Music, then, is a complex and mutable symbol throughout the novel, but ultimately emerges as a symbol of connection-connection between people, but also connection with one’s deeper, hidden self. As Park wrestles with his feelings of inadequacy and otherness, music allows him a way to discover his identity by emulating the style of the members of bands like The Smiths and The Cure. For Park, however, music is less an escape and more a way of being even more present in the world and in his own skin. Eleanor, a chubby 1 16-year-old girl with curly red hair, and Park, a half-Korean, 16-year-old boy, meet on a school bus on Eleanor's first. Published in 2012, the story follows dual narratives by Eleanor and Park, two misfits living in Omaha, Nebraska from 1986 to 1987. Through music, she can feel farther from herself-but closer to Park. Eleanor & Park is the first young adult novel written by Rainbow Rowell. Eleanor’s home life is a mess, and listening to the music Park curates for her is her only chance at escaping her needy siblings, her fawning, battered mother Sabrina, and her cruel stepfather Richie. Park begins making mix tapes for Eleanor and bringing her batteries so that she won’t run out of juice while she listens at home each night to songs he’s chosen for her. When Eleanor expresses frustration with the comics, though, the two begin talking about music-and find that they never run out of feelings to discuss and bond over when it comes to the punk, new-wave, and shoegaze anthems of the mid-80s they so love. Slowly and wordlessly, Park begins allowing Eleanor to read with him, and then brings her comic books of her own to read. When Eleanor and Park first start interacting on the bus to school, they bond over comic books as Eleanor reads Watchmen, Batman, and others silently over Park’s shoulder when they’re forced, by chance, to sit together.
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