Eleven

=AR Code 1158= =Summary= Rachel struggles internally with growing up – even though she’s 11, she still feels 10, 9, 8, etc. She expected a fabulous birthday, but ends up sad and embarrassed.

Conflict – the ugly red sweater is forced upon Rachel. Rachel has to wear the sweater Setting - Rachel's classroom Climax – Rachel cries uncontrollably in class Falling action – Phyllis admits it’s her sweater Resolution – Rachel expresses her thoughts about her day and the way we age. toc

=Characters=

Phyllis Lopez
Phyllis Lopez is a student in the elementary classroom. She is the rightful owner of the red sweater that is forced upon Rachel. Rachel says that Phyllis is "stupid." While this opinion cannot be considered objective, it is possible to state that Phyllis's lapse of memory is causative in spoiling Rachel's birthday.

Mrs. Price
Mrs. Price is the teacher of the elementary school classroom where Cisneros sets the story "Eleven." Her name suggests that she is an Anglo teacher, while her students' names are all Latino in origin. Mrs. Price does not appear to be at all sensitive to the feelings of her students. When she brings the old red sweater out from the cloakroom, she does not quietly try to find the sweater's owner. Rather, she holds it up in front of the whole classroom and complains that it has "been sitting in the coatroom for a month." Her attitude clearly demonstrates that the owner of the sweater is guilty of a transgression, and consequently, none of the students will claim the sweater. Mrs. Price does not consider that the condition of the sweater may reflect negatively on its owner. Furthermore, she does not consider the humiliation she causes Rachel by insisting that the child put on the sweater. She uses a loud voice and disciplines Rachel in front of the entire class, on the basis of dubious evidence. She calls Rachel's reluctance to wear the sweater "nonsense," another clue that she does not understand the values of her students. In addition, she does not respect her students enough to offer an apology to Rachel when it becomes obvious that she herself was in error. In "Eleven," Mrs. Price is the antagonist of the story, a character who represents the injustice of majority culture when dealing with minority students.

Rachel
Rachel is the protagonist in "Eleven." The entire story is told in a first-person, internal narrative, so the reader only understands events as they are filtered through Rachel's eyes. It is therefore possible to learn a great deal about her character from the details that she provides. Because the other students mentioned in the story have Latino names, and because Rachel calls her mother and father "mama" and "papa," and because all of the other stories in //Woman Hollering Creek, and Other Stories// feature female Latina protagonists, it is safe to assume that Rachel is a Latina herself. Rachel is a kind and sympathetic character. Early on, she mentions trying to comfort her mother when her mother feels sad by telling her that it is okay to cry, even if she is an adult. In addition, Rachel also reveals that sometimes she feels the need to sit on her mother's lap, even though she is now eleven, because she feels scared. Moreover, it seems clear that Rachel is a very reflective child who thinks deeply about abstract matters such as the passage of time and the meaning of age. Her understanding that all people retain the childlike parts of themselves no matter how old they grow is both sensitive and mature. Rachel is also a shy child, and she finds it difficult to answer her teacher when confronted with the ugly red sweater. Although it cannot be determined from the story, it is possible that Rachel is not a native English speaker, which would certainly contribute to her inability to stand up for herself when falsely accused. The reader also learns that Rachel is both "skinny" and disliked by Sylvia. These two details suggest that Rachel is an outsider in the classroom. It is possible that the other children pick on her, and it is likely that the teacher contributes to Rachel's isolation. The events of the story take place on Rachel's eleventh birthday, and it is around this age that young women often become very self-conscious and easily embarrassed. In addition, young women at this age can be very cruel to those they see as outsiders. It is likely that Cisneros conceived of Rachel as eleven years old rather than younger because it places her at the tipping point between childhood and adolescence. The reader can imagine Rachel beginning her eleventh birthday as a child but, through the events of the day, returning to her home as a much older person, someone who understands at a very deep level that life is often unfair.

Sylvia Saldívar
Sylvia Saldívar is the student who suggests to Mrs. Price that the red sweater belongs to Rachel. The only description of Sylvia's motivation is in the following sentence: "Maybe because I'm skinny, maybe because she doesn't like me, that stupid Sylvia Saldí var says, ‘I think it belongs to Rachel.’" It is difficult to analyze this character from these few words. On the one hand, Sylvia's remark to the teacher could be entirely innocent; she might have been trying simply to help establish the ownership of the sweater. On the other hand, Rachel feels that Sylvia does not like her. If this is the case, then Sylvia's remark could be interpreted as an attempt to both ingratiate herself with Mrs. Price and also deal Rachel a blow. Regardless of the class dynamics, however, Sylvia's remark is what sets the rest of the story in action.

=**Symbolism**= Sometimes a character makes special connections with images in a story. Here are three different images Rachel focuses on near the end of “Eleven”. What are the connections Rachel makes with them? In other words, what do they //symbolize//to her?

A red sweater: being singled out; unfairness A birthday party: unhappiness, disappointment A runaway balloon:

=Story= (Listen Here) What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are--underneath the year that makes you eleven.

Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten. Or maybe some days 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 you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay. That's what I tell Mama when she's sad and needs to cry. Maybe she's feeling three.

Because 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. That's how being eleven years old is.

You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not until you're almost twelve. that's the way it is. Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box. Today I wish I was one hundred and two instead of eleven because if I was one hundred and two I'd have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk. I would've known how to tell her it wasn't mine instead of just sitting there with that look on my face and nothing coming out of my mouth. "Whose is this?" Mrs. Price says, and she holds the red sweater up in the air for all the class to see. "Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a month."

"Not mine," says everybody. "Not mine."

"It has to belong to somebody," Mrs. Price keeps saying, but nobody can remember. 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. It's maybe a thousand years old and even if it belonged to me I wouldn't say so.

Maybe because I'm skinny, maybe because she doesn't like me, that stupid Sylvia Saldivar says, "I think it belongs to Rachel." An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her. Mrs. Price takes the sweater and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out.

"That's not, I don't, you're not...Not mine," I finally say in a little voice that was maybe me when I was four.

"Of course it's yours," Mrs. Price says. "I remember you wearing it once." Because she's old and the teacher, she's right and I'm not.

Not mine, not mine, not mine, but Mrs. Price is already turning to page thirty-two, and math problem number four. I don't know why but all of a sudden I'm feeling sick inside, like the part of me that's three wants come out of my eyes,only I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth really hard and try to remember today when I am eleven, eleven. Mama is making a cake for me tonight, and when Papa comes home everybody will sing Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you.

But when the sick feeling goes away and I open my eyes, the red sweater's still sitting there like a big red mountain. I move the red sweater to the corner of my desk with y ruler. I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my chair a little to the right. Not mine, not mine, not mine.

In my head I'm thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley. 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.

"Rachel," Mrs. Price says. She says it like she's getting mad. "you put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense."

"But it's not-"

"Now!" Mrs. Price says. This is when I wish I wasn't eleven, because all the years inside of me--ten, nine, eight, seven, six five, four, three, two one--are pushing at the back of my eyes when 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.

That's when everything I've been holding in since this morning, since when Mrs. Price put the sweater on my desk, finally lest go, and all of a sudden I'm crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I'm not. I'm eleven and it's my birthday today and I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of me, until there aren't any more tears left in my eyes, and it's just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast. But the worst part is right before the bell rings for lunch. That stupid Phyllis Lopez, who is even dumber than Sylvia Saldivar, says she remembers the red sweater is hers! I take it off right away and give it to her, only Mrs. Price pretends like everything's okay.

Today I'm eleven. There's a cake Mama's making for tonight, and when Papa comes home from work we'll eat it. There'll be candles and presents and everybody will sing Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you, Rachel, only it's too late.

I'm eleven today. I'm eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, but I wish I was one hundred and two. I wish I was anything but eleven, because I want today to be far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it.



=Themes=
 * Innocence**- the theme of innocence is seen in the way Rachel talks throughout the story. The repetition of phrases and the terms "tippy-top" or "tiny-tiny" helps the audience keep in mind that the main character is just a child. Also, this story seems like the first experience Rachel has had of dealing with an authority figure who is wrong. She understands that Mrs. Price has made a mistake, but she also knows that she cannot talk back to Mrs. Price and she loses her composure.


 * Family**- even though Rachel has had a horrible experience at school on her birthday she thinks of her mom and dad. She daydreams about how a cake made by her mother will be waiting for her and how they will all eat it together when her father gets home from work. This shows Rachel immense love for her family and the comfort they provide for her.