In the book, Eleanor and Park, the setting is the year, 1986 and it starts in August seeing how the book takes the course of its story through a schoolyear. The town is Omaha, Nebraska and that's where two sixteen year-olds meet. The two most important characters are of course, Eleanor and Park, the sixteen year-olds. Eleanor comes from a broken home where it seems as if nothing can go right due to her stepfather, Richie, and her extremely submissive mother who does everything she can to stay out of Richie's way, and on top of all this, she lives in a small house sharing an even smaller room with her four other siblings who happen to all be younger than she is. Whereas, Park comes from a seemingly easy lifestyle compared to Eleanor's. He lives in a nice house with a nice family and a seemingly easy life when in reality, he has a father who expects so much out if him, it's unbearable. His mother is Korean which means he doesn't exactly fit in race-wise with the other kids. His brother is a pain in the butt and taller and stronger than he is, and on top of it all, for some reason he can't help but liking and maybe even loving, Eleanor. She is a social outcast for the way she dresses poorly and sticks out like a sore thumb and Park tries to keep under the radar but yet, fate finds them a match. Each other. (249)
I predict something bad is going to happen in their relationship but they will perserve through it. Also, this book in a way makes me think of the movie, Pretty Woman. She comes from a poor, less comfortable lifestyle while he comes from a rich or comfortable lifestyle but in the end they fall in love and can make it work even though she can be difficult to deal with and he doesn't alwazys understand her, they make it work.
