English 325: Eleanor and Park

I’ve enjoyed the novel up to this point. The central theme centers on love, teenage love specifically though I’m unsure if that really needs to be a sub classification. In my opinion, the subject is handled well. The progression of the two lead characters feels natural and unrushed, and you can clearly see how they slowly come to together. The fact that love does not simply and suddenly materialize for the two characters is one of the stronger aspects of the novel. It is a slow burning, but constantly growing, passion. This is not a Romeo and Juliet love story, it is not instant and powerful love, but rather a more realistic representation. It feels very authentic. The passion, fantasy, and reality of young love is well captured. There are moments of romantic fluff, but they are grounded by authentic sounding dialogue and situations. The characters are developed well, and the plot, though fairly straightforward at this point, is not bad.

I do have a few issues with the novel however. The story, despite being well written, follows an overused format. Who are the protagonists? The social outcasts. Who are the antagonists? The mean bullies. Why can’t the lovers be together? Because of the social stigma. Don’t get me wrong, these are all legitimate issues that teenagers have to deal with, but we’ve heard this story a million times before. We like stories of unlikely and beaten down heroes rising up and finding success and happiness. It’s a great story! But it’s an oversimplification of reality. Most people are not treated like dirt, and most people don’t treat people like dirt. It does happen though, it sucks and that should be focused on, but in YA Lit that is all we focus on. I think the novel, like a lot of other works of this type, illustrate teenagers as haves and have nots when in reality most people don’t fall into either of those categories. I hate bringing this up because it sounds like I don’t care about people who are bullied or have terrible home lives, I really do care. I’m just trying to say that by focusing so heavily on the negative aspects of the teenage experience, the novel fail to truly illustrate an accurate representation of what that experience is.

That said, I think the text is still relatable in the languages that it uses (while in some cases it may be over exaggerated). Characters speak in an authentic manner and it feels like the thoughts of the characters are really the thoughts of teenagers. For these reasons, I think adolescents would enjoy the novel.  

     

Overall, I give the novel a B+ so far. While I do think the story is cliché in many aspects, it executes everything else perfectly. The romance feels just right, the characters are believable, the language is accurate, and the issues are important. In a sense, the book is like a marvel movie: It’s still just another superhero movie, but it has enough action, humor, romance, and heart to make you enjoy it.