Eleven

Eleven by Sandra Cisneros was originally published as part of Cisneros’s 1991 short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. The collection won a number of literary awards, including the 1991 PEN Center West Award for Best Fiction. This collection primarily relays stories of Mexican American, or Chicana, women and how they relate to the world around them as minorities in a majority-culture system. Cisneros is known for incorporating elements of Mexican culture into her stories by use of imagery, language, and references to the family structure. While Cisneros’s works are not autobiographical, she draws heavily from her own lived experience as a Mexican American woman who grew up in Chicago.

Eleven tells the story of Rachel, a young girl who finds herself in a difficult situation on her 11th birthday. The situation reflects Rachel’s thoughts on how she doesn’t feel a year older—the marginalizing events of the story make her feel much smaller. Eleven is written in first person as a short-form narrative that often veers into stream-of-consciousness to emphasize the narrator’s youthful perspective and her overwhelming emotions.

The story begins with Rachel reflecting on “what they don’t tell you about birthdays” (Paragraph 1).