Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Eleven” brilliantly characterizes the immature, shy, and insightful Rachel and illustrates her rejecting attitude towards the sweater, which represents the transition from her adolescence into adulthood. Cisneros primarily uses point of view, childlike diction, and syntax to portray Rachel’s juvenile and timid character. The story opens with Rachel engaging the readers using second person point of view and expressing her outlook on age in a more factual than opinionated way, stating that “you feel like you’re still ten”, and “[y]ou don’t feel eleven”(Cisneros 247). Cisneros’s choice of second person point of view creates immediate intimacy and lures the readers into the story. Rachel’s unarguable expressions of opinions create a believable voice of a child who is trying to express her feelings. These literary devices introduce Rachel’s immature but …show more content…
Rachel uses simple and straightforward diction, such as the description of “something [being] stupid”, “sit[ing] on your mama’s lap”, “smart eleven”, and frequent use of contractions and polysyndeton(Cisneros 247). These techniques reveal Rachel’s young age and inexperience in formal writing and education. Rachel’s elementary choice of words also inform us about her premature personality. On the other hand, the content of her writing and understanding of age-behavior relationships, such as how one person can act with “the part of [one] that is ten”, or act “like if [one person is] three” even when that person is “underneath the year that makes [him/her more mature]”(Cisneros 247-248), demonstrate wisdom and insight beyond her age. Her opinions on age and its respective behavior and maturity give a new and different perspective on the topic. The
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, characters Adah and Rachel Price differ in their outlooks on life. Adah contrasts Rachel with her inside reality, her dark fiction, as well as her dependence on others due to her slant. Rachel, on the other hand, loves the outside reality, compares her life to that of a light fairy tale, and is independent. Kingsolver’s choice of two vastly different characters aids in the demonstration of the complexity each character has. In order to portray each character’s aspects, Kingsolver uses forms of diction, metaphors, and symbolism.
Additionally, Sandra Cineros expresses Rachel not only as the main character of the story, but also the narrator. From one perspective, we know we can label her as a reliable narrator since what she says we can believe is true because she believes it herself. However, though she might not intent on deceiving us, readers might consider her unreliable because of her age and how she might over or under express her experience. Moreover, she has a limited range to what she can relate her feelings too which communicates her narrow point of view. “…like my wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is” (36). Rachel compares her age to her wooden dolls which illustrates her eleven year old mindset; therefore, she attains a limited and unreliable point of view. Overall, Rachel’s reliability and unreliability as a narrator shapes the story as a whole because readers now understand her emotional delicacy brought upon by her age which changes how readers perceive her thoughts and feelings. In the end, as first person persistently appears throughout the story “Eleven,” readers acquire a more profound and insightful understanding of Rachel’s emotions and thoughts and the powerful effect those feelings convey on the
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. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this.
In the beginning, the author introduces Connie, a 15-year-old teenager, who is a self-centered girl that believes beauty is everything. Her mother however, does not see her for her beauty, but for her lack of ambition. She constantly compares her to her olde...
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
Salvador Late or Early and No Speak English are two fascinating short stories written by the same author; Sandra Cisneros. Each story explores the different ways Sandra use to demonstrate conflict. One of her more famous developments of conflicts is her vivid description of setting. By her use of subtle hints during the description of the setting, Sandra Cisneros is able to foreshadow future events with the diction she chooses. Therefore, Sandra Cisneros develops the conflict of Salvador Late or Early and No Speak English through the use of advanced diction and foreshadowing in the description of each short stories’ settings. Simply because of Sandra Cisneros’ diction choice through the setting description does it allow the audience to fully understand where and when the short story is taking place.
At the age of 9, a little girl is counting down the days until her next birthday because double digits are a big deal. Now she is 12 and is still counting the days until she can call herself a teenager. For years people cannot wait to be another year older… until they actually become older. As people grow up they accept that maturing means taking on responsibilities and adulthood. Having sleepovers and play-dates, taking naps, and climbing the monkey bars becomes taboo. The simplistic life of a child quickly changes into the dull reality of school and work. People will spend years wishing they were older; but when the time comes, they hope to go back to their innocence. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger writes a stream of consciousness
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.
Several literary devices are implemented in the novel to convey the author’s experiences and feelings, thus contributing to the overall appeal of the writing. In his younger years
Cisneros explains that before puberty girls are free spirited, careless, and not focused on their appearance. She describes this time, before girls realize they are viewed as objects, in a very positive manor to emphasize the negative impact that objectifying women has on a girls life. The social impact men can have on a woman 's life is tremendous, and consuming. Once girls realize they are being looked at and judged on their appearance they begin to be self-conscious, which changes not only their behavior but their view on society and themselves. This story once again reveals the relationship between women and the dominant male in society through showing how a girl 's entire perspective is altered due to the actions of
Novels for young adults are essential for a myriad of reasons: they are educational, relatable, and an escape for those who read them. It is important when teaching a class featuring these books, that the recurring themes be highlighted. This provides a full understanding of why these novels are important for young adults to read, and provides insight about character motivations and relationships. These important features of YA lit are: the power structure that exists between children/young adults and adults, survival, the idea of the underdog, personal growth/self-actualization, and isolation v. conformity. Most of the time these themes occur during the protagonist’s journey, whether that quest is a physical or emotional one. Overall, YA lit themes can be summed up as the evaluation of relationships with others and with the self. The following works demonstrate that overarching theme, and all that it entails, perfectly.
Rachel the protagonist states to the audience that although she's eleven she states that she will occasionally have a certain age reaction, usually an age you've already passed. She explains that if she acts silly or foolish it's her
Perspective is an important part of literature, enabling readers to peer through the eyes of different characters, and understand their viewpoints on different situations. When looking at contrasting points of view in two pieces of literature centered on a similar plot, we can see how this helps the conflict of the story. For instance, “Confetti Girl” by Diana López and “Tortilla Sun” by Jennifer Cervantes both show two different narrators’ perspectives on their parents, and represents how these clashing views can add tension to a conflict. “Confetti Girl” is about a girl who hates her father’s passion for books and vocabulary, and strongly believes that he cares more about literature than her. Meanwhile, “Tortilla
Growing up and becoming mature is something most young people look forward to. Robert Cormier’s short story “ The Moustache” is about a young teenager named Mike, who is being forced to go to a nursing home to visit his grandmother. In the beginning, of the text, Mike is very immature and childish as a person, and in general. However, as the story progresses, readers begin to see a change in Mike as he realizes that his grandmother is not just her grandmother, she is someone else as well. In “The Moustache” by Robert Cormier, Mike starts off the story as an immature boy but when he sees that his grandmother is a person and not just her grandmother and therefore he becomes mature.
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.