"Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros: Written From the Perspective of an 11-Year-Old Girl, Rachel
In her short story, "Eleven", Sandra Cisneros writes from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl, Rachel. This immediately places the reader in a time zone of particular emotional sensitivity. Eleven, as the author obviously understands, is a very sensitive age, especially in a young girl's life. One is on the verge of a new stage of life - the teenage years. One emerges from childhood to pre-adulthood. This element makes the story particularly poignant, and connects the author with her readers on a very fundamental level. Moreover, she transcends the singular life stage of 11 years to also address the facts of growing up and older: a human being is an accumulation of experiences; some of these experiences are so intense that they are never forgotten, no matter how hard one tries; and even if one does live to be 102, as the author wishes she were, wisdom does always come with age. Like the author says, when you're eleven "...you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one". I was no exception to the average reader being particularly and profoundly moved by the story. In fact, it reminds me of a birthday in my own life. I was my tenth birthday, and I was also on th
You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. The speaker in the story doesn't however seem too excited about her birthday: ". Specifically, I felt an affiliation with Rachel in terms of how she felt about some of the other children, and the effect of this on her when things go from bad to worse: "Maybe because I'm skinny, maybe because she doesn't like me, that stupid Sylvia Saldivar says, 'I think it belongs to Rachel. The episode at school was interesting to me, because I could also identify with that. Immediate silence was followed by the "evil eye" from our superior. None of the events, unlike those on my own tenth birthday, was Rachel's fault, so I feel she has every right to blame those who were indeed at fault. ' An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. A day that should have been a celebration for Rachel was ruined by the thoughtless actions of a stupid girl. " The way in which she refers to herself makes me think of the insecurities I had myself during that stage of my life. The reader can almost feel how the emotion builds up in the unfortunate girl, and all her "younger" selves suddenly express themselves in the flood. Perhaps, on the other hand, it is because she had a feeling that the day at school would not be particularly wonderful. In retrospect, however, I can see that, unlike Rachel, I was also at fault.
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,
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Acceptance Essays
