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The summary of story eleven by Sandra Cisneros
Anytical essay ON ELEVEN by sandra cisneros
The summary of story eleven by Sandra Cisneros
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The short story Eleven by Sandra Cisneros, focuses around the main character Rachel as an insecure developing girl who lacks the experience to handle everyday encounters. Rachel, an eleven year old girl truly encapsulates the thoughts that are present within an adolescent. The lack of confidence in herself, excessive fear of being judged, and ideas of growing up are ideals that are relevant within each and every one of us. The reader is able to relate to Rachel because her feelings and experiences that are described by the author are similar to what most people have been through and are currently experiencing. The characterization of Rachel is expressed through the author’s usage of point of view, imagery, and repetition. 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 …show more content…
sweater in front of Rachel, “all of a sudden I’m crying in front of everybody” (Cisneros 17). Rachel wasn’t able to comprehend how to handle the situation because of her lack of experience of being the center of attention in a large group. She continues with her insecurities about the situation when she says “I wish I was invisible but I’m not” (Cisneros 17). The author portrays the character as someone who is still learning to comprehend social situations and become more wise with age. Although Rachel is mainly depicted as a child, she contains a sense of maturity in her thoughts of how age functions. The author starts off the short story with the thoughts of Rachel on birthdays and how even as we age we still contain traits of younger years. For instance, when describing how aging works with people, “the way you grow old is kind of like an onion” (Cisneros 3). This simile that Rachel uses shows her knowledge that she does possess and how she is able to comprehend how life is like not only for her, but for other people as well. Rachel’s point of view being expressed within the story exemplifies how although she may seem childish, she does contain adult-like opinions. The imagery described in the short story plays an important role in the characterization of Rachel.
Much of the imagery described within this piece stems from the mind of Rachel. Specifically, when Rachel is handed the sweatshirt, she believes it “smells like cottage cheese” (Cisneros 17). The smell that she describes portrays her in a childlike manner because of the simplicity behind her description. The lack of maturity is also noted when she finally touches her unwanted sweatshirt that is “itchy and full of germs” (Cisneros 17). The way in which the sweatshirt is described creates an idea in the reader’s head of the sweatshirt while also getting a picture of Rachel’s opinion. The lack of depth into her description of the sweatshirt exhibits a lack of understanding for the situation by
Rachel. Repetition is a key literary device that is noted throughout much of the dialogue with Rachel. As evident in the other literary devices, Rachel has an issue with being childish within this passage. One word that surrounds Rachel’s lack of maturity is her use of “wish.” The word wish is something that is evident within someone who lacks the ability to make change, but instead dreams about it. To elaborate, Rachel is caught describing the way in which her situation with the sweatshirt could’ve been better handled, “I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven “ (Cisneros 5). This dream of only getting wiser due to age is a fact that is evident within children’s minds. The use of repetition continues to expand on her childlike appearance when she constantly repeats “not mine, not mine” when asked if the sweatshirt were hers. The immature responses explain how Rachel has a lot of room to grow and learn to become the adult that she is striving to be. Sandra Cisneros’ use of literary devices provided the reader with an idea of Rachel and how she is as a character. These literary devices focused on the childish ideas of Rachel, but also showed how she has a strong idea on how age will influence her knowledge in a positive way. From this, the reader is able to understand that Rachel is currently an insecure, self-conscious girl, who has a positive outlook on her aging.
As people grow up and experience life more and more, their personalities are revealed more. In the story “Barbie-Q”, Sandra Cisneros describes what it feels like to still be searching for one's identity. “Barbie-Q” is about a little girl and her sister that have dolls that don’t compare to others. There Barbies don’t have new dresses, and fancy red stilettos, but instead they have homemade sock dresses, and bubbleheads. This changes when these two girls go to a flea market, and find new dolls that were damaged in a fire. They may have been damaged with water and had melted limbs but it still meant a lot to these little girls. Sandra Cisneros expresses how these girls have struggled with self identity and how they have finally came to be there
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.
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.
