Eleanor And Park Essay
Reading fiction may seem like a waste of time, but fiction can expand your imagination and creativity. It can also make you a better writer and it forces you to think and connect it to the real world. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is about two star-crossed lovers who have two totally different lives. Park is a part of a White Korean family who is very privileged and doesn’t have many issues. Eleanor on the other-hand, is a part of a family where her mother has a divorce with her original father. She how lives with her step-dad Richie who abuses Eleanor and her family. Eleanor also gets bullied in school by a girl named Tina. Eleanor and Park fall in love and reveal to each other, the different lives that they each live. The book reveals
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themes about bullying, family and child abuse, and love. Fiction needs to be included in the curriculum because it teaches us many ideas that we can empathize about. In Eleanor and Park, the ideas it reveals to us include bullying in school, family and child abuse, and love.
In the book Eleanor and Park, Love is one of the big ideas in the book which fiction does a skillful job creating images in our head in which we can empathize about. Love in the book is portrayed as something that really matters. No matter what the situation is, if something is meant to be, love will keep it together. Eleanor's thoughts are displayed by the narrator with this quote, “Beautiful. Breathtaking. Like the person in a Greek myth who makes one of the gods stop caring about being a god.”(Rowell 137). The whole book is about love and how if something is worth keeping, love will keep it together. Love is strong and will take a lot to break and in this situation, even two totally different lovers going through 2 totally different family problems. Eleanor and Park stick through it and they become an even stronger couple. This relates to the thesis because it is teaching about how such a common thing, love in the early years, can teach us so much in a fictional book. The reader can really empathize themselves in the situation. Park says this line to cheer Eleanor up, “You look like you,” he said. “You with the volume turned up.”(Rowell 216). Park is absolutely stunned by how amazing she looks. He tries to cheer her up by saying something like “volume turned up.” It means it is a more exposed version of her that is not normal. Once again, the idea of love connects back to the thesis because this book is fictional but can be related to many situations in life. Fiction has taught us about Love and it’s impact on people like Eleanor and Park because we can imagine being in their shoes.
Another big idea presented by these articles and the book is bullying. Bullying is a very troublesome issue in many schools around the country. Many kids can become scarred because of bullying which can lead to further issues. Martin states, “A lot of the harassment ve’ve been talking about - most of it, in fact - happened on Twitter. The company recently partnered with a nonprofit to launch a new reporting tool to track bad online behavior. Twitter told us when the find out about content that’s violating its rules, they shut the accounts down. Mikki Kendall said that’s good, but harassers, also known as trolls, often use an easy workaround.”(Why Women get the worst of internet bullying). The issue of bullying is a very common thing to happen to young children. Bullying is a commonly used theme in books like Eleanor and Park because it is very effective to get the message through to the kids. Bullying, along with the other themes mentioned in the book, is presented in a very powerful way. Considering the fact that this book is fiction, this should be a good reason to keep fiction in the curriculum because it is books like these that expand our imagination and awareness. A quote from the article states,“Though researchers believe that a child’s home life and social experiences play a role in the development of bullying behavior, they are not certain what specifically causes a child to become a bully. Bullies may have underlying psychological factors that contribute to their aggressive behavior or impair their ability to interpret social interactions. Interestingly, bullies usually exhibit high self-esteem despite their unpopularity.”(Bullying at school). The issue of bullying is widespread news that should not be new to anybody. It is likely that many people go through getting bullied or may have even bullied someone themselves. Bullying should not be allowed and awareness for bullying is spread to everyone by books like Eleanor and Park. Fictional books helping the cause of spreading awareness to problems like bullying in young children. Bullying is a major idea in both the articles presented to us and Eleanor and Park. Although the articles were non-fiction, Eleanor and Park is a fictional book that helps spread awareness for problems like bullying.
Finally, the last major idea exhibited by the book is family as a whole and child abuse.
