Have you ever felt like you can’t get the words out of your mouth? When you do manage to talk, does it come out like you are a little kid? Sandra Cisneros’s “Eleven” is about a girl named Rachel who just turned eleven. She is accused of owning a sweater which was left in school for a month. Through this traumatic period of time, Rachel feels a lot of emotions and sometimes, she thinks or acts like her younger self. Throughout the story, the author tries to convey the fact that we all carry with us the years that come before, sometimes reverting to the child within us through our thoughts, actions, and/or emotions. One example of going back to the child within us is when Rachel tries to keep her emotions hidden. Through the quote, “I don’t know
Lauren Alleyne uses the rigid form of the sonnet to navigate through the healing process after being sexually assaulted. Ten years after that night, she writes the sonnet sequence Eighteen, which deviates from the typical sonnet form in the aspects of the speaker, subject, and format. Playing off of the standard sonnet form, Alleyne is able to recount the emotions of that night during the first sonnet in the sequence. The typical sonnet tends to objectify the female body or one’s lover; in this sequence, the sonnets address what happens when an individual acts on these objectifications and assaults Alleyne. Alleyne deviates from the standard subject and speaker of the typical sonnet form to begin the healing process; the process begins
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.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
A child is known for having innocence, and bad experiences strip kids of it. In Sarah’s
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.
As children, we all want to make our own parents proud and accept us for who we are. As humans, we all want to feel loved by those we admire the most. However, when a parent’s lack of acceptance and encourage continues to grow, it can shape a child’s life. Sandra Cisneros, the author of “Only Girl,” comes from a working-class Mexican family whose parents only want what is best for their seven children. Or at least, thinks they know what it is best. The America that Cisneros believes in is a nation full of freedom, which are limited by attempts to certain achievements and capabilities in regards to level of skills and strengths. However, while growing up in two different houses, one in America and one in Mexico, the Mexican culture was favored
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.
We all experience losses as we grow older in life. These losses are usually about our physical or inner self. However, sometimes these losses could be about how our relationships with others have been lost or changed due to growing up. For example, in the story How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, four sisters suffer or experience losses as a result of growing up into older young women. All this started when the four sisters moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic at a young age. This affects the four sisters because they encounter problems or obstacles as they age into young adults. For instance, Julia Alvarez shows that growing up is a process of losing respect, sanity, and a loving friend.
I chose to write about Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros because I am the only daughter of three children. Therefore, I can relate to this essay because I constantly strive to make my father proud in everything that I do, along with feeling as though I am alone and not understood by my family. My father is constantly in the back of my mind so whatever I do revolves around how I know he would feel about it. Due to this I am more studious when it comes to my education because I know that he will be more supportive the better that I do. Without my dad I would not have come this far in what I have accomplished because I would not have had to prove myself to anyone. Being the first born and the only girl, my parents and family many times do not know how to handle how I feel or what I enjoy because I am more studious out of my entire family. Because of this I
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...
In the story, “An Hour With Abuelo” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Arturo goes to visit his Abuelo and throughout the story realizes that he shouldn’t be so quick to judge the people that care about him because you might find them to be worth your time. This story teaches its readers that you should cherish the time you have with the people that love you. Arturo thinks to himself, “I want my mother to have to wait a little. I don’t want her to think that I’m in a hurry or anything.” (Cofer, 140) This quote proves that he realizes he has a lot in common with his Abuelo and ended up enjoying the time he had with him. Throughout the story Arturo and Abuelo realize all the things they have in common with each other. This idea brings the readers back to the thought that it is never too late to make a connection and enjoy the time you have with the people who love you.
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
In the eyes of a child, there is joy, there is laughter. But as time ages us, as soon as we flowered and became grown-ups the child inside us all fades that we forget that once, we were a child.
“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking