The novel Leonora by Elena Poniatowska is about Leonora Carrington who was born into a wealthy family and challenged family traditions, and those expectations imposed by her social background and her gender. It will be shown that the main character acts according to a self-construction process free of social impositions. Simone de Beauvoir’s well-known phrase “one is not born a woman, one becomes one”, is one of the feminist positions that contributes to this analysis, as well as the literary techniques explained by Gérard Genette, Oscar Tacca, Mieke Bal and the narratology theories of focalization, direct speech, indirect speech and free indirect speech. The aim of this essay is to analyze the literary techniques that present the self-construction of the main character, and their effects on the reader. The hypotheses of this essay are that in order to present the self-construction of the character, the literary techniques create an effect of alternately zooming the reader in to the main character’s experience, and zooming out to a more objective view. In addition, the literary techniques used to present Carrington’s self-construction seek to show her feminist stance and her transgressions in both private and public spheres. Poniatowska’s literary techniques deliver the message that when a woman is released from social and cultural constraints she has the power to modify spheres.