Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First-Person (Central Narrator) / Rachel
It's time to play everybody's favorite literary game, "What's That Narrative Technique?" Okay, so it's not everybody's favorite game, but once you learn the trick to it, at least it's an easy game to win.
Survey says that Rachel is a first-person, central narrator, which is a fancy way of saying that Rachel is telling us the story herself and that she is its protagonist. If that's still a little tricky, don't worry. Let's consider an example and take it from there:
I'm crying in front of everybody. I wish I was invisible but I'm not. I'm eleven and it's my birthday today and I'm crying like I'm three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. (19)
We can tell Rachel is a first-person narrator because of the use of the word "I." The word "I" clues us in that Rachel is telling this story about herself. If she was telling someone else's story, then the above example would read, "She put her head down on the desk…," and we would call that third-person narration. Pretty simple, right?
We also know Rachel is a central narrator because the story is about her. "Eleven" tells how Rachel had a trying time on her eleventh birthday thanks to a misunderstanding over an ugly red sweater. If Rachel were telling us someone else's story, then we would call Rachel a peripheral narrator. But since she is the central character in the story, the protagonist, we call her the central narrator. Piece of cake.
Put them together and what have you got? A first-person central narrator! Done and done.