Eleven Poem Essay Example

explain them. Rachel makes it clear that she is aware of her immaturity and that she wants nothing more than the wisdom that comes with age.

Diction comes into play again when Rachel says a couple times that she wishes she could be one hundred and two. The author chooses to use one hundred and two opposed to any other number to exaggerate Rachel’s craving to be older. Rachel is smart enough to know that wisdom comes with age, and she knows there are some things she will not be able to handle because she has not had enough experience yet. For example she says, “If I was one hundred and two I’d have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk. ” Throughout a portion of the story, Rachel repeats that the sweater is not hers a multitude of times.

She says “not mine, not mine, not mine. ” This repetition reveals her desperation to get her point across, but no matter how many times she says it, Mrs. Price will not listen. Rachel believes that if she was older, her teacher would understand that the sweater does not belong to her, and people would listen to what she said. The countdown of Rachel’s years is repeated twice in “Eleven”. The listing of every number encourages one to notice that not one year can be left out. Every single one of those years is still present and each one characterizes Rachel.

The backwards sequential order also indicates that not only each year is put together to become Rachel, but that she can come undone one year at a time. This concept is

reestablished in the simile, “Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit inside the other, each year inside the next one. ” Yes, all these things are put together, but you can also peel an onion layer by layer and you can disassemble the dolls until you get to the tiniest one in the center. This is kind of like what happens to Rachel when she is given the sweater.

First she is not too bothered and she tries to remember it is her birthday and she is eleven. Then she cannot get her words out correctly to say the sweater is not hers and she ends up mumbling something that barely makes sense. Rachel would probably refer to this as the part of her that is still ten. Then she becomes disgusted with the sweater and pushes it to the desk with her ruler and she moves as far away from it as possible. Maybe she could be somewhere between 5 and 7 at this point. Finally as she is forced to put the sweater, she breaks down and uncontrollably cries in front of her whole class.

She even quotes, “I’m eleven and it’s my birthday and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody. ” Rachel’s experience could have just been an embarrassing story of a girl’s breakdown, but the diction transformed it into a powerful message that defined the character. Sandra Cisneros writes the story “Eleven” using literary devices that tie together to describe the main character. As the story progresses, Rachel’s personality is

revealed. The way the story is written allows the reader to understand Rachel’s complex characteristics. She is a girl with a thoughtful intelligent mind, and a child nonetheless, that longs to be older.