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
At first, Park thought he was imagining things, but now he knows without a doubt that each day, on the bus, Eleanor is reading his comics along with him. Park feels he should say something to her to ease the “irrevocably weird” and silent situation between them—after all, they do sit together for an hour each day—but he is too intimidated.
Eleanor and Park are clearly interested in one another—even if the social atmosphere at their school makes them feel like talking to one another or embarking on a real friendship is somehow taboo.
Themes
The narrative switches to Eleanor’s point of view—she arrives home from school to find her mother looking tired, like she is “crumbling at the edges.” As soon as the other little kids get home, Sabrina kicks them all out of the house—Eleanor included—for making too much noise. Eleanor walks past Richie’s Rottweiler, Tonya, and follows her siblings to a little playground across the street, even though she wishes she could take a bath during the precious time when Richie isn’t home.
The scenes set at Eleanor’s house continue to show just how entirely her family’s lives now revolve around Richie’s needs and desires—even when he isn’t home. Sabrina knows that upsetting Richie means trouble for her and her children, and takes drastic measures to avoid doing anything he might not approve of or that might set him off.
Themes
As Eleanor asks her siblings questions about their home life and how they feel about Richie, Ben tells her that they all call him “Dad” now simply because “he’s married to Mom.” Eleanor asks if Ben feels like Richie is his dad, but Ben admits he doesn’t know what having a dad is “supposed to feel like.” Ben asks Eleanor what it was like living with “those people”—last year, Eleanor went to stay with the Hickmans, friends of Sabrina’s. Eleanor says that it was “okay” staying with them, but privately thinks that the Hickmans’ was better than home. Eleanor was only supposed to stay for a few days, but wound up staying a year.
Surprisingly, when Eleanor looks back on the year she spent in exile from her own home, she finds herself thinking her circumstances there were better than they are now. This shows just how dire things are in terms of Eleanor’s home life—and how desperate she is for escape from it. Eleanor’s siblings, too, are clearly confused, isolated, and emotionally neglected—but the younger kids don’t necessarily have the language, autonomy, or experience to describe what they’re feeling or why.
Themes
Eleanor looks around the playground for Maisie, who has gone off with the baby, and sees her sitting over near the basketball courts—the “stupid Asian kid” from the bus is playing, and Eleanor leaves the playground as soon as she sees him, warning Ben to look after the others. When Eleanor walks in the front door of the house, Richie is in the living room—she walks past him without saying a word, her “eyes straight ahead.”
The rigid way Eleanor walks past Richie suggests that she both hates and fears him. This passage marks the first time readers have seen Richie physically—but even though he’s in the house, Eleanor tries her very best to ignore his presence entirely.
Themes
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