E+P 3

Eleanor & Park: 220-End

The progression of this is novel was just bizarre to me at time. If I had to (very) briefly sum up the relationship of the two protagonists, I would best put it as “herky-jerky.” Emotionally, they would move one step forward, and two steps back with every failing or abrupt interaction. This could be somewhat due to the difference in the ideals they pull from each other.

Park definitely seeks a more romantic love from Eleanor, than the other way around. He makes awkward attempts at intimacy, tells her he loves her frantically, and does in fact, end up in a bit of a Romeo mentality. However, Eleanor does not come off as seeing Park like that. In fact, it seems like it is a much more “Superman” like mentality.

The way the two are described physically is also a theme worth analyzing. To put it bluntly, it really sounds like Park is out of her league, as Rowell brings up how tall and masculine he can be, even in full makeup (I did love the Marc Bolan and David Bowie worship in this book, I admit.) On the other side, there isn’t a chapter where Eleanor isn’t described as unappealing to everybody else on the planet. Although I didn’t necessarily love this ideal, it was endearing how personal of an experience Park had falling for her, and seeing past that.

The ending was much more riveting than I expected. After not enjoying a majority of the novel, it was surely an interesting twist to find out that the ever so haunting notes in Eleanor’s novels was her crazed stepfather all along. Richie was a bizarre character, in that we all wanted to like him, because he took care of the kids to some extent. This was shown to be impossible later on obviously.  I did not expect them to be permanently seperated, and that really hit home, that it simply wasn’t meant for them to work (R+J homage?)