STACKING CAKE in Sandra Cisneros' ELEVEN
Context: The red sweater is being forced upon Rachel by Sylvia Saldivar who believes the sweater belongs it Rachel because it is "raggedy and old". Mrs. Price trusts Sylvia and places the sweater on Rachel's desk, despite not receiving confirmation from Rachel to prove if it is indeed hers. The following sentence is Rachel's reaction to this scene: "I don't know why but all of a sudden I'm feeling sick inside, like the part of me that's three wants to come out of my eyes, only I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today I am eleven, eleven." (Cisneros 8) I think an identifiable theme in Sandra Cisneros' Eleven is the idea of how aging does not completely reset and instill the societal norms of someone's new age into them; people are extremely different when it comes to past experiences and future aspirations. The idea of aging is like adding layers to something: New things are ...