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Chapter 23
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
Eleanor has, to her great shame, gotten good at sleeping through Sabrina and Richie’s arguments. Tonight, though, she is startled awake by a noise, and knows that “something [is] different.” She hears men’s voices outside, followed by slamming in the kitchen and then gunshots. Eleanor panics and flies out of bed, urging her siblings to stay put while she crawls out the window and goes next door for help. At her neighbor’s house, Eleanor calls the police. They soon arrive and escort Eleanor back over to her own house to take a look around.
Eleanor is used to her mother and Richie fighting, and has even learned to tune them out—she has become numb to the constant verbal and physical violence all around her. But when gunshots get involved, she springs into action, desperate to save herself.
Themes
As the police enter the house, Eleanor hears Richie cursing and the kids crying. Sabrina comes out to the living room and reprimands Eleanor for calling the police, begging her to tell the cops it was “all a mistake.” The police talk with Richie for a while and then ask Eleanor one last time if everything’s all right—Eleanor apologizes for wasting their time. As soon as the police are gone, Richie loses his cool, yelling at Eleanor and punching a hole in the wall. Sabrina defends Eleanor, insisting she was just scared of the gunshots, but Richie accuses Eleanor of trying to get him out of the house. He shouts that he can “get rid of” her if he wants to before Sabrina drags Eleanor away off to bed.
Even though Eleanor did hear gunshots, Richie manages to get the police to leave—and, through his influence over Sabrina, gets Eleanor to tell the police that she made a “mistake” in calling them. This passage shows how domestic abusers manipulate even those charged with enforcing the law—and how Richie’s reign of terror is impossible for Eleanor to topple on her own.
Themes
Sabrina brings Eleanor back to her and her siblings’ room and explains that Richie fired the gunshots as warning shots to try and scare off some older kids playing in the park behind the house. Sabrina also tells Eleanor that because Richie doesn’t have a license for the gun—and, she implies, keeps drugs in the house—the police visit could have meant a lot of trouble for him. Sabrina puts all the kids back to bed and then leaves the room, leaving Eleanor to comfort her siblings.
Eleanor can hardly believe how many excuses her mother makes for Richie and how badly she allows him to behave time after time. The story implies that Eleanor did the right thing in calling the cops, but she has been made to feel like a villain—a deliberate move on Richie’s part meant to further weaken the connection between Eleanor and the rest of the family.
Themes
