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Chapter 1
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
That day, after school is out, Eleanor considers the options she has for getting home without taking the bus again. Every idea she can think of, though, comes with a problem of its own. She doesn’t know her new address yet, and can’t walk home; she can’t call her mother, Sabrina, for a ride, as her mother has no car or even a phone; the idea of calling her estranged father is laughable. Eleanor sits on the steps of the school building, staring at the bus, knowing she’ll have to take it—if not now, then tomorrow morning. The “devil-kids” on the bus repulse her, but she can’t tell whether “the Asian kid who finally let her sit down” is a part of their group or not.
Eleanor, too, feels a great deal of shame and anxiety as she navigates the uncharted waters of her new school. The difference between her shame and Park’s is that Eleanor’s discomfort and self-consciousness only comes in the wake of having been taunted—it’s other people’s reactions to her that bring her down, but on her own, she seems to be comfortable in her skin. This passage also contains hints about the poverty, abuse, and neglect that mark Eleanor’s home life.
Themes
Eleanor knows that no matter how bad the teasing gets, she can’t complain to her mother—if she does, her mother will make her ride to school with her stepfather, Richie, in the back of his truck. Eleanor is snapped from her thoughts when the Asian boy from earlier that morning bounds down the stairs towards the buses. Eleanor realizes that it must be leaving soon, and reluctantly gathers her things and heads towards it.
Eleanor clearly has a dread of her stepfather Richie, and as the novel progresses, the patterns of fear, abuse, and revulsion that mark Eleanor’s life will become clearer. Eleanor has to contend with shame and self-loathing not only at school but at home, too.
Themes
