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
The first couple hours of the drive are a blur. Park struggles with the transmission a couple of times and even gets on the interstate headed in the wrong direction, but the nervous Eleanor seems not to notice his mistakes. Soon, they’re headed in the right direction, and even sooner they reach Iowa, where they stop for gas and a map. When they get back on the road, Eleanor falls asleep—Park is slightly sad that she’s going to spend their last few hours together unconscious, but knows how exhausted she must be. After another hour or so, Park himself grows tired. He pulls off onto a shoulder, curls up next to Eleanor, and falls asleep.
All throughout their relationship, Park and Eleanor have both been craving more alone time together and more freedom—now they have both, but under terrible circumstances.
Themes
Eleanor wakes up in Park’s arms. She experiences a rare moment of bliss before her heart starts to break as she remembers what’s going on. Eleanor nudges Park awake and then kisses him deeply, pushing away thoughts of how they’ll soon be parted.
Eleanor feels safe in Park’s arms—but has reached a point in her life where not even his love can shelter her from facing the truth of her circumstances.
Themes
As Eleanor and Park continue kissing, the narrative shifts rapidly between Eleanor and Park’s points of view as they lament what their lives will look like without each other. Park thinks of the deep love his own parents share—and the luck they had in terms of timing. Eleanor and Park reflect separately on how much they love one another and how intensely they desire one another as their kisses grow more intense. Park tells Eleanor they should stop before they do something they both regret, and though Eleanor insists she wants to have sex, Park tells her they shouldn’t—he “need[s] to believe that [this] isn’t [their] last chance” to do so.
Eleanor is nervous that she and Park are about to part ways forever, and wants to take advantage of the little time they have left together. Park, though, finds this reality too sad to accept—and so he urges Eleanor to put the brakes on in spite of his own desire for her. Park is afraid that if he and Eleanor consummate their relationship, they’ll grow complacent once they’re apart rather than work to carve out time and space for one another in spite of their separation.
Themes
