Blog Post 1: Eleanor and Park

After finishing the novel of Eleanor and Park I noticed that it portrayed a lot of good YA literature themes such as the following:

Teen love, family issues, bullying, gender/cultural conflicts along with many others. This may sound cliché, but in order for a book to be considered a successful YA book it must contain a good portion of these themes. I was really impressed with how the author incorporated character development in this novel because it was done like no other book I had read. In most YA literature when the teens are falling for each other it takes no time for each of them to say those three little words. . . “I love you.” However, in this book we had the case where Eleanor who wouldn't confess her to love Park as he had done for her, but as the book continues we get to see the development in Eleanor’s self-worth and confidence. The post card that contained three words to Park has been an implication of her expressing her love. This character development then relates very well with the themes of the novel because it exploits the characters personalities. Eleanor’s family issues can make the argument as to why her self-confidence is low. Cultural conflict such as needing to be “skinny, wear new clothes, etc” can be the argument as to why the kids who don’t fit this persona are bullied. These themes overall did a great job in portraying teen life. The only main critique I could give on this book is that I felt the family issues were too cliché for each party. We have all seen the poor guy or girl end up with the wealthy significant other. I would have been more intrigued if Eleanor had come from a more wealthy family such as Park had, this could have made for a new type of YA literature theme and created different options for the book to have gone. This being said I just think this book fell too much into the gender stereotype of the poor girl getting the wealthy guy; this theme occurs in the movies Cinderella, Sixteen Candles, Maid in Manhattan along with many others. Other than this critique I believe that this book was very well done and great read. This text is clearly positioning towards adolescents because it is including every day issues that teens endure. This makes for a teen to be keen into reading this book because they can relate to it. Adolescence is not an easy time in life for people; you endure lots of changes and start facing day to day issues that can cause immense pain. This text is portraying just that, it is showing how social status, looks, athletic skill and other factors can have a huge impact on your teen years. This appeals to teens because everything that they are reading is what they are living. It is something they can relate too and even has the possibilities of helping them cope with their problems or change their behaviors (positively or negatively). There is so much good that comes out of teens reading these types of YA literature which is why I would give this novel a solid B+/A- grade. It shows the actual real life problems, situations and day to day issues that teens endure and is an easy text to connect with.