Short Story Eleven By Sandra Cisneros

In the short story, “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros, Rachel turns eleven, but she also feels like she is “ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one.” The author uses literary devices, such as imagery, similies, and repetition to characterize Rachel. Cisneros first uses imagery to give Rachel character. She describes the red sweater as “ugly” with the “sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope,” and that if it did belong to her, she “wouldn’t say so. By declaring this, Rachel means that she doesn’t like the sweater and feels embarassed for whoever owned it. She then proceeds to describe herself crying as “all the years inside of [her]” are “pushing at the back of [her] eyes.”