Eleanor & Park

The story starts out with Park sitting on the bus trying to ignore his peers who made nasty remarks on his ethnicity. The story then switches to Eleanor's point of view. I think this is an interesting way to tell a story because you not only get one person's perspective, but two people's perspective for the same story. Eleanor and Park both seem to be misunderstood individuals. That gives them something in common. They continue to sit on the bus next to each other, but the ride consists of silence. Eleanor appears to be quiet and holds a few secrets of her own. Eleanor's home life seems to be depressing. The family had just moved and they are struggling. I feel like Eleanor feels somewhat neglected. She doesn't get much recognition from her family at all. Her step-dad is a negative aspect of her home life. Everyone seems to be afraid of him, and the kids don't want anything to do with him. Eleanor's mother picks her up from school one day, and Eleanor pretends to not notice the bruises on her mom's wrists. While Park on the other hand appears to have a steady home life with a loving family. So far in this book we are continued to be presented with new aspects of their life. The two live completely different lives, however, they have more in common than they think. Eleanor and Park continue to not speak very much for a good portion of the book. They silently watch each other and are learning things about one another without even realizing it. The way the interact seems a bit odd, but they don't seem to care that they haven't talked. I feel like they have an inner connection that no one else knows about, and that's pretty awesome.