Eleanor and Park

by

Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park: Chapter 58 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Park goes to prom with Cat, a girl from work. Holding Cat’s hand feels, to Park, like holding the hand of a mannequin. The morning after the dance, Park’s father wakes him up by tossing a piece of mail onto Park’s bed—it is a postcard from Eleanor. Park is overjoyed, and as he reads it over, he feels “Something heavy and winged [take] off from his chest.” The postcard is “Just three words long.”
Park has begun to accept the colorless monotony of life without Eleanor—but then, out of the blue, a postcard from her shows up. Though Rowell doesn’t reveal what the postcard says, the “three words” could possibly be “I love you.” This would suggest that Eleanor does, after all, want to preserve all that she and Park discovered over the course of their crazy year together.
Themes
Adolescence and Shame Theme Icon
Love and Intimacy Theme Icon
Quotes