Eleanor wants her stepfather out of her life; she blames him
for her life being horrible. In addition to this Eleanor faces the struggles of
poverty. Her family does not have enough money to support everyone in it and
she is found without necessities like hair shampoo, full meals, and warm
clothing. Park struggles with staying
down low and out of the spotlight. He doesn’t wish to be part of the majority
crowd but he doesn’t want to be made fun of by them either. Another one of
Park’s struggles is that he faces ethnic confusion. He does not know whether to
identify himself as Korean or half Korean, half American this because of his
parents being from two races. He acts like an American boy however everyone
judges him as Korean because of the way he looks.
The novel is structured by Eleanor and Park taking turns to
tell the story in their first person views.
Their passages overlap when they explain the same moment in the story,
like the first kiss they shared. Eleanor tells the readers how it feels. In the
next passage, the book switches narrators and Park gives us his two cents on
it. As cheesy as it sounds the theme I see emerging is love finds you when
you’re not looking. Eleanor did not want to fall in love with Park she called
him a “stupid Asian kid” for messing up her feelings and Park at first did not
want to fall in love with the girl everyone makes fun of yet somehow they fell
for each other. Another theme I see emerging is that being a teenager doesn’t
make your love any less real. Eleanor and Park risk everything to try to
continue loving each other.
