Sandra Cisneros’ Eleven
Eleven or One hundred and Two? Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Eleven” describes a young girl that is at a loss for words when her teacher embarrasses her in front of the class. How does Rachel convey her feelings on Mrs. Price’s authority? Rachel says in the third paragraph that she wishes she was one hundred and two instead of eleven and in saying so she thinks that if she was that age she would have known the words to answer Mrs. Price when she made her put on the ugly sweater that was not hers at all.
She adds the two to the hundred as it makes the impression that one hundred is normal old but by adding the two she would be really old and know what to say. We move on and find that Rachel has a very difficult time dealing with the embarrassing fact that Mrs. Price is forcing her to put on the red “cottage cheese” smelling sweater and instead of standing up for herself she puts her head down and starts to cry, she thinks about her school friends like Sylvia Saldivar who she says is stupid but will probably tease her in the playground about the sweater.
Rachel calms herself down with the thought of her parents waiting for her at home with her birthday cake and candles and her papa coming home to sing happy birthday, To summarize we find that on one hand Rachel is a very mature girl that talks about age in a very distinct manner and on the other hand she has a very passionate way of describing her feelings and the situation that she is in.
