sweater belongs to Rachel when really it doesn’t. Rachel takes it to a whole new level and so does Ms.Price, Ms.Price makes Rachel put the sweater and then Rachel cries.
Rachel also knows that she might get in trouble because she is refusing to learn the material being taught to her. Because of this Mel thinks “That’s what you get for speaking up”(Anderson 102) , she is observing what is going on
Her story is one of true faith and endurance, but she has learned to maintain a strong and happy life. She has remained so happy, that Misto-C does not take into account what all Rachel has endured. This story is also a tale of dominancy and superiority. The narrator begins the story saying. “”Aunt Rachel”, was sitting respectfully below our level, on the steps. -
So if she had this skill of staying strong and never giving in than that could easily be prevented. For example “Rachel” Mrs Price says. She says it like she's getting mad. “You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense. ”(2)
This sentence shows the effects of the sweater and what it symbolized. As Rachel began to cry as an effect of the sweater becoming a conflict for her that didn’t get solved. It shows how the main character expresses what the sweater symbolized. That’s how and why the sweater in ‘’eleven’’ symbolized conflict, anger, and problem and also showing how a story can have negative
The students have a first hand account of the issues that occur in schools because they experience it daily. One of these issues is played out in “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros. “Eleven” is a story about an 11 year old girl named Rachel. Rachel was accused of the ownership of a raggedy old red sweater by her teacher. Rachel tried to explain to the teacher that the sweater was not hers, but she would not listen.
Sandra Cisneros writes a memoir through the eyes of an eleven year old. Turning eleven happens to be a tragic day for the main character, Rachel. Through various literary techniques such as hyperbole, simile, and syntax, Rachel is characterized. Rachel is a fresh turning eleven year old who finds herself in an awful situation on her birthday. Forced to wear a raggedy old sweater that doesn’t belong to her, she makes it defiantly clear her feelings towards the clothing item, and we see this through use of hyperboles. Rachel describes the sweater as ugly and too “stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope.” This extreme exaggeration demonstrates the fire within Rachel. She is a defiant and pouty little girl who out of stubbornness has to defy the sweater in her mind. “It’s maybe a thousand years old”, she says to herself in act to degrade the filthy red sweater even more. The sweater to Rachel has become an eternal battle of ages. She is torn on whether or not to stand up and act bigger th...
Shootings and physical violence are only part of the problem in schools. More than twenty percent of students have encountered bullying whi...