Chloe Reyes
Mrs. Kirkeby
English 10, Period 6
13 November 2014
Book Report Eleanor & Park
1. Title of Work: “Eleanor & Park”
2. Author and Date Written: Rainbow Rowell; 2013
3. Country of Author: United States
4. Major Settings:
• Omaha, Nebraska 1986: Omaha is where Eleanor and Park reside in. A small simple town, where each resident is well acquainted with another.
• School Bus: Eleanor and Park first laid eyes on each other in the school bus. “The new girl took a deep breath and stepped farther down the aisle. Nobody would look at her. Park tried not to”.(7). As the main source of transportation to school for the a whole year, teens have chosen their “assigned seats” on the first day of school, sectioning off clicks and friends. “ “you can’t sit there,” Tina said. “that’s Mikayla’s seat.”.(8) Rowell uses the secluded atmosphere to emphasize Eleanor’s difference from the usual 80’s teen norm.
• Richie’s House: Eleanor is sent back to Omaha from a good friend of her mother’s, the Hickman’s, home when they get sick of catering to Eleanor. “Mr. Hickman kept telling his wife [...] “she’s not ours.”(36). Forced against her will to stay with her mother and now stepfather, Richie. Like her broken family, Eleanor now lives in a broken down home, Sharing one small bedroom with her four younger siblings and uses a bathroom connected to the kitchen. “This house was designed by cave trolls”(17). This is where Eleanor’s narrative really steals the spotlight. Her step-dad is
The Haunting of Hill House is a book about four people that all have backgrounds of experiencing supernatural events. Because of this, they were all chosen to explore the supernatural happenings occurring at Hill House. The house was originally built by a man named Hugh Crain. It had been a place of mysterious events and also the deaths of those who lived there. Dr. Montague, a supernatural investigator, then carefully selected three people with paranormal backgrounds, and invited them to explore the occurrences at the house. Luke, the future heir of the house, Theodora, a careless artist, and Eleanor Vance are invited to the house. Eleanor Vance is the main character and narrator of the story. She lived alone,
The Haunting of Hill House is a novel containing many characters who possess childlike qualities. Eleanor, the main character, had her childhood stolen and therefore acts the most childlike. Eleanor’s job was to care for her ill mother, which resulted in her missing out on vital socialization along with her chance to enjoy her young life. The references to the characters and their childish behavior begins fairly early in the novel. There have been suspicions of a house being haunted, named Hill House, so a Doctor named Dr. Montague decides to look for participants to occupy the house for the summer. When the characters arrive at Hill House in order to participate in the experiment, Eleanor and another important character named Theodora immediately connect. The two girls
The book “Eleanor & Park” was written by Rainbow Rowell and was published in February 2013 by St. Martin’s Press. Rainbow Rowell is an American author who writes young adult novels. It is a romance novel between two misfit students in 1986. The novel is portrayed from two different viewpoints, from Eleanor’s and Park’s who live in Omaha, Nebraska. Eleanor was a 16-year-old girl with big red curly hair and big body, she has pale skin with dark eyes. Park was a 16-year-old boy who is half Korean with nice black hair and had an average body, not ripped nor skinny. The love story was unusual because not only the main characters have contrast look but their social and family life is different too. This essay will provide summary of the book “Eleanor & Park” and provide the response focusing primarily on bullying, domestic abuse, and child abuse from all the chapters in the book.
The fog was like tracing paper over her eyes. From what she could see above, the blue sky was turning navy. Lily was standing at a bus stop wishing she was wearing gloves and a hat. She pulled her coat ever tighter around herself. Her lips were numb, her jaw fighting to chatter. The bus was late and she was meant to be meeting her friend Daisy on it. Daisy, when approached with the idea of travelling via public transport to the unpronounceable French café she desperately wanted to go to, seemed disgusted at the very notion. Lily reminded her that not everyone could rely on their Daddy buying them a new car as soon as they turned seventeen and that it certainly wasn't her fault if it was made unavailable due to an MOT. Daisy blushed prettily.
Eleanor and Park’s class not only affects their relationships with their families, but also with each other. Park’s way of expressing his love reflects the loving nature that his family shows him. Park and his father both have an interest in women who are different. Park thinks that his Korean mother “kept the accent on purpose, because his dad liked it” (Rowell 46). Just as his dad marries a Korean woman – someone of a different race, Park starts a relationship with Eleanor – someone different from others. Both women’s appearances are different from their community, and both Park and his father come to love these differences. Park’s love for Eleanor is also expressed more greatly because Park knows love from his family. Unlike Park, Eleanor’s family expresses very minimal love (if any) towards her, which results in Eleanor’s held back love. Eleanor abandons Park at the end of the story like her mother abandoned her. Also, Eleanor keeps her love hidden even at the end when she writes a letter
Eleanor dynamically changes as she spends time with Park because he accepts her for the person she is. Eleanor's first ride on the school bus is awkward. Nobody lets her sit with them and she knows why. They won’t let her
This novel is full of chance and hope. Eleanor and Park is not your typical love story. For starters, Eleanor likes to wear baggy men's shirts and too big mommy jeans. Eleanor has crazy, out of control, fire red, curly hair and is always bullied because of her appearance. Being covered in freckles from head to toe doesn't exactly help the situation either.
