Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Eleanor and Park, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Adolescence and Shame
Love and Intimacy
Poverty and Class
Family and Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Eleanor’s weekend creeps by at a glacial pace. All she can think about is Monday, when she gets to see Park again. As she does her homework, she notices that someone has written “do i make you wet” on her geography textbook cover, and crosses it out with black pen, embarrassed. Eleanor watches cartoons with her siblings, listens to Park’s music on her Walkman, and fantasizes about holding hands with him all afternoon. In the days since they started holding hands on the bus, the two of them have talked less—but Eleanor feels like their connection has gotten stronger, and her attraction to him has grown.
Eleanor is so happy about the new developments in her relationship with Park that all the other white noise of her life—even the appearance of a lewd, vaguely threatening message on her textbook cover—seems small and faraway in comparison.
Themes
Meanwhile, Park is spending his weekend having driving lessons with his father, Jamie, who is attempting to teach him how to drive stick. Park keeps messing up, and his father keeps reprimanding him for his mistakes and making him start again. Park protests that there’s no point in learning to drive manual, since he’ll only ever have to drive the family’s automatic Impala, but Park’s father shouts that Park needs to learn. Park knows that if his mother were around, his father would never talk to him this way. Park’s father demands he try again, but when Park continues shorting the engine, his father gets angrier and angrier, at one point hitting the glove box. Park gets out of the car and begins walking home, ignoring his father’s angry screams.
This scene is the closest thing to abuse Park experiences in the book. Jamie loses control of his temper while giving Park driving lessons, unable to impress upon Park the importance of mastering both manual and automatic transmissions, and lashes out both verbally and physically. Park and Jamie’s differing opinions about driving represent a bigger metaphorical problem between them: they can’t agree on how Park should move through the world. Jamie wants Park to stick to tradition, but Park knows there are other ways of existing.
Themes
On the walk home, Park takes the long way so that he can walk past Eleanor’s house. He hopes that he’ll be able to see her face through the window, but is unable to catch a glimpse. As he heads home, he dreads the rest of the weekend, and can’t wait for Monday to come.
Eleanor has been using her relationship with Park as a mental escape for some time—and now Park finds himself doing the same thing.
Themes