Rachel is the oldest daughter in the Price family, she is fifteen when the family first arrives. Rachel is a beautiful girl, and pretty much all she cares about is how she looks. As soon as she stepped foot in the Congo,
In the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros, a young girl named Rachel is characterized. Through a specific incident, Cisneros shows how Rachel does not act as old as eleven ideally should. Through repetition and metaphor, Cisneros alludes to Rachel?s personality and childish views.
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...
Displaying one's emotions in public is often not planned nor wanted especially when it comes to crying due to humiliation and shame. In the short story “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, literary terms such as simile, diction, and repetition are utilized in characterizing emotional “eleven” year old Rachel. The figurative language used, support the images that were intended for the reader to perceive. Diction and repetition help guide the audience with a certain point of view towards the characters. Not only does Cisneros exploit these literary terms to explain and characterize Rachel's feelings but to exhibit how one may not always have the courage, personal strength, or maturity to handle certain situations.
This is one of my favorite parts of the novel, seeing the main character, James, grow up with his mother Rachel. In summary, the author tells the story of both his mother, and himself growing up. His mother was raised Jewish, but became Christian before James was born, which was thus the religion he was raised in. Both had very strict discipline, in their respective religions. The memoir focuses more on Rachel, who grows up in a Jewish family living in a country and area where Jews are not well received.
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person: through childhood and adolescence. (9th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
“Eleven”, narrated by the young main character, uses first person and a minimal amount of second person to relate to readers and allow them to put themselves in the story. These particular points of view also provide readers understanding into how an eleven-year-old may feel. Likewise, Collier uses first person in her short story “Marigolds” to not only provide a connection for readers, but also to show the transition from childishness into adulthood in Lizabeth’s life. Her overall goal is not to allow readers to put themselves in the story, but rather for them to learn from and possibly change because of the story. She closes her story with this poignant sentence “one does not have to be ignorant or poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town” (11), providing the big picture perspective of what she wants to accomplish through her story. Point of view in stories allows authors to fully achieve their purpose in writing the story whether by causing readers to identify with the characters through second person and first person as in “Eleven” or to leave readers contemplating their lives and wanting to learn from the character through first
Sandra Cisneros uses the characters in The House on Mango Street, to show the readers how women often are defined by the men in their lives and their struggles. However, some of the characters defy the patriarchal system in which they live. The women see there’s more to life outside of Mango Street than the abuse and the life of the barrio they endure but don’t know how to escape to what they are accustom to. According to Johnson “Patriarchy, the System an It, not a He, a Them, or and US”, he describes how culture imposes gender roles and influences the patriarchy system. In society we tend to see how women are dominantly controlled by the males in
Children have often been viewed as innocent and innocent may be a nicer way to call children naive. Since children’s lives are so worry free they lack the knowledge of how to transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. Their lack of knowledge may be a large part of their difficulties growing up, which could be a few rough years for many. In books like the boy in the striped pajamas the story is told from the point of view of a little boy, this way we get a full view of how innocent he is. In this book the writer shows the reader first hand how a child viewed the holocaust and how his innocence cost him his life. Then in books like the perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a teen whom is struggling with the transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. In this book the writer gives a first hand look at how difficult it can be to transition into an adolescent. Charlie has many difficulties in this book; he is in search of his identity and how to fit in.
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros describes the problems with living as a married woman. Cleofilas marries man who abuses her mentally as well as physically .Cisneros talks about the way society makes such a difference between a male and female, how men are superior to women."Woman Hollering Creek" is easily one of the best examples in proving the struggles of a woman. Cleofilas, who grows up without a mother and has no one to teach her and give her advise about life ,it is truly inspiring.
Expectations are natural to have when events in our lives are left up to chance. It can give us hope and build our passion, but that is not always the case. In “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros, the Mexican protagonist, Cleófilas, is excited to move to Seguin, Texas with her husband in order to find passion and love similar to that in the books, songs, and telenovelas she obsesses over. However, she was kept from becoming the dimensional woman she dreamed of because of the patriarchal figures in her life, particularly her husband; she instead followed traditional cultural values that taught her men were more dominant than women in society, a woman was meant to become a mother and a housewife, and a woman’s dream is far from reality.