Cisneros "Eleven"

605 Words3 Pages
“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros is narrated in first person by a young girl named Rachel. On a day that is delightful at first for most, Rachel fights through her age and maturity to be understood, but she fails. In the story, the event takes place at school. Rachel is believably human as she describes the details of her humiliating eleventh birthday. Rachel’s age is given away by her use of similes to describe how she’s feeling. For example, describing crying like hiccups, drinking milk too fast, and animal noises. (242) Rachel understand enough about life experiences to know she does not have enough. At eleven, Rachel realizes that with experience comes confidence, personal strength, and most important to her, knowing what to do in hostile situations. As amazing as those thoughts are, Rachel’s most impressive thought is about her age, she understands that people display the characteristics of the ages they have passed. The only interaction in the story is between Rachel and her teacher, Mrs. Price, and all the conversations are the same, Mrs. Price does not listen to what Rachel has to say. Mrs. Price seems to be very dominating when talking to Rachel, and demands her to put on a sweater that is not hers. In the story, Mrs. Price finds an old sweater in the closet in the classroom. The sweater is stretched out and smells like cottage cheese. She asks who the sweater belongs to and a girl in the class, Sylvia, claims that the sweater belongs to Rachel. The teacher instantly believes Sylvia without questioning it and put the sweater on Rachel’s desk. Rachel tried to tell Mrs. Price that the sweater is not hers but nothing comes out of her mouth. She pushes the sweater to the very edge of her desk and stares at it. Mrs. Price gets angry and yells at Rachel to put the sweater on, so Rachel puts it on. Almost immediately after Rachel puts the sweater on she starts
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