Eleanor And Park Sparknotes

Was it truly that terrible?

Eleanor and Park is a romantic novel written by the author Rainbow Rowell in 2012 with teenagers as the target audience. Eleanor and Park is about two teens, Eleanor and Park, during the 1980s who meet on the school bus and fall in love with one another throughout the school year despite the adversities they faced. This book has been challenged in different school districts across the United States for the amount of profanity used in the book. It was challenged in 2013 at the Anoka-Hennepin school district in Minnesota and in 2016 by the Chesterfield county of Virginia. In Minnesota, parents wanted Eleanor and Park removed because of the “vile profanity” but it was kept on the shelves after committee review (Pekoll).

I have read other books of fiction and nonfiction that talk about issues just as serious as the ones in Eleanor and Park. For example, when I read Night by Elie Wiesel it talked about the holocaust and experiences in a concentration camp which is a serious topic. I interpreted the topics of this book as though it were a history lesson where you learn from other people’s mistakes in order to not repeat them. The ideas discussed in Eleanor and Park are abuse, bullying, and drinking problems and how they affect Eleanor, one of the main characters. It is mentioned how Eleanor dislikes her stepfather due to the way he treats her mother and there is a clear mention of abuse that supports Eleanor’s feelings towards her step-father (Rowell 27, 48-49). This subject had no major impact on me because I am not in an abusive home and I interpreted the book as a work of fiction with real-world problems. I would say that parents want books taken off the shelves of libraries because the topics within the book could influence children in a poor manner. The parents who wanted Eleanor and Park removed most likely wanted the book removed because of certain topics in the book more than the type of language used. I would say that having serious topics in books gives children knowledge that they can choose how to interpret and use in certain

There are parts of every good book that the readers do and do not enjoy. What I enjoyed about the book the most was the changes of perspective between and during chapters. It was nice to hear about what the main characters thought about each other's actions. I also enjoyed the plot of the story where the characters develop feelings for one another even though it didn’t end happily ever after. My favorite chapter of the book was when Eleanor and Park ran away to get Eleanor to safety because it shows how much he cares about Eleanor and it shows how much trust Eleanor puts into Park (Rowell 287-312). What I didn’t like about the book was how long it was. It felt like the main story was really stretched out and it became boring to read at some points. I feel as though the story could be a little bit shorter and still include all the main events. I also didn’t like how the book doesn’t mention much more about Eleanor’s family once they move out of Nebraska which I feel would add more to the ending of the story. I feel like the people that tried to ban Eleanor and Park focused more on the language of the story compared to the plot of the story. The type of language used in a book can influence a person’s interest in a book but it is up to the reader to decide if they want to read knowing the type of language used. It is not fair for students to not have the ability to read a book just because someone else