Eleven by Sandra Cisneros Analysis Essay

When people grow up, most of them would try to change their ways of showing emotions over time, but because of this, they start to hide their emotions, and struggle with trying to let them out. This situation is shown in Sandra Cisnero’s short story “Eleven”. The main character of this story is Rachel, an 11 year old girl who tends to act younger than she actually is. In this story, The theme of this story is that it's ok to show emotion even if you're older than other people. Rachel uses imagery, similes, and symbols to support this, and here's how.

Rachel’s imagery in this story shows the scenes of her past self, where she says “You might need to sit on your mama's lap because you're scared, and that's the part of you that's five, and maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe will need to cry like if you're three.” The “ages” in this quote from the text is symbolizing the emotion and maturity levels you get throughout your life, and Rachels use of wording in this sentence supports this, when she says and that’s the part of you it means that there are still these young feelings in yourself, Rachel also emphasizes this point when she says “Maybe she's feeling three”. 

In Rachel's eyes, you have to act older when you grow up, On the day of her birthday, she feels “you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t” This quote is showing the maturity side of the theme, the day of your birthday where you feel like your about to change immediately, but then a couple days later, you still have your young emotions. This contributes to the real world as well, like when you cry people say that you should “grow up” or “stop being a baby” even though it's normal for it to happen. In the story, Rachel is showing the process that we do experience in real life, making this a mirror moment

In the story, the setting is placed in Rachel’s school, where she’s in a bit of a situation with being “framed” in a way, where the teacher gives a red sweater to her even though it isn’t hers. This is one of the main moments where Rachel’s younger self starts to shine through, where it says “I don’t know why but all of a sudden I’m feeling sick inside, like the part of me that’s three wants to come out of my eyes” This moment really emphasizes the Holding back your emotions theme, specifically on the part where it says I’m feeling sick inside shows this, because it symbolizes all of the reactions and sentiments she’s trying to hide from her class, right after the feeling of her about to cry she “Only I squeeze them shut tight” this is where the issue tries to get to her.

In the end of all of this, emotion is a natural thing to feel and have, where in life where you feel like you are about to cry, you don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed, because it happens to everyone. This story is basically one big lesson that contributes to us in the real day, where no matter what happens, you are just you, and nothing or no one can change that.