Eleanor and Park

Eleanor’s life has been much more difficult than Park’s, who had the benefit of growing up in a loving, middle-class environment. Eleanor, on the other hand, has been abandoned by both her mother and her father at different points in her life, and at the start of the book she has the misfortune to return to the house of her abusive step-father, Richie. She is not particularly close to her siblings, and she feels like her mother has been brainwashed to rationalize and accept Richie’s increasingly intense abuse. Richie’s house is so hostile to Eleanor that her mother has to guard the bathroom whenever Eleanor wants to bathe. Her life completely changes when she meets and starts dating Park. He gives her a reason to live, a reason to be excited, a reason to smile, not to mention the fact that he introduces her to new comics and music that she grows to love. Eleanor grows to be passionately attracted to Park, but after she escapes from Richie’s house towards the end of the novel, she curiously refuses to open or even return any of Park’s letters or gift baskets. It would appear that leaving him was something that she did not even want to think about, much less dwell on, as it would be too painful. The novel closes with a note of hope as it seems that finally gives him and writes him an “I love you” letter.