# data[].attributes.body
Statement of theme:

Sometimes in order to get away from a life changing issue, people have to give up something or someone that is important to him/her.

Connection to the book: This theme connects to the book because Eleanor has to make the decision to either stay with her abusive step dad and her mom and siblings, or move in with her aunt and uncle. But if Eleanor moves in with her aunt and uncle she may not be able to see her mom and siblings or Park for a long time.

# data[].attributes.body
Possible result of choosing a different course:

She would have been risking her life if she would have stayed with her step dad and mom. Eleanor’s step dad is a very bad man and she knows more than anyone what he is capable of.

Why this probably would have happened: This probably would have happened because her step dad was really mad about Eleanor dating park so he was going around the neighborhood looking for her and he also has a very short temper.

# data[].attributes.body
What the character chose to do: Eleanor chose to run away and live with her aunt and uncle.

Impact of the decision on the character:

Eleanor had to leave her mom and siblings with her abusive stepdad even though she really wanted to take them with her. She also had to leave Park, the guy she fell deeply in love with.

Impact of the decision on others:Park terribly misses Eleanor so he sends her letters everyday. Eleanor doesn’t write him back so he eventually stops writing to her.

# data[].attributes.body
The defining moment and how it influenced the protagonist (include page #): Towards the end of the book Eleanor find out that Richie had been writing mean and nasty things in her school books the whole time when she had thought that it was one of the mean girls in her gym class. This moment was a big aha moment in the book because she realized that she needed to get away from Richie and go somewhere where she’ll never see him again.

Passage (w/ page #):”’do you think you can make a fool of me? This is my house do you think you can hore around my neighborhood right under my nose and i’m not going to find out is that what you think? i know what you are and it’s over’

Eleanor stared at the lid and struggled to make the letters into words-but she couldn’t get past the familiar spill of lowercase letters. Somewhere in the house her mother was crying like she was never going to stop”(Rowell 278-279).

# data[].attributes.body
Person vs.self

The problem: Eleanor knows that Park loves her but all she thinks about is how it’s going to end. In movies we see two people fall in love and live happily ever after but Eleanor thinks all of it is complete bull. Eleanor seems to be the kind of character that doesn’t believe true love is possible. This may be the reason Eleanor is so resistant towards showing her feelings towards Park.

Passage (w/ page #):"To have and hold. Not forever, maybe—not forever, for sure—and not figuratively. But literally. And now. Now, he was hers" (Rowell ).

Explanation of passage: This passage represents what Eleanor thinks about her and Park’s relationship. Eleanor knows that Park is hers but all she can think about is how it isn’t going to last. I think that Eleanor also felt the need to leave because she didn’t want to commit to a relationship because nobody has ever been in love with her and she doesn’t want to end up hurt.

# data[].attributes.body
Person vs.Person

The problem:Eleanor knows that she loves park but she doesn’t really like to show it. Park deeply loves Eleanor and that is one of the reasons that the decision to leave or stay is so hard. Eleanor has never had anything like what she has with Park and she doesn’t know if she wants to lose it.

Passage (w/ page #):”Left alone, Eleanor realized that she shouldn’t have told Park to leave right away. She wasn’t ready for him to leave. She opened the front door and ran out to the street.Park was already gone-she looked both ways for him” (Rowell 316).
Explanation of passage:This passage shows how how Eleanor didn’t know how hard it would be to leave and be without Park. Eleanor is the kind of character that doesn’t realize what she has until it’s gone which can be very hard to deal with seeing as Park was obviously very important to her.

# data[].attributes.body
Person vs.Person

The problem: Although Eleanor wants to get up and leave she doesn’t want to abandon her mom and siblings and leave them with a crazy, abusive man because she cares about them very much and will do whatever she has to do to keep them safe.

Passage (w/ page #):

She wrote her mom a letter. She said everything she’d wanted