Eleanor & Park Themes

Although Eleanor and Park connect as fellow misfits, their families are worlds apart. Eleanor & Park gives us vivid pictures of two entirely different kinds of families: Park's loving, stable h...

So we're going to use a broad umbrella here. Isolation, or aloneness, is a big theme in Eleanor & Park, and we think that includes the feeling of being different, and not fitting in. There are...

We can't really talk about Eleanor & Park without talking about love, can we? From the Romeo and Juliet references, to the intense descriptions of their first encounters, this book is all...

Sometimes, the pain and suffering described in Eleanor & Park is overwhelming. Eleanor's not only bullied at school, she's bullied horribly, in a scar-you-for-life kind of way. And the terrifyi...

With all of the suffering in Eleanor & Park, it's amazing our beloved characters can face some of the horrible situations they're up against. But both of them—Eleanor in particular—have ple...

No matter when you go to high school, appearance is always something teens struggle with. Social status can sometimes be determined on looks alone, and that's something both Eleanor and Park experi...

In Eleanor & Park, abandonment primarily pertains to Eleanor and her family, and it's a big part of Eleanor's life. She spent her childhood with a father who never cared about her, and then spe...

Eleanor wears ties; Park wears eyeliner. Eleanor hates makeup; Park doesn't do sports. They have passionate discussions about gender roles in comic books. Oh, and Eleanor's the Han Solo in the rela...

From the opening pages of Eleanor & Park, it's clear that race is a big deal. It's the first thing we hear the kids talk about on the bus, and in this white, Midwestern town, anyone who's not w...

Park comes from a well-adjusted home, with happily married parents and a cheerfully decorated house, while Eleanor's family is broken and dysfunctional, and her run-down house doesn't even have a b...