Eleanor and Park

The second chapter of the book begins with Eleanor sitting outside on the front steps of her school. She creates a mental checklist of things she can do to avoid riding the bus to and from school again. The narrative reveals that Eleanor has just moved to the area from out of town and that she rides the bus out of necessity, because her single mother does not have a car.

From Eleanor’s point-of-view, every single person that rides on her school bus is evil because they all left her hanging earlier that morning when she needed a seat. She even goes so far as to suspect that her bus mates had conspired to “kill her in a “past life” (7). Eleanor remembers her mother saying that her partner Richie can drive her to school, but Eleanor dreads this possibility even more than riding the bus.

Back on the bus, Park is waiting for Steve to taunt him for letting Eleanor sit next to him, but Steve is too preoccupied with a conversation about martial arts, a topic that Park is well-versed in, unbeknownst to Steve. Park knows that he can’t leave Eleanor all alone at the back of the bus, but he is greatly irked by the fact that the responsibility to protect her had fallen upon him, and he “had spent all day trying to think of how to get away from the new girl” (9).

But in one way Park is also relieved that Eleanor is sitting beside him, as her presence makes him a more difficult target for bullies. Park begins to think back to his English class earlier that day, a class in which Eleanor had recited a poem by Emily Dickinson. The class and their teacher Mr. Stressman loved her recitation, but Park found it offensive. 

Park does not know how to rid himself of Eleanor’s presence on the bus, so he takes to putting his headphones on immediately. As Park expected, Eleanor always sits next to him now, but he is relieved when she does not attempt to make conversation with him.

Arriving home from school, Eleanor happily realizes that she is the only one in the house. She had been worried about what she’d return to, as the day before the atmosphere in the house had been terrible. Her siblings had acted like she did not exist, and so had her stepfather. The reader realizes that this is the first time Eleanor has been to her mother’s and Richie’s house in a long time.

Eleanor has been given the top bunk in an extremely small room that she must share with her much-younger siblings. Eleanor thinks that “There wasn’t room in this room to readjust” (12). In fact, the house is so small that only a white sheet separates the kitchen from the bathroom. Arriving home from school again, Eleanor begins to cry at the sight of her mother making soup in the kitchen; she believes her mom is too beautiful not to be in a fairy tale. Eleanor’s mom then gives her a plastic bag containing all of the belongings Eleanor left behind her when she moved.

It becomes clear that Richie threw Eleanor out of this very same house a year earlier, though his reasons for doing so are not explained. As Eleanor rifles through the plastic bag of her belongings, she finds old papers and folders. She also finds an old Walkman, though it has no batteries. She has nowhere to keep her possessions, so she hides her plastic bag on top of a closet shelf.

This short chapter centers upon Park, as he listens to his English teacher Mr. Stressman give a lecture. Mr. Stressman tells the class that they must memorize a poem for their next class and, though they are free to choose any poem they like, Mr. Stressman advises them to pick a “romantic poem, that’s my advice. You’ll get the most use out of it” (18). Park is disgusted by the flamboyant way his teacher walks around the room. Mr. Stressman notices Eleanor staring blankly out of the window, so he suggests that she pick Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred” for her recitation. Park decides that he will pick a rhyming poem, as he believes it will be easier to memorize. 

This chapter opens with a description of the bullying Eleanor has recently suffered at the hands of Tina. Tina and her friends make fun of Eleanor on a daily basis, calling her names such as Bloody Mary, Bozo, and Rag head. As a result, Eleanor dreads going to gym class every day and she considers Tina to be a bona fide demon. As school ends for the day, Eleanor is relieved to reach her bus seat before “that stupid Asian kid” (19), revealing that she still doesn’t know Park’s name.

At this point, the narrative switches to Park’s viewpoint. He is beginning to find the silent bus rides with Eleanor to be downright painful, and he determines that he should probably start talking to her. Later that night, while eating dinner, Park is interrupted by his younger brother Josh, who tells Park he needs to start getting ready for his martial arts session. It is revealed that, though he is younger, Josh is already much bigger than Park.

