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Text analysis. Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

1.162 Words / ~2½ pages sternsternsternsternstern_0.25 Author Elvira B. in Dec. 2014
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English Language

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Moldova State University Chisinau

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2014, Gogu Tamara

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Elvira B. ©
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Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

1) Sandra Cisneros is an American novelist and short story writer. She has been honored with numerous awards. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages. She occupies an important place in the history of American literature.

2)Theme The main theme of the story is stated ”the coming of age”. The rival themes are: childhood, youth, society.

Summary: This is a story about a girl who was humiliated by her teacher in front of the whole class. She lost herself by losing her ability to defend herself.

3)Idea Our life is full of good and bad things. Every second of our life we have to deal with a lot of problems, different situations in which we have to behave according to our age. But there are a lot of situations in which we can’t act properly. In these situation we can express our emotions even though we are grown ups. There is nothing to be ashamed.

4)Message The message of the story is direct. If we feel bad we should express our feelings. We should cry if we need this like we are 3 years old. If we don’t express our feelings we will fill even worse. We have to deal with this kind of situations because they make us grown up. As a person grows older he or she may still feel and behave younger at times.

5)Characters The main character of the story is Rachel. She is the protagonist of the story because she is the central character and she is faced with the conflict. She is also a round character because she is closely involved in the plot. Rachel is a young girl. She is eleven years old. It was her birthday. She is characterized indirect by the author through his actions, thoughts, feelings. She is educated, shy, timid, respectful, polite, emotional, sensible because when the teacher said that it was her red sweater she could’t say something concrete because the teacher was older and Rachel respected her. She is embarrassed and feels helpless, but knows she will soon be home with her parents, and her terrible day will drift away. We are able to see Rachel's thoughts as she ponders why when you turn eleven, you do not feel eleven, but rather all the previous years together "like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box." The embarrassment Rachel feels is made apparent through the use of point of view, when her teacher makes her take the lost sweater in front of the whole class. Even if the ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a stretched out collar and sleeves were hers, she would not admit it since "it was maybe a thousand years old," Rachel informs the reader. The teacher puts the sweater on Rachel's desk, insisting that it belongs to Rachel; despite Rachel's objections, the teacher makes her put the sweater on. Rachel tells the reader then that she wishes she were one hundred and two. If she were that age rather than eleven, then she would have known exactly what to say and would not have ended up crying in front of the class. Another character of the story is Mrs. Price. She is characterized direct by the author through her social state she was a teacher. The author also characterized her indirect through her actions . She was aggressive, severe, harsh with her students. She spoke in a loud voice. She was bossy, dishonest, inconsiderate because she humiliated Rachel in the front of her class even though she had no evidences that it was Rachel’s sweater. She didn’t respect her students and didn’t apology when became obvious that it was not Rachel’s sweater.

6)Conflict I think that the main conflict is external man vs. man between Rachel and Mrs. Price from one hand Rachel said that it’s not her sweater from the other hand Mrs. Price didn’t belive her. Another conflict is internal man vs. self from one hand Rachel wanted to say a lot of things to Mr. Price from the other hand she was not able to say them.

7)Title The title of the text ” Eleven” is a clue to the theme because eleven is the age that made Rachel grew up maybe faster than she wanted this. But it was like a lesson of life for her.

8)Plot The plot form is balanced.I think that the plot structure is straightforward. The exposition embraces the first four paragraphs. In this part we found out who is the main character of the story and that it was her birthday she was eleven. The author also told us that she didn’t feel that she was eleven at all. The story itsels begins with the fifth paragraph. In this part Mrs. Price put the sweater on Rachel’s desk and said that it was Rachel’s sweater. Even though Rachel said that is was not she could’t say something and began to cry. Her classmates also accused her. The climax of the story is the moment when one of her classmates remembered that it was hers. The denouement of the story embraces the last two paragraphs in this part Rachel thought about her parents and about her birthday dinner but she wanted just to be far away.

9)Stylistic devices The author used a lot of similes and hyperboles to express her thoughts and ideas. Similes: “ The way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. “Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pen nies in a tin Band-Aid box.” “It's an ugly sweater with red plastic buttons and a collar and sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope.” “But when the sick feeling goes away and I open my eyes, the red sweater's still sitting there like a big red mountain.” Except when math period ends Mrs. Price says loud and in front of everybody , "Now Rachel, that's enough," because she sees I've shoved the red sweater to the tippy-tip corner of my desk and it's hanging all over the edge like a waterfall, but I don't' care.” “I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren't even mine.” “ My body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast.” Hyperboles: “It’s maybe a thousand years old”, “She’s getting mad”, “I can’t stop the little animal noises from coming out of me”.

10)Vocabulary The vocabulary is chosen in harmony with the theme and situation described. The author used a combination of colloquial (to sit on. to come out, go away) and neutral (smart, skinny) words.

11)Atmosphere The atmosphere is pessimistic, charged with fear, sad, regret. The mood moves from excitement, disappointment to pity and terror.




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