Story Review of Eleven

The short story “Eleven” written by Sandra Cisneros talks about Rachel’s eleventh birthday. Rachel says that when you turn a certain age nothing feels different, except everyone says happy birthday to you and you just add up like an onion or a tree with it’s right growing bigger. But when she was in school she wished she was one hundred two than eleven, because her teacher asked if a red, old, dirty coat was anybody's and everyone said no. But Sylvia Salvador says it is Rachel's, even though it wasn’t the teacher believes her. Rachel stutters and tries to say it wasn’t hers, but only her three old voices came out, that is why she wished she was one hundred two, so she could know what to say. After the teacher puts it on her desk, she returns to the lesson she was teaching. Rachel though slides the disgusting red coat to the corner of her desk. But the teacher sees this and forces Rachel to put it on, after she puts it on she cries of embarrassment from Sylvia Salvador.When the bell rang, a colleague of hers, Phyllis Lopez, remembered that it was his, and Rachel quickly gave it back to him. 

As we are growing older and older, we not only get taller, stronger, and faster, but also maturing and smarter. When we grow older we are stacking up our ages, and so when we cry, that is like our three year old self coming out. So whenever we are mature, that is like our eleven year old coming out. Rachel uses an onion, or ring from inside a tree, or also little dolls we can stack inside each other, to help us understand how we grow. She says when we grow, we still have the years before us, like the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten years below us. When we cry that is like our three old friends coming out. But when we act tough that is our eleven year old coming out. In the story when Rachel cries she is like her three year old, because we all once were three years old. But when we turn a year older, we do not feel different in our lives, because nothing changes, you don’t just magically get taller on that day, but you gradually get taller, the only thing that changes is that everyone is saying happy birthday to you. As we grow older, nothing changes in life, nothing special happens, except for the fact that you have years inside of you, that come out when you need them.

Authorities are people who are higher or above you, that can tell you to do things. The teacher is an authority of the students, because the teacher is in a higher position of status. When the teacher makes Rachel put on the sweater that is not hers, she commands her to do it. Rachel does not fight back to the teacher, because she knows that if she talks back she will be in trouble and they say that the teacher is always right and the student is wrong. These authorities are not fair, because if it is not Rachel’s then she should be able to talk back. But the same thing goes with life, like if you are a worker and your manager tells you to do something bad, you have to do it, or else you can get fired for not doing what your manager says. When you are higher in authority it is good, because you get to tell people stuff to do to help improve your business, but you should not abuse your power as an authority. The teacher had abused her power to make Rachel wear, and even after some said that it was theirs, the teacher didn’t even say sorry to Rachel, to make her wear the sweater. 

When many bad things happen, people would usually want to go home. Home is a shelter for people from the chaos all around us, when bad things happen we think of home, because we know that it is safe there, and no chaos is caused there. After Rachel wears the sweater, she thinks about home, and how her family is there, and they will have cake, but it would have been too late. But when Rachel thinks about her home, she thinks safety is there because her mom and dad are there with a welcoming cake. During class, she also thinks about what she is doing during the rest of the day, and how after school her mom is making her a cake, and her dad is singing happy birthday. When we are in trouble, we think about home, for a safe shelter with your family. When you are home you feel protected because you lived in it for most of your life. 

The story “Eleven” talks about an eleven year old girl, and her birthday. She is given a red sweater from the teacher because the teacher said it was hers, even though it was not. She was forced to wear the sweater, but after the class a fellow peer said it was theirs. When we grow older year by year, our years stack up, like an onion, or a tree, or the dolls that go inside each other. So when we cry, it is our three-year-old that is coming out to cry. Authorities are people higher than you, like the teacher is higher than the student, Rachel. Rachel had to obey her teachers order or else she would have been in trouble for being disobedient, and she also doesn’t talk back to the teacher because she knows it is bad. When bad things happen we think about home, like Rachel, because after she puts on the sweater, she thinks about how home is safe with her family. The story “Eleven” is an amazing book, and it shows how Rachel talked about birthdays.