López 1

Alexis Omar López

Dr. Lynn Sukalo
AP Literature and Composition
1 September 2009
Timed Write 1A: “Eleven”
The short story “Eleven,” written by Sandra Cisneros, is a splendid account of a young
girl who expresses her inability to fully understand the maturing process she is undergoing.
Therefore, the theme of this piece is coming of age. Rachel, the protagonist, narrates one of her
experiences in life via marvelous comparisons and through her eyes it is perceived how she truly
feels.
One of the strongest feelings that this story conveys is the difficulty of handling and
comprehending the idea of “…the way you grow old.” Cisneros, through her use of literary
devices expresses the idea of how one acts while maturing. She describes this process with
various images like the similes of the onions, the rings of the inner tree trunk and the Matryoshka
dolls. What the author does is compare every age one goes through to a layer of every one of
these objects. For instance, by a child’s fifth birthday one would have accumulated five layers as
compared to a tree; therefore, she exemplifies how a person cannot be who they are today
without the past years lived being accounted for. This is also the case for the onion and doll
analogy.
With this in mind, Rachel expresses her frustration with these “rings,” or layers, for the
reason that when she turns 11 she still feels as if she were 10. According to her it may take
“sometimes even months” before one feels 11, and before she expects it she acts idiotically as an
11-year-old would do. Unfortunately, it is as noticeable as the noise made by pennies in a tin
Band-Aid box, which is an example of tactile and auditory imagery.
Through the implementation of other visual imagery, Cisneros exhibits how Rachel
experiences maturing and physical development. She mentions how the sweater’s sleeves are “all
stretched out” and how they can be used as a jump rope. Clearly, Rachel unconsciously projects
herself through the unscrupulous description of the “ugly” sweater. This interpretation may be
drawn up through the recognition of the normal process of growing. It is common in pre-
adolescence for one’s extremities to grow longer than others, or just simply grow at a different
rate. This of course, would make any juvenile uncomfortable, since their extremities would seem
disproportionate to the other appendages of the body. Rachel even tried to suppress the existence
of the sweater, or her odd physique, by closing her eyes. However, when she opens her eyes the
sweater is still there “like a big red mountain,” and she is still 11.
Overall, “Eleven” is a coming of age story that, through visual imagery and other literary
devices, tells how a young girl sees the maturing process that she undergoes. Cisneros overall
message is about the perception of how one matures, and how that compares to elements around
us. This shows that the years one has lived play a crucial role in who we are today.
Consequently, those attitudes are bound to come up when going through other life occurrences.