Soon thereafter, Park’s father arrives home from work and immediately begins kissing Park’s mother – a daily ritual in their residence. Park, watching them, compares their embrace to Paul Bunyan embracing a small doll.

The novel shifts back to Eleanor’s viewpoint. She eats her dinner, which is served early now because Eleanor’s mom wants to have the children taken care of by the time Richie, who is served his own separate meal, gets home from work. Eleanor stays cooped up in her room for the rest of the evening, and the narrative makes it clear that the children steer clear of Richie at all costs.

Eleanor thinks back to how excited she was when her mom first came to get her, even though she remembers that her mother had bruises around her wrist at the time. This jogs her memory, and she starts to think about all the times she has heard her mom and Richie fighting. Later that night, Eleanor gets up to use the bathroom but does not flush the toilet because Richie is in the living room sleeping, and she is terrified at the prospect of waking him up.

Chapter seven opens with a conversation between Park and his friend Cal. Cal tells Park that he intends to ask a girl named Kim out, but Park warns him that Kim is way out of his league. Cal offers to help Park get a girl too, but Park says that he is not interested. Cal tells Park that Eleanor is staring at him, and Park explains that she is the weird new girl on his bus. Cal says that Park has “jungle fever” (26), and Park retorts that he isn’t even the right kind of Asian for that racist remark to make sense. Agitated, Park says that it is a good idea for Cal to ask Kim out after all.

At this point, the narrative switches back to Eleanor’s perspective. She is wandering through the school library, looking for the African American section, which is conveniently empty. In her short time at this new school she has noticed that the majority of the student populace is African American, while the majority of the students in her honors classes are Caucasian. After sifting through several books, she finds the Maya Angelou poem “Caged Bird” and decides to use it for her English assignment.

At the start of this chapter, Park realizes that Eleanor has been sneakily reading his comics over his shoulder. Park begins consider Eleanor properly for the first time, and he realizes that he has never seen hair as red as hers; he begins to associate her with the character Jean Grey from his X-men comics. It is apparent that he is thinking of her more and more, but he still has no idea how to start a conversation with her. Instead, he decides to tilt his comic books toward her so that she can read them as well.

Yet again, the point-of-view shifts to Eleanor’s. Eleanor arrives home from school only to be ushered outside again with her siblings by her exhausted mother. Eleanor was hoping to take a shower before Richie got home, but her mother is adamant that she must stay outside. Eleanor begins to feel very cold, but she has no jacket to help her keep warm. She thinks about how Richie makes all of the children go to sleep extremely early if it is too cold to play outside.

Eleanor’s younger brother Ben asks her what it was like to live with her dad, and while it was terrible and lonesome, she tells Ben that it was fine. Eleanor was supposed to stay with her dad for just a few days, but her mother simply never came to pick her up. She remembers hearing her dad call the “State” to come pick her up, though nothing ever happened. Ben tells Eleanor that he and the other kids “thought you were gone” (32).

Eleanor has just recited “Caged Bird” for her English class, and Park cannot believe what he just heard; it seemed as if she was letting out some great mysterious energy. Mr. Stressman was impressed too, and he hugged her immediately after she finished her performance. Park begins to think about how to start a conversation with Eleanor later.

Eleanor has realized that Park is opening his comics wider so that she can read them too and she starts to that he is not like the other “bus demons”. It helps that her bullies seem to leave her alone when Park is around. In fact this makes her secretly wish that he would stay around her all day. As she is leaving the bus that day, Park silently hands her his new comic book for her to read at home. She attempts to hand the comic back but he has already turned to leave. She goes home and reads the book multiple times that night before falling asleep.

Later, Park is worried that Eleanor won’t give the comic back: “What if she didn’t give it back?” (34). He decides that if she doesn’t return it, he won’t let her sit next to him; but if she does return it, he will finally have to speak to her. The next day, Park is looking out of the window when Eleanor sits beside him. She returns the comic to Park, and the two sit in silence for the rest of the trip to school.

