Short Story Eleven By Sandra Cisneros

727 Words2 Pages

The author of the short story titled “Eleven”, Sandra Cisneros, portrays the protagonist, Rachel, as a girl with a mind well beyond her years. However, as the story continues, Cisnero delves deeper, by employing literary techniques, revealing that Rachel’s timid nature and immature instincts inhibit her from transitioning into a mature young adult, whom she strives to become. Cisnero starts the story immediately with a commentary from Rachel. “What they don’t understand about birthdays… is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight… you open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday.. you feel like you’re still ten. And you are - underneath the year that makes you eleven.” This complex thought portrays Rachel as a wise …show more content…

Mrs. Prince says…. not mine, says everybody. Not me [Rachel’s]… Sylvia Saldivar says, I think it belongs to Rachel. Mrs. Prince believes her. Mrs. Prince takes the sweater and puts it right on my [Rachel’s] desk, but when I [Rachel] open[‘s] my [her] mouth, nothing comes out.” This red sweater, that has “been sitting in the coatroom for a month”, and the event’s relating to the sweater, not only revealed Rachel’s inner characteristics, but also symbolized Rachel’s childhood. This event occurred on a very special day, Rachel’s eleventh birthday. This birthday represented maturity and growing up. But when the sweater, that was brought in while Rachel was ten, was labeled as her’s, Rachel felt as if she was still a child. It was “a big red mountain”, barricading Rachel from becoming an adult. And when Mrs. Prince keeps on insisting that the sweater was Rachel’s and when Rachel continued to resist the fact, Rachel’s emotions were “hanging all over the edge, like a waterfall.” Finally, Rachel broke and failed the test that the red sweater encompassed. This sweater revealed the several personality traits and different age characteristics that Rachel had “rattling inside...like pennies in a tin Band-Aid …show more content…

Prince pulls up the red sweater and asks the class “whose is this?”, Rachel’s timid and insecure nature are revealed. “ It’s an ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out… even if it belonged to me, I wouldn’t say so.” In this line, Rachel is indirectly stating that she would never want anyone to know if she owned that sweater because of how ugly it was. This line demonstrates that Rachel is very insecure and conscious about how people view and think of her. To further emphasize this point, Phyllis Lopez, “who is even dumber than Sylvia Saldivar” and “remembers that the red sweater is hers!” is introduced. Phyllis is portrayed as a foil of Rachel. She is not necessarily smart and she proudly reclaims her sweater. “All of a sudden I’m crying infront of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I’m not. I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying... in front of everybody” Using imagery, Cisneros uses imagery to paint a perfect picture of what is happening and continues to portray Rachel as an archetype of an insecure girl by making Rachel seem to be embarrassed from crying in front of her classmates and acting “like I’m [Rachel’s] three.” The author also ties in Rachel’s desire to be mature to this event by including an age into this event. By including this bit of information, it makes it more clear that Rachel wants to be mature and wants to control her emotions, and not

Open Document