Sandra Cisneros Eleven

Coming of Age Aging is a biological process that all humans encounter on a daily basis. Most reach consensus that humans learn more information with every passing year, like the memory cloud on an IPhone. Sandra Cisneros uses age to justify people’s actions, as they grow older, in the short story “Eleven”. Cisneros takes the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl and demonstrates how age might be perceived during youth versus the perspective of someone later on in life. She also illustrates how knowledge and behavior that is acquired in earlier years applies throughout entire lifetimes. Through the use of literary devices and descriptive writing, she executes a powerful, eye-opening piece on the perspective of age. As noted above, Cisneros interprets how Rachel, the protagonist, feels about age on her eleventh birthday. For example, Cisneros represents Rachel’s eleven years of life by comparing it to dendrochronology. A tree ring, in this case, represents the knowledge and behavior learned each year of life building up to the completion of the individual person, or tree. Most people enjoy their birthdays with parties, cake, and gifts; Rachel plans these events, but her antagonistic view of age leads her to a disappointing birthday celebration. Her experience at school with a red sweater and a sadistic teacher …show more content…
She associates crying with being three and unintelligence with eleven, which indicates how she views herself. Cisneros compares being eleven to a box containing a few pennies, which, when shaken, makes an irritating sound. This diction allows you to sense a negative tone in the author’s writing. In comparison, Rachel views one hundred and two as a year of wisdom, intelligence, and confidence. When she lacks the ability to tell her teacher the dreaded sweater is not hers, she contemplates how an older person with more life experience would handle the