The next day, Eleanor is pleasantly surprised to find a large stack of comic books on the seat next to Park. She picks them up and places them in her lap, but she doesn’t read them while she is sitting next to Park. She goes home and later that night and begins reads all of the comics that Park gave her. She reads late into the night until Richie comes into her room and tells her to turn the lights out. As she goes to sleep, she thinks about how Richie looks more like a rat than a human.

Park is surprised by how quickly Eleanor reads the comics he loaned her. She always returns the books in immaculate condition; the only thing different about them is that they smell like flowers. One day, Park forgets to bring comics for Eleanor, so he breaks the silence by asking her if she likes the band The Smiths, as he saw one of their song titles on her notebook. She tells him that she does not know who they are, to which Park responds “[s]o you just want people to think you like The Smiths?” (38). This terminates their first conversation.

Later that day, Park gets on the bus and sits next to Eleanor. She tells him that she writes song titles down in order to make wish lists for records she wants to listen to. Park asks why she does not just go ahead and listen to the songs, but she defensively replies that they do not play the songs she wants to hear on the radio. Their second conversation ends abruptly too, but that night Park goes home and makes Eleanor a mix-tape composed entirely of The Smiths’ songs.

This chapter begins with Eleanor having a pleasant conversation with her mother; Eleanor thinks that her mother looks relaxed in a way she has not been in years. The peace does not last long, however, as Eleanor is woken up later that night by the sound of her mother crying and Richie screaming. All of her siblings are already listening through the door, and Eleanor quickly slides down and joins them. She decides it is best to do nothing, as anything she could do would potentially make Richie even madder.

When Eleanor wakes up in the morning, she sadly wonders if her mom had survived the night. The aroma of breakfast reassures Eleanor that her mother is physically okay, even if she is bruised. Eleanor realizes that she has urine on her, as one of her younger brothers had the wet the bed during the night and he had bumped up against her. Eleanor asks her mom to help her get cleaned up, so her mother offers to guard the door-less bathroom while Eleanor cleans up. However, Eleanor is still too afraid of Richie’s presence, so she makes the difficult decision to return to school wearing yesterday’s clothes.

Park notices that Eleanor seems dazed as she gets on the school bus that morning, and he suspects that something is wrong when he realizes that she is wearing the same clothes she wore yesterday. Park has left his mix-tape in her seat, but when she sits down she refuses to take it. She eventually breaks down and admits that she has no way to listen to the tape even if she wanted to.

Park reaches into his backpack and grabs his own Walkman, puts the mix-tape in it, puts headphones around Eleanor’s ears, and then presses the start button. When they arrive at school, Eleanor does not leave as she usually does but stays near Park, which he finds strange. He walks her to her locker and tells her, “now you’ve heard the Smiths” (46), which makes her giggle.

At this point, the narrative switches back to Eleanor’s view point. After Park leaves her to go to class, she thinks back to the earlier bus ride and wishes she had simply taken the mix-tape without saying anything. She worries that she will let other personal details about her life slip out to Park, such as the fact that she does not possess a toothbrush. She walks to gym class and daydreams about seeing Park in her English class later that day.

When Eleanor arrives at gym class, everyone is strangely nice to her. The class proceeds without any incident, but as the session ends Eleanor returns to her locker to find that everyone is watching her. Eleanor finds that her locker has been vandalized with a bunch of maxi pads that have been colored red and have names such as “Big Red” written upon them. Eleanor begins to cry, but she is quickly comforted by two girls named DeNice and Beebi who help her clean up. All the while, Eleanor cannot stop thinking of Park.

When she gets on the bus later that day, she continues to listen to the mix-tape Park made for her. When the bus arrives at Eleanor’s stop, Park offers to let her borrow his Walkman but she declines. Instead, she asks to borrow the Walkman’s batteries, which Park finds strange but he agrees. Later that night, Eleanor listens to the tape until Park’s batteries die.