Eleanor & Park

      Themes are always important aspects in books. Themes can be written to describe someone's experiences or be a main idea of a book/story. In Eleanor and Park, there is a variety of themes such as bullying, sexual harassment, poverty, body image, domestic abuse, and of course love. I focused on 3 themes; bullying, poverty, and sexual harassment.
    
     Bullying is a very clear theme from the beginning of Eleanor & Park. Eleanor is harassed from the day she steps foot on the school bus and into her school. She is bullied for her body image, choice of style, and looks in general. "Watch it, Raghead." Tina pushed roughly past Eleanor and climbed onto the bus. She had everybody else in their gym class calling Eleanor Bozo, but Tina had already moved onto Raghead and Bloody Mary. "Cuz it looks like your whole head is a on the rag," she'd explained today in the locker room. "...Eleanor opened up her locker. It was empty. She tried the one above it. Nothing. And nothing below. No... Eleanor looked down at the toilet. Even though she knew what she was going to see there, it still felt like a wet slap in the face. Her new jeans and her cowboy shirt were in a dark pile in the bowl, and her shoes were crammed under the lip. Somebody had flushed the toilet, and there was water still spilling over the edge." There are many other scenes in the book where Eleanor is bullied. I see bullying as one of the main themes in Eleanor & Park.

     Poverty is a theme in Eleanor & Park as well because Eleanor's family is struggling with fitting 7 family members in a small home. Eleanor's family also has little money to depend on when trying to shop for food; They have to buy their clothes at thrift shops as well. "There were only five rooms in the house, and the bathroom just barely counted. It was attached to the kitchen - like literally attached, without a door. Somebody, probably her mom, had hung a flowered sheet between the refrigerator and the toilet. When she woke up in the middle of the night, all three of her brothers were asleep on the floor... There wasn't even room in the dresser for Eleanor's clothes." Eleanor's family clearly struggles with not having enough money to live an easy going life, and during holidays, their special dinners aren't really special. Money is a big problem in the story as well.

    Sexual harassment is a theme that I thought was clear in the book. I thought sexual harassment was a theme because someone kept writing horrible things in Eleanor's school book and it is brought up repeatedly. Eleanor's step-dad wrote the notes. "Do you think you can make a fool of me? This is my house do you think you can hore around my neighborhood right under my nose? I know what you are and it's over." As well as, "Suck me off. Pop that cherry. Do I make you..?"  The notes are inappropriate and I think they are considered as an act of sexual harassment towards Eleanor.