Everyone needs a home and a family to get by, but Eleanor seems unable to function in any situation outside of a home. She is unable to go out and make her own home, and like a child, she needs the home of another person to give her shelter and to protect her from the terrors that really get under her skin, such as the real world. And even when Eleanor thinks she has found a home with her newfound “cousin” Theodora, that is also ripped away.
However, Eleanor could not alter her absolute reality of loneliness. The commonality of the absolute reality between Eleanor and the Hill House is what strengthened their connection, which became crucial in the story. In Chapter Nine, Eleanor heard her mother's’ voice while being haunted by the Hill House: “What fools they are, she thought; now I will have to go into the library. ‘Mother, Mother,’ she whispered, ‘Mother’, and she stopped at the library door, sick… I can feel the whole house and heard even Mrs. Montague protesting, and Arthur, and then the doctor, clearly, ‘We’ve got to look for her; everyone please hurry.’” (Jackson, 169-170). In this point of the story, the connection between the House and Eleanor is stronger than ever, and Eleanor’s isolation from the rest of the group intensifies the connection. Eleanor sees what the House sees, and the House is in control of Eleanor’s thoughts and actions. The House intended for Eleanor to be separated from the group in order to surround her with the absolute reality of loneliness. As the Gothic heroine, Eleanor needs to be saved from her fate in order to live by the Gothic Hero. The character of Luke Sanderson does not suit the traditional Gothic hero, but does try and save Eleanor from her mortal fate when she climbed the iron stairway in Chapter Nine. Luke manages to save Eleanor from the danger
In Eleanor and Park, Eleanor is in a bad environment at home. She doesn’t know how to get help, or what she should do about the whole situation, so she stays. It wasn’t until she met Park, that they fell in love, and she realised he could help her. The harassment from her step-dad got so bad that she knew she had to leave, and Park steps in as a hero helping her and changing her life for the better. Page 294, paragraph 10 is a note Park left for his parents after feeling the need to take Eleanor to her uncle's out in Minnesota.
Sections 1-14 AILD Reader Response Assignment Module 11 Maggie Wyatt Character List Darl: one of Addie and Anse’s sons, shorter than Jewel “anyone watching us can see Jewel’s frayed and broken straw hat a full head above my own.” He loves his mother Addie even if she didn’t dote on him, emotional and expresses his love, and he narrates most of the first section. He is jealous of his younger brother because Jewel received all of his mother’s attention and he makes the three dollar trip so Jewel won’t be around when Addie passes. As Cora thinks Darl is like his mother “I always said Darl was different from those others. I always said he was the only one of them that had his mother’s nature, had any natural affection.”
(Rowell, 519). This is significant because it shows how even though they constantly bullied her and made fun of her, Steve and Tina still had it in them to help. Once Eleanor reaches Parks house, she tells him everything that had happened and she decides that it would be safer for her to head to Minnesota to live with some relatives. Park instantly offers to drive her, and the two have a very bittersweet trip,
Response 3: In this passage, Max is speaking with no one since this passage is written in third person. I think this is interesting because I don’t really understand why someone wouldn’t want to be driven to school. You have to wake up early to get ready and make it in time when instead you have a ride, you can wake up later, take your time dressing, eating, and make it in time without having anything to worry about. I can relate to this book because when I was in middle school I also had to ride the bus and wasn’t necessarily happy about it. Plus it would drop the students off at one spot and from their, we had to walk home, which was a bit annoying. This reminds me of sixth through some of the seventh grade because I remember getting on the
Eleanor & Park is a young adult novel by Rainbow Rowell. This story is praised and loved by all ages because of it’s ability to relate to the reader with it’s varied issues and themes that anyone can relate to. From romance, to bullying and violence, it has a little something for everyone. Overall themes are an important asset to this young adult novel, since they are the ideas that Rainbow Rowell explores, and helps the story take shape. It all goes back into the “coming of age” theme. The protagonists, Eleanor and Park, are two 16 year olds facing life’s obstacles, such as bullying, abuse, and even romance. This book teaches many lessons that one reader might relate to; although taking place in 1986, the lessons still relate to this day, from relationships, to issues at home. Eleanor & Park is an exceptional book that even the most hardened reader can relate to, this book handles a lot of issues and themes that anyone can relate to, and dishes out life lessons that will impact the reader, it’s written in such a realistic way, that it feels like a real story, and that is not in any way fictional. This book is a great piece of fiction that blends in pop culture, issues, and romance all in one that anyone can read.
It is amazing how a seemingly educated woman that has won Oscar awards for her documentaries, could possibly be so far off base in her review of the Disney movie “The Lion King”. Margaret Lazarus has taken a movie made for the entertainment of children and turned it into something that is racist, sexist and stereotypes gender roles. She uses many personal arguments to review the movie but offers few solutions. The author is well organized but she lacks alternate points of view and does not use adequate sources. Lazarus utilizes the statement at the end of her review that “the Disney Magic entranced her children, but they and millions of other children were given hidden messages that could only do them and us harm” (118). She makes her