David Kimbel

Mr. Price
English 11, Period 4
3 December 2015
Eleanor & Park Summary
Eleanor & Park was written by Rainbow Rowell, which revolves around two young teen
star-cross lovers attending the same high school in the bland Omaha, Nebraska set in the 1980s.
This book/story showcases the realism, diversity, and complications of life, brought by the
perspectives of these two main characters.
The story begins by the introduction of Park who tells the story from his perspective.
Park explains some of the origins of him and his family; he explains how he is half-Korean, (his
father being white, and his mother being korean) and what his interests are. He explains to the
reader that hes band lover, and always buys cassette tapes and puts in his cassette player every
time he gets on the bus. Also to mention, he was a comic book enthusiast, some including: XMen and Watchmen. He explains to the readers how hes a under the radar kind of guy and
doesnt really have that many friends to hang out with and considered himself an outsider. One
day when he went on the bus to school, he saw a girl, who he soon would know as Eleanor.
Then the story quickly shifts to Eleanors perspective on the origins of herself and her
family. (Each and every chapter the story changes perspective from each of the two main
characters) She describes herself as an overweight, chubby redhead, who wears a disgusting style
of clothing that resembles as ugly men clothes. She explains the abusiveness of her step father
named Richie, and how she couldnt treat herself. Eleanor explains how she is the oldest
sibling in the family of two other siblings. Her non-defensive mother deals with her abusive
stepfather only for the sake of financial aid and the provision of her children. To also add, she

had to deal with obscene, graphic and inappropriate written messages on her textbook writing by
an unknown person almost everyday, that eventually doubled her insecurity as an individual. On
the same day Eleanor goes on the bus, Park happens to be on the bus too. The perspective once
again switches to Park, in which he sees Eleanor for the first time. There wasnt any real spark at
first, but only noticed her awful outer appearance, and knew from that point the bullies would all
line up to beat her up. In result, Park kindly, but discretely let Eleanor sit by him on the bus, and
Eleanor is mostly frightened by him, but gets used to it during the ride to school.
As a week passed by, Eleanor would notice the comic books Park was reading and would
always glance over to secretly read them by herself. She caught on that Park was secretly waiting
until hed know she was done reading that page. Once day Park gave Eleanor a comic book, even
though they hardly spoke to each other, it was the closest thing as a start of a new friendship.
More time passed by and before time knew it itself, they were the best of friends and were madly
in love with each other. Even though Eleanor was considered an unattractive girl, he didnt see
any of the unattractiveness, but always thought of her as beautiful.
Although it seems as if everything was perfect, things were not. Eleanor had to hid her
relationship from her parents especially her abusive father, because he didnt allow her to date
anyone. It was extra hard for Eleanor to keep her secret because of her two younger siblings that
had to share one room together. Park on the other hand, had problems with his own dad with the
acceptance of who Park wanted to be. Parks dad always had a plan for him and wanted him to
follow that path that he paved for his own son, like driving a stick-shift car before getting his
licence. Parks mom had a soft side, and secretly let Park take the driving test and passed, all
behind his fathers back. As the story goes on, Eleanor gets to meet Parks family for the first
time, and even though it was a shaky start being with Eleanors insecure attitude, Parks family

finally accepted her as Parks girlfriend. Unfortunately, Eleanor had to sneak out of her house
just to visit Park at certain times.
One night after coming back from Parks house, Richie was in the house wide awake and
caught Eleanor in the act. Richie was not only furious,but also revealed to Eleanor that he was
the one that wrote the obscene messages on her book to lower her self esteem. Eleanor dashed
out the house all the way to Parks house. Eleanor explains to Park that she needs to get out of
the town and live somewhere else, because she cant take it anymore. Eleanor explains to Park
that she has an uncle in Minnesota that she could stay and live with. Park respects Eleanors
wishes and plans the whole trip over night, while staying in the trailer parked outside of his
house. The next morning, Park had to get things from his house and was stopped by his dad. Park
explained the whole thing and his dad simply said that he knew Richie when he was younger and
understands how dangerous the situation was, therefore allowing Park to drive her to Minnesota,
with one exception to drive stick-shift. Park then went off taking a few days to arrive and says
goodbye to his lover for maybe the last time.
The story ends with a whole year going by, and Park receiving a letter from Eleanor
containing only three words, which the reader has to guess.

David Kimbel
Mr. Price
English 11, Period 4
3 December 2015

Eleanor & Park Analysis

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is a teen fiction novel that greatly conveys to the
readers of the story of the realism, diversity, and complications of life. To be honest, this book
would have absolutely nothing special or awe-inspiring towards the readers if they didnt involve
the those three main points in the story. All of the dialogue in this book seemed real, there was
not an ounce of chiche dialogue in this book, more specifically, all of the dialogue contained
common scene driven writing, which I give props to the author that wrote this book that had
great knowledge of what it was to been a teenager once again. The two things that personally
stuck out to me in a positive way was the time period and the references in the book. The 80s is
considered my favorite decade because I imagine the whole atmosphere to be so lit up, and with
all the amazing music and movies exploding everywhere, it was a huge treat for me to read a
story taking place in the 80s. The author does a fantastic job incorporating references in her
book, like the X-Men comic books, which stuck me with familiarity. Basically, the author added
current references in her book that was just simply brought up in the 80s time period.
The creation of the two main characters were by far the best thing about this book. Unlike
other current teen novels were cliches are bursting within every word of a book, this book was
100% original. Unlike having two white teen protagonists, you have two unlikely characters of
different races and sizes, which makes the book seem a brand new story that you wouldnt know
what was going to happen next. The next thing I loved about this book, is how chaotic life was
for the two main characters and how they had to overcome obstacles in their life in order to
accomplish what they wanted. That really helps generate a realistic approach to this teen novel,
that is rare among the genre people read today. Rainbow Rowell also incorporates many literary
devices in her book, here are some examples: Holding Eleanors hand was like holding a
butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete and completely alive. (71) The

author uses a simile and imagery for her literary device using like to describe holding a
butterfly to Eleanor and shows imagery with the holding of a butterfly. Eleanor was right. She
never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasnt supposed to look nice; it was supposed to
make you feel something. (96) The author uses a metaphor as her literary device comparing
Eleanor as art. He made her feel like more than the sum of her parts. (139) The author uses
both a simile and a hyperbole as the literary devices using like and the hyperbole statement of
feeling like more than the sum of her parts.
In conclusion, Eleanor & Park perfectly showcased a story in which realism, diversity,
and the complications of life were implemented into the reader's mind, giving them a sense of
reality.