If students are strictly controlled by their friends or classmates and teachers, they start losing their happiness, their confidence and they lose themselves. If you read about Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Eleven” and think it is about a girl who must wear a sweater she doesn’t want to wear. Instead, it is a story about a girl who struggles to hold onto herself when she is challenged by people who have power over her.
When Rachel’s classmate exposed her, Rachel begins to lose herself by losing her confidence. One day Rachel’s teacher asks who owns a stretched out, itchy red sweater that was left behind in the coat room. Sylvia Saldivar puts Rachel in the spotlight when she says to Mrs. Price, “I think the sweater is Rachel’s.” Sylvia
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In “Eleven,” the main character, Rachel, states, “…if I was one hundred and two I’d have known what to say when Mrs. Price put the red sweater on my desk.” Throughout “Eleven” Rachel frequently feels intimidated by Mrs. Price. Many times, she becomes silent and tries to manage with her frustration. In the beginning of “Eleven,” Rachel feels intimidated and is silenced by Mrs. Price. An example of this is when Mrs. Price says, “Of course it’s yours. I remember you wearing it once’ Because she’s older and the teacher, she’s right and I’m not.” Rachel is scared when Mrs. Price demands that she put the sweater on and does not allow her to explain that it is not her cloths. Rachel, while still silent, attempts to manage by thinking about happy thoughts. She thinks about her birthday dinner that evening. She also thinks about the birthday cake Mama is making and everyone singing happy birthday. As I read I viewed her frustration and found another place in the text when this happened. “I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember I am eleven, eleven.” This shows me that even though she is close to tears in frustration, she still tries to think about the happy family time that will happen later that