Eleanor & Park Final Reflection

I had just recently finished the novel Eleanor & Park, and absolutely loved it. I really love how the author, Rainbow Rowell, created a love story that is both incredibly peculiar and tragic. First of all, I thought this love story was very peculiar, because in most novels, the two love-interests are usually two attractive people who are the same race, with similar problems and ideas, who already seem as if they are meant for each other once they are introduced in the novel. However, the two love-interests in Eleanor & Park couldn't be further from this stereotype.

In the novel, Eleanor is first described as ,"Not just new-but big and awkward. With crazy hair, bright red on top of curly. And she was dressed like.... like she wanted people to look at her. Or maybe she didn't get what a mess she was. She had on a plaid shirt, a man's shirt, with had a dozen weird necklaces hanging around her neck and scarves wrapped around her wrists." (pg.8) Eleanor's weight is also described on page 15," 'I had been hungry all the years', she read. A few kids laughed. Jesus, Park thought, only Mr.Stressman would make a chubby girl read a poem about eating on her first day of class." According to these two quotes, you can picture Eleanor as an awkward, chubby girl, with crazy, curly red hair, who wears weird clothes.

In the novel, Park is described as," Weird Asian kid. She was pretty sure he was Asian. It was hard to tell. He had green eyes. And skin in the color of sunshine through honey. Maybe he was Filipino. Was that in Asia, Probably. Asian's out-of-control huge." (pg. 53) In the novel, Park is described as a half-asian kid, with green eyes, and honey-colored skin. In the novel, he is described to be a part of the social heirarchy in his school, but he secludes himself because of lack of interest. Not the usual star-crossed lovers you would imagine right? I believe that Rainbow Rowell made this couple very diverse in both race and appearance, to show that relationships can be between anyone, as long as the romantic feelings are mutual. I believe she is trying to show that a relationship doesn't have to be a perfect, cliche in order to be successful, which I think is a very interesting and accurate point.

The link below Rainbow Rowell's personal blog with Q&A about the book
Rainbow Rowell's Blog