The second installment of Eleanor and Park has gotten a lot deeper into their relationship with each other, and deeper into their family lives.

Richie, Eleanor’s stepfather, is abusing Eleanor’s mother. There is nothing that Eleanor can do about her current situation between her mother and stepfather other than continue to lay low. Richie is an alcoholic with anger problems. For Christmas Dinner Eleanor’s mother makes a fairly large meal, one they’re not used to, and for desert Eleanor’s mother gives everyone rice pudding, Richie gets angry because he wants pumpkin pie. When he discovers that pumpkin pie wasn’t apart of the meal plan he begins cussing and yelling, and throws his bowl of the rice pudding at the wall and says he’s going out to get pumpkin pie, after he makes this big scene all the family does is clean up the mess and then watch movies. That part in particular was unsettling to me that he goes as far as throwing things and their only reaction to an outburst like that is to pick up the pieces and go about their day. It has become a norm for them to deal with those types of tantrums on a regular basis that they don’t even react to it anymore. It’s unfortunate when toxic and abuse lifestyles become normal for some people. Reading more into Eleanor’s person life I didn’t know whether to be upset with the mother or feel sorry for her. She feels she’s in a position where she cant leave, and that she’s stuck, but you also are upset with her because she continuously puts her children in danger by keeping this man around who cant control his anger, that shoots off a gun at kids playing outside too loudly, and that throws a type writer at a wall because Eleanor is typing on it and he doesn’t like the noises due to his hangover. Its hard to relate to her character because I’ve never known anyone and haven’t been myself, in that position, but if her kids are in constant distress wouldn’t it be better to leave? Or maybe when you’ve been beaten down so much you lose clarity of how things should actually be.

 

Park’s father holds a special place in my heart. Even though he is hard on Park and the two don’t really see eye to eye, I think he means well. He is so understanding and nice to Eleanor and shows that he cares about her in a fatherly type of way. He says something about knowing Eleanor’s stepfather and he knows how Richie is, and that if its easier for Eleanor to be at Park’s house than it is to be at her own, he would rather her spend more time at their house. He is an army man, and a man of a different era, his definition of what a man should be is different than Park’s generation. Park is so different than him, and not exactly a manly man, which when he wears the eyeliner, and when he says things he does is “gay” kind of shows the “metro sexual” side of Park which I think is hard for the father to digest. As a whole I think Park’s father loves him and has his best interest at heart, which makes him a loveable character in the book to me.

Now, from my previous post I talked about young love. As I continue reading my stance on the entire topic still stands. The way that they feel about each other and the feeling and excitement that they get from each other’s presence is how all relationships should feel. As we continue to get older we lose sight of what love actually is, we become more jaded as we go through more relationships and have our hearts broken. Which is why I think young love is one of the most special and purest things a young person can experience. Them kissing, they never want it to end; they love holding hands, he begs for her to stay around. As we get older those things don’t feel the same when we start to date someone. We don’t think something as simple as holding hands is that significant, which is why reading this book is so nice, and so nostalgic, it reminds us of what love actually is and what its supposed to feel like.

Eleanor and Park is about two young teenagers from different worlds with few common interests, falling in “young love”. Eleanor is a new student at her school and because she is poor, and comes from a broken family, she is an outcast in school and has no friends. Park, a boy that has a few friends but seems to enjoy being a loner, doesn’t get along with his father. The first day Eleanor has to ride the bus to school.  As she climbs onto the bus, she sees there is no place to sit.  As she walks towards the back of the bus, she finds an empty seat. As she starts to sit down, Tina, the "mean girl" says the seat is taken and Eleanor is not allowed to sit there, and that is the beginning of Tina bullying her through her school year. Eleanor keeps moving back to find a place to sit and it is next to Park. They started talking and as time went on they develop a relationship. 

 

When you’re young, being in love is something so special. Something as simple as holding hands can make you happy for the rest of the day. People who are older than high school age can read this book and feel nostalgic. Young love is something that, more often than not, happens at some point in their high school life. When you hear about young love as an adult you think that its not real, they aren’t capable of knowing what love is, they hardly know the person. As we get older, the idea of love changes, its not what it was when you were in high school or young, you lose the excitement of holding hands, and phone calls, it just becomes a normal thing. Maybe as we get older, we lose the site of what love is. Maybe people who are young and in love know more about it than adults do. When Eleanor asks Park for his phone number he is so happy and so excited that when he gets home from school he just waits, and when the phone rang he couldn’t help but run to his room just to talk to her. I think this book is sweet in the sense it gives us a reminder of what young love feels like and how happy and simple it all was. 

First blog post of the semester!