Eleven Short Story Summary

Growing up, you face new conflicts and challenges. Eleven-year old Rachel faces a new type of problem with her math teacher in the short story, "Eleven". Rachel starts of her day joyfully, since it was her birthday. However, in math class, Rachel's teacher Mrs. Price thinks that an "ugly sweater" sitting in the coatroom, belonged to Rachel. As a result, she gave Rachel the red sweater, ignoring the young girl. I believe that Mrs. Price had a reason for being rude to Rachel. First, Rachel didn't stand up for herself when accusations arose. Also, Mrs. Price was tired of having the red sweater sit in her coatroom. Lastly, Mrs. Price had to teach, so she ignored Rachel.

To begin, when Rachel was accused of being the owner of the red, ugly sweater, she didn't really stand up for herself. In the story, it states, "Mrs. Price takes the sweaters and puts it right on my desk, but when I open my mouth nothing comes out."Since Rachel didn't say anything at the time, Mrs. Price dismisses any other statement Rachel says later. Mrs. Price merely goes on with her lesson and teaches without a care. If Rachel had found the courage to say confidently that the sweater was in face not hers, the outcome of the situation could've been very different. Rachel could've gotten rid of the sweater and had a great birthday. Alas, Rachel didn't stand up for herself, resulting in Mrs. Price's actions.

Price was tired of no one claiming the sweater that had sat in her room for a long time. She says, "'Whose is this?'...'Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a month.'" After weeks of having an unclaimed sweater sit in her room, Mrs. Price outright asked her students whose sweater it was. She would've been annoyed that the sweater just sat in her coatroom and wouldn't have wanted it to be her responsibility any