Family is portrayed in this book by showing us how having a bond with your family can strengthen the family as a whole and can get you through tough times. It also shows how different families look at people from different cultures and how they judge people. Eleanor and Park also displays the idea of child abuse and how Eleanor’s stepdad abuses Eleanor and her siblings along with her mother. Eleanor states, “The whole family was cute. Even his white brother.”(Rowell 126). Although this isn’t much of a quote, this still shows how Eleanor can see Park’s family different than how he sees his own family. This relates to the thesis because it shows the family aspect of it and how that if you and your family are closer, the stronger you as an individual appear. When Richie gets pissed off he shouts, “How could you forget the fucking pumpkin on Christmas.” Richie said, hurling the stainless steel bowl of rice pudding. (Rowell 198). This shows us Richie, the stepdad, abusing the children and family all because of one small addition to Christmas dinner which was the pumpkin pie. This relates to the thesis because it shows us the how a weak bond with your family can cause abuse and things like this to happen. A fictional book like this can spread so much awareness to other people. Family and abuse is reflected very strongly here because it gives the reader awareness about not only family and abuse but also for love and
bullying.
Fiction needs to be included in the curriculum because it teaches us many ideas that we can empathize about. In Eleanor and Park, the ideas it reveals to us include bullying in school, family and child abuse, and love. Major ideas such as love, bullying, family and abuse, are all themes revealed to us in a book called Eleanor and Park. This fictional book has brought awareness to these 3 major themes and it is why we should include fiction in the curriculum because it teaches us themes we can empathize. Love in the book is portrayed as something that really matters. No matter what the situation is, if something is meant to be, love will keep it together. Eleanor and Park are two different people from two drastically different families and they find love which keeps them together even during the toughest of times. Bullying is a very troublesome issue in many schools around the country. Many kids can become scarred because of bullying which can lead to further issues. The articles portray bullying also on the social media platforms which could be a dangerous place for young children. This relates to the thesis because it shows the family aspect of it and how that if you and your family are closer, the stronger you as an individual appear. Park seemed like a very independent person because the bond with him and his family were very strong.Family is portrayed in this book by showing us how having a bond with your family can strengthen the family as a whole and can get you through tough times. It also shows how different families look at people from different cultures and how they judge people. Eleanor and Park also displays the idea of child abuse and how Eleanor’s stepdad abuses Eleanor and her siblings along with her mother. Whether it is for fun or if it is assigned to you, fiction is necessary in our lives because it is the one that sparks our imagination and spreads through our mind like a wildfire. Without fiction, we would all be bland human beings with nothing to distinguish each other from one another.
themes about bullying, family and child abuse, and love. Fiction needs to be included in the curriculum because it teaches us many ideas that we can empathize about. In Eleanor and Park, the ideas it reveals to us include bullying in school, family and child abuse, and love.
In the book Eleanor and Park, Love is one of the big ideas in the book which fiction does a skillful job creating images in our head in which we can empathize about. Love in the book is portrayed as something that really matters. No matter what the situation is, if something is meant to be, love will keep it together. Eleanor's thoughts are displayed by the narrator with this quote, “Beautiful. Breathtaking. Like the person in a Greek myth who makes one of the gods stop caring about being a god.”(Rowell 137). The whole book is about love and how if something is worth keeping, love will keep it together. Love is strong and will take a lot to break and in this situation, even two totally different lovers going through 2 totally different family problems. Eleanor and Park stick through it and they become an even stronger couple. This relates to the thesis because it is teaching about how such a common thing, love in the early years, can teach us so much in a fictional book. The reader can really empathize themselves in the situation. Park says this line to cheer Eleanor up, “You look like you,” he said. “You with the volume turned up.”(Rowell 216). Park is absolutely stunned by how amazing she looks. He tries to cheer her up by saying something like “volume turned up.” It means it is a more exposed version of her that is not normal. Once again, the idea of love connects back to the thesis because this book is fictional but can be related to many situations in life. Fiction has taught us about Love and it’s impact on people like Eleanor and Park because we can imagine being in their shoes.
Another big idea presented by these articles and the book is bullying. Bullying is a very troublesome issue in many schools around the country. Many kids can become scarred because of bullying which can lead to further issues. Martin states, “A lot of the harassment ve’ve been talking about - most of it, in fact - happened on Twitter. The company recently partnered with a nonprofit to launch a new reporting tool to track bad online behavior. Twitter told us when the find out about content that’s violating its rules, they shut the accounts down. Mikki Kendall said that’s good, but harassers, also known as trolls, often use an easy workaround.”(Why Women get the worst of internet bullying). The issue of bullying is a very common thing to happen to young children. Bullying is a commonly used theme in books like Eleanor and Park because it is very effective to get the message through to the kids. Bullying, along with the other themes mentioned in the book, is presented in a very powerful way. Considering the fact that this book is fiction, this should be a good reason to keep fiction in the curriculum because it is books like these that expand our imagination and awareness. A quote from the article states,“Though researchers believe that a child’s home life and social experiences play a role in the development of bullying behavior, they are not certain what specifically causes a child to become a bully. Bullies may have underlying psychological factors that contribute to their aggressive behavior or impair their ability to interpret social interactions. Interestingly, bullies usually exhibit high self-esteem despite their unpopularity.”(Bullying at school). The issue of bullying is widespread news that should not be new to anybody. It is likely that many people go through getting bullied or may have even bullied someone themselves. Bullying should not be allowed and awareness for bullying is spread to everyone by books like Eleanor and Park. Fictional books helping the cause of spreading awareness to problems like bullying in young children. Bullying is a major idea in both the articles presented to us and Eleanor and Park. Although the articles were non-fiction, Eleanor and Park is a fictional book that helps spread awareness for problems like bullying.
Finally, the last major idea exhibited by the book is family as a whole and child abuse.
Family is portrayed in this book by showing us how having a bond with your family can strengthen the family as a whole and can get you through tough times. It also shows how different families look at people from different cultures and how they judge people. Eleanor and Park also displays the idea of child abuse and how Eleanor’s stepdad abuses Eleanor and her siblings along with her mother. Eleanor states, “The whole family was cute. Even his white brother.”(Rowell 126). Although this isn’t much of a quote, this still shows how Eleanor can see Park’s family different than how he sees his own family. This relates to the thesis because it shows the family aspect of it and how that if you and your family are closer, the stronger you as an individual appear. When Richie gets pissed off he shouts, “How could you forget the fucking pumpkin on Christmas.” Richie said, hurling the stainless steel bowl of rice pudding. (Rowell 198). This shows us Richie, the stepdad, abusing the children and family all because of one small addition to Christmas dinner which was the pumpkin pie. This relates to the thesis because it shows us the how a weak bond with your family can cause abuse and things like this to happen. A fictional book like this can spread so much awareness to other people. Family and abuse is reflected very strongly here because it gives the reader awareness about not only family and abuse but also for love and
bullying.
Fiction needs to be included in the curriculum because it teaches us many ideas that we can empathize about. In Eleanor and Park, the ideas it reveals to us include bullying in school, family and child abuse, and love. Major ideas such as love, bullying, family and abuse, are all themes revealed to us in a book called Eleanor and Park. This fictional book has brought awareness to these 3 major themes and it is why we should include fiction in the curriculum because it teaches us themes we can empathize. Love in the book is portrayed as something that really matters. No matter what the situation is, if something is meant to be, love will keep it together. Eleanor and Park are two different people from two drastically different families and they find love which keeps them together even during the toughest of times. Bullying is a very troublesome issue in many schools around the country. Many kids can become scarred because of bullying which can lead to further issues. The articles portray bullying also on the social media platforms which could be a dangerous place for young children. This relates to the thesis because it shows the family aspect of it and how that if you and your family are closer, the stronger you as an individual appear. Park seemed like a very independent person because the bond with him and his family were very strong.Family is portrayed in this book by showing us how having a bond with your family can strengthen the family as a whole and can get you through tough times. It also shows how different families look at people from different cultures and how they judge people. Eleanor and Park also displays the idea of child abuse and how Eleanor’s stepdad abuses Eleanor and her siblings along with her mother. Whether it is for fun or if it is assigned to you, fiction is necessary in our lives because it is the one that sparks our imagination and spreads through our mind like a wildfire. Without fiction, we would all be bland human beings with nothing to distinguish each other from one another.