Eleanor and Park: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Eleanor gets home from school before the rest of her siblings, and she is relieved to have some alone time with her mother. After having been away from her family for a year, Eleanor was flattened and disappointed by how she was received upon finally coming home—Eleanor felt “like her siblings didn’t recognize her.” Only the five-year-old Mouse showed any excitement about Eleanor’s return—eight-year-old Maisie, the toddler Richie Jr., and the eleven-year-old Ben barely even looked up when she walked into the house.

Upon returning home, Eleanor was shocked to see how “depressing” the new house her family had moved into was—she and her siblings were all packed into one room, and the bathroom, off the kitchen, didn’t even have a door on it—just a flowered curtain between the fridge and the toilet. Now, as Eleanor lets herself into the house after school, she finds the place “even more depressing in daylight.”

Eleanor’s mother, Sabrina, who is preparing soup for dinner, asks her how school was—Eleanor says it was “fine,” even though on the inside, she feels like she’s about to cry. Eleanor admires her mother’s beauty, and wishes she looked more like her. Eleanor feels there is “too much” of her—her mother is slim and delicate, but Eleanor is “built like she [runs] a medieval pub.” The only thing she and her mother have in common is their red hair, but while Eleanor’s is wild and bright, Sabrina’s is tame and auburn.

Sabrina conspiratorially tells Eleanor she has something to show her before leading her to the hall closet and pulling out a black trash bag—it is full of all of Eleanor’s old things. Eleanor thanks her mother for saving her things and keeping Richie from throwing them out. Sabrina returns to the kitchen to finish dinner, stating that she wants to have everything ready when Richie gets home, while Eleanor goes into her room and begins looking through the bag. Inside it, she finds some old paper dolls, a few of her favorite books, some old school assignments—and, at the very bottom, a box that makes Eleanor’s heart leap in her chest.

Eleanor’s uncle in Minnesota always used to send her and her siblings a Fruit of the Month Club subscription every year, and the children would fight over who got to keep the boxes. A carefully-saved grapefruit box was always Eleanor’s favorite. Now, she removes the box from the trash bag and checks inside—within it are stationery, pencils, markers, and her treasured Walkman, though its batteries are missing. Eleanor, however, is thrilled just by “the possibility of music.”