Literary Devices Used in Eleven Eleven by Sandra Cisneros, uses many literary devices to characterize a complex eleven-year-old. Rachel, the ingenuous 1st person narrator, relates the details of her humiliating eleventh birthday. Although her diction reflects her age, Rachel conveys the difficulty of growing up with adult precision. She is embarrassed and feels helpless, but knows she will soon be home with her parents, and her terrible day will drift away. Rachel's age is given away not only by the title, but by her word choice. She employs numerous similes, describing crying like uncontrollable hiccups, drinking milk to fast, and little animal noises. Her confidence rattles like "pennies in a tin Band-Aid Box," and she is always on the edge of lapsing into another session of tears. However, Rachel's diction does not simple betray her age. Descriptions like "smells like cottage cheese" are insights into her true personality. She is passionate and curious, almost to a fault. Because she describes things like runaway balloons, she is a believable eleven-year-old. First person narration reveals though Rachel's thoughts are those of a typical eleven-year-old her descriptive ability is more mature. Rachel has an uncanny ability to convey her feelings. However, because she is an ingenuous narrator, she sometimes misses the deeper significance of her feelings. Although she twice mentions she is looking forward to cake, her birthday song, and normal birthday things, she does not mention she also needs the comfort of her parents. On the other hand, unlike most older, or mature, people, she understands enough about life experience to know she does not have enough. Twice she mentions she would like to have the experience of someone who is one hundred and two. 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 age. She understands that people display the characteristics of the ages they have passed. She understands that although she is eleven, she can still be scared like she is five, or cry like she is three. What she does not grasp is that people can display characteristics beyond their years. Rachel displays that advanced maturity in her thoughts. The only dialogue in the story is between Rachel and her teacher, Mrs. Price. Every conversation is the same, Mrs. Price does not listen to Rachel and dominates their conversations. Rachel associates being right with being older, so she lets Mrs. Price have her way. Mrs. Price is so dominating Rachel can respond with what she calls her four- year-old voice. She stumbles for a reply, eventually saying only, "Not mine, not mine." Rachel is helpless and feels sick inside as she is forced to wear that sweater. So much emphasis is given to what Rachel is thinking, but the dialogue can show her outward personality. Rachel is non-confrontational, timid, and shy. Rachel desperately wants her terrible day to be over. She wants to be one-hundred and two, because then days like this one would be far behind. After she is brought to tears and reluctantly she puts on the sweater and even though she did not have to wear the sweater long, she is changed. She realizes facing challenges is at the foundation of experience. Her old self floats away like a balloon. Sandra Cisneros's "Eleven" uses point of view, diction, dialogue, and symbolism to characterize an eleven year old's coming of age. The unique characteristics of an eleven- year-old have allowed her to make important discoveries about growing up. Rachel survives her humiliation, and becomes smart eleven. She feels smart eleven, and a almost a year sooner than usual. Rachel realizes that people are the sum of their experience. She desperately wants to be one hundred and two, but realizes that her experience adds up to eleven.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One author named Diana Abu-Jaber describes the difference between first and third person as “like the difference between looking at a person and looking through their eyes.” First person point of view draws readers into the perspective of others and their thoughts and feelings on life. Narrated by the female main character herself, “Eleven” written by Sandra Cisneros and “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier open up readers to the mind of two young ladies. Readers travel with eleven-year-old Rachel and her captivating, youthful thoughts in “Eleven” on her birthday as her teacher forces her put on that “ugly sweater” (2) in front of her whole class. Intentionally, the author, Sandra Cisneros, uses second person at the beginning
In “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros actually touched me because I understand where the main character is coming from. Wishing you could be older because of the situation you’re in nobody believes you and you can’t do anything about it because they are older than you and have more authority over you. Then when you were right in the situation they don’t want to own up to their mistakes. We can tell this because of the quote, “I take it off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything’s okay.” The fact that the day was her birthday really makes it worse because who would want to spend their day being yelled at by their teacher and being humiliated in front of the class for something they were right about the whole time. It’s quite sad really and you wonder why the teacher didn’t believe her, like i'm pretty sure she know’s if that was her sweater or not
As well she responds to most situations with a maturity most adults’ lack. These books all describe how the adult world is often complicated and difficult, as well as full of lies, deceit, and phoney people. The books also describe how sometimes an innocent child’s opinion can be smarter than a full grown
story but also to show Rachel’s feelings throughout the story. As Rachel talks about her
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 Alan Bradley’s story, “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie”, Flavia de Luce, an eleven-year-old girl, not only does things a child can do, but equally makes adult-like decisions. Flavia, in the things she does in her life, prove to the people around her that age has nothing to do with her wisdom.
“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson presents Melinda’s (a teenage girl) life as she drifts through her adolescent years, where she struggles to overcome internal depression, as well as typical issues, involving her social life. Melinda’s life in an obscure world, where enigmatic challenges constantly clog her path towards a normal and healthy life, she feels lost and betrayed. Likewise, the boy that raped her attends the same school as her, causing her to have constant memories of the event. Thus, Melinda’s defective life compromising of rape, lack of communication, and depression mirrors the lives of many teens around the world. In addition, this book revolves around the dominant theme of adolescence, resulting to an effect of a realistic- fiction novel.
One can learn responsibility through experience, whether the experience is great, or if it is tragic. In The Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, twelve year old Lanesha demonstrates her growth by bringing her and others to safety during a deadly storm. Once nurtured and cared for by her non-biological grandmother, Lanesha learns to take care of herself and others. This significance shows her transitioning from a girl to a young woman.
Mericans was a short and straightforward story. The main character was a young female, Micaela, who was also the narrator, started off with very detail descriptions of the setting. Such stories always give its reader an idea of the author’s reason behind the story. Mericans is simply about a young girl who is in a conflict between two different cultural groups, America and Mexico. While, Eleven, is also short to the point conflicting story, however, the main character is conflicting between her. Eleven is about a little girl, Rachel, the narrator, who just turned eleven years old and wishes she were one hundred and two years of age instead. As she feels that turning eleven has no specific relevance. Comparing these two characters, they depict what most children feel towards adults, which is a certain type of frustration. Throughout the stories, its gives the readers some knowledge and detailed description of what the characters undergo.
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...