Eleanor and Park: Chapter 52 Summary & Analysis

The first couple hours of the drive are a blur. Park struggles with the transmission a couple of times and even gets on the interstate headed in the wrong direction, but the nervous Eleanor seems not to notice his mistakes. Soon, they’re headed in the right direction, and even sooner they reach Iowa, where they stop for gas and a map. When they get back on the road, Eleanor falls asleep—Park is slightly sad that she’s going to spend their last few hours together unconscious, but knows how exhausted she must be. After another hour or so, Park himself grows tired. He pulls off onto a shoulder, curls up next to Eleanor, and falls asleep.

Eleanor wakes up in Park’s arms. She experiences a rare moment of bliss before her heart starts to break as she remembers what’s going on. Eleanor nudges Park awake and then kisses him deeply, pushing away thoughts of how they’ll soon be parted.

As Eleanor and Park continue kissing, the narrative shifts rapidly between Eleanor and Park’s points of view as they lament what their lives will look like without each other. Park thinks of the deep love his own parents share—and the luck they had in terms of timing. Eleanor and Park reflect separately on how much they love one another and how intensely they desire one another as their kisses grow more intense. Park tells Eleanor they should stop before they do something they both regret, and though Eleanor insists she wants to have sex, Park tells her they shouldn’t—he “need[s] to believe that [this] isn’t [their] last chance” to do so.