Imagine it’s your 11th birthday, an exciting event that should be fun and happy, but it turns out to be depressing and disgraceful. Well, that is what happened to the main character, Rachel from Eleven. Rachel is forced to wear an ugly red sweater that isn't hers which makes her cry. She repeatedly wishes she were wiser than eleven because she doesn't know how to respond to her situation properly. Similes and repetition contribute to the depressing mood of Eleven by Sandra Cisneros. Firstly, similes contribute to the depressing mood of Eleven. Rachel, the main character is turning eleven, but lives her day in every year except eleven. For instance, when Rachel is thinking about how she doesnt want to be eleven, she states ¨… I want to be
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.
Most readers should be able to relate to the characters in this book. The main character is a thirteen year old girl named Celeste Harris. She is an overweight junior higher who thinks nothing could be worse than popular mean Lively Carson stealing her best friend, Sandra. That was until her Aunt Doreen secretly enters Celeste into a pageant for plus-sized girls. Regardless, Aunt Doreen is a typical average aunt who is always in people’s business and has two daughters. While Kristen is the youngest and looks like a Barbie doll, Kathleen is the oldest who is getting married. Now, Sandra has been Celeste’s best friend since third-grade. That is until, Lively Carson, Celeste’s worst enemy who always makes fun of her, changes that. Finally, Violet Page is a famous large-sized model who is the host for the Miss Husky Peach pageant. She also is married to Theo Christmas who is Celeste celebrity crush ever since she saw him in concert.. Readers can learn a lesson from each one of these characters.
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper lee in 1960. The novel tells the story of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer, and Tom Robinson, a black servant, accused of raping a white female. Finch defends Robinson in court arguing lack of evidence as his main point. However, the judge and jury still believe the woman’s testimony and orders Robinson to be killed. The novel has been praised for its outstanding literature since its publication. However, it remains a banned book by the American Library Association for its use of racial slurs and profanity. Due to it being banned, many high schools have reconsidered the notion of teaching it to their students. Two prominent authors wrote articles pertaining to this piece of literature: Angela Shaw-Thornburg wrote an article on her re-reading of the novel and her opinions on it; while Malcom Gladwell wrote an article comparing Atticus Finch to a state governor liberalist, James Folsom, and the restraints of liberalism in the south. In addition, Rebecca Best contributes her thought on how the novel should be taught by introducing the idea of “the other.” Regardless of the modern day political arguments surrounding this piece of literature, this novel contains a large insight into the time period of the 1960s which is an influential topic that should be taught to young high school students.
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.
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
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.
If you are interested in mysteric, relatable, drama-involved, realistic stories, you should give this book a try! One thing I enjoyed about this book is how after almost every chapter, the author foreshadows about what will happen later in the story. I think it is really cool how the last sentence in nearly every chapter gives sneak peak about an event that will happen in the future chapters. Another thing I was fond of in this book is how it was relatable and encouraging to others. Since this book is about a typical young teen’s life and shows how Elise was bullied, it is relatable to many who have been bullied and it encourages children and teens to open up and express themselves. Eight Keys is a suspenseful, emotional, moving book but I do wish it was more challenging. For example, there are certain places where there could be a better synonym, even something simple like cheerful instead of happy; even the overall book is a simple read, and I would like it to be a stronger novel. But because of the lower-leveled reading skills, I would recommend this book to older children or younger teens. I believe one of the themes is to cherish the time you spend with your family. This theme is shown in the book by memories on time spent with Elise’s parents. She wishes she could make more memories with them, even now that they’re gone. Another theme could be
Literature is the superlative resource when one is attempting to comprehend or fathom how society has transformed over the centuries. Many written works—whether fictional or nonfictional—express the views of gender roles and societies’ expectations. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is an exemplary novel that explores these issues. Ester Greenwood was portrayed the superficial and oppressive values of the mid-twentieth century American society through her experiences of gender inequalities and social conformities. Plath’s own life was correspondingly mirrored in this novel; which in turn left the reader aware of the issues in her time period. At the conclusion of The Bell Jar, the audience realizes that she was pushed to completely conform to society.
Can you imagine being embarrassed in front of the whole class from your teacher, on your birthday? In Sandra Cisneros’s short story, “Eleven” this is exactly what happened to the main character, Rachel. She is very shy and has enough on her plate on not having any friends at all but the teacher decides to make it even worse for her. Even on her birthday with nobody to stand up for her make it even worse! All Rachel wants to do is just keep a calm life, not noticed and in her world but that is very much changed one day.
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...
Has it ever occurred to you that cities learn and develop similarly to how a person matures as he or she learns? A person goes through things as they grow and learn from their mistakes which causes them to mature over time. A city acts similarly to a young person in that it goes through problems. When facing these problems the people of the city fix them and find ways to prevent them from happening again as if it is maturing. This is what Carl seemed to see from his experiences in Chicago. Since living in Chicago, Carl Sandburg grew to love the young vibrant city and he describes it by comparing it to a young person in his poem “Chicago”.