When we are young, there are a lot of things that seem extremely important to us. As we grow older, we realize that some of these things are important and some are not. At one point in just about everyone's lives, we have a very special thing ruined for us by others. This is the case in the stories "Eleven" and "Salvation." In "Eleven," Sandra Cisneros' character, Rachel has her eleventh birthday ruined by both her teacher and classmates. In "Salvation," Langston Hughes has the day he was being saved ruined because he was pushed towards it by his aunt and Westley. There are a number of similarities between these two stories.
             In "Eleven," Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Price, gave Rachel the ugly red sweater that "smells like cottage cheese" without giving her the chance to say that it was not hers. Almost everyone at one point in life is given a terrible article of clothing that was either knitted or crocheted. Even though we really did not want to wear it, we were forced to. The first thing that we all tried to do was ruin it in some way so that we would not have to wear it again. Although some of us were successful in our attempt, others were not so fortunate. Rachel, like so many of us when we were younger, did the only thing that she could think of doing when we felt like our world was ending. She simply broke down and cried. This is stated in the following line: "All of a sudden I am crying in front of everyone." In "Salvation," Aunt Reed "knelt at my knees and cried," giving Langston only two choices: to either stand up and be saved or risk disappointing his aunt whom he loved dearly. Many of us do exactly what Langston did in this situation when we are young. We either do something that we are not ready to do or we do not want to do to please those we love or care about. Langston did exactly what Rachel from "Eleven" did, and he broke down and cried. He stated, "I cried, in bed alone, and couldn't stop."
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