Sandra Cisneros writes Eleven as a memoir through the eyes of an eleven year old. Turning eleven happens to be a tragic day for the main character, Rachel. Rachel is a fresh turning eleven year old who finds herself in an awful situation on her birthday. Forced to wear a raggedy old sweater that does not belong to her, she makes it defiantly clear about her feelings towards the clothing item. Rachel is characterized through various literary techniques such as diction, simile and vignette, which describe her character. She is a defiant little girl who out of stubbornness has to defy the sweater in her mind, although she is too timid to do so in front of her teacher. Though Rachel is eleven, she is not courageous to say no, but rather cries like a three year old, which gives an insight about Cisneros and her own childhood.

Cisneros portrays Rachel as a timid five year old when she describes her actions with the sweater on her desk. Rachel likens the sweater to a mountain on her desk, which by no means is a reasonable comparison because the sweater is not a gigantic onus, but merely a childish one.  This simile by Cisneros shows Rachel makes big issues out of nothing. The vignettes Cisneros uses to describe her actions prove the fact that Rachel is too timid. She first uses a ruler to push the sweater as far away from her possible, and then she moves her pencil, then the eraser and then finally the books. Cisneros writes this list of items Rachel moves to show her paranoia and unnecessary fear of a red piece of cloth. Clearly, Rachel makes much ado about nothing, which prompts one to think Cisneros might have been like that when she was a child.

Cisneros characterizes Rachel not only as stupidly timid, but also foolishly defiant. She repeats “not mine” in almost every paragraph. Cisneros repeats her diction like “not mine” throughout the passage to portray Rachel as a stubborn brat who cannot do anything to appease the current situation despite the fact that she just turned eleven. Once again, Cisneros’s vignettes are seen when Rachel moves her chair and thinks what she will do to the sweater during lunch.  She could not wait to throw the sweater “over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up in to a little ball and toss it in the alley.” This elaborate detail concerning the future of the sweater shows just how defiant Rachel is when it comes to small and silly matters. Her colloquial diction such as “bunch it up” shows her anger towards a piece of cloth because her diction indicates what she is going to do with it. Apparently, Rachel is only irritating herself with her defiance.

Cisneros characterizes Rachel as a timid and defiant girl who takes silly matters too seriously and foolishly. Throughout the passage Cisneros’s use of repeated and colloquial diction, similes and vignettes prove that Rachel is a brat. Rachel is too shy to say no to Mrs. Price and too defiant to let the smelly piece of cloth sit on her desk. Rachel’s characterization in short story represents Cisneros long past childhood as well. Cisneros distinct style of numerous similes, many vignettes and overtly familiar colloquial diction makes one wonder what Cisneros responses were to events in her childhood, if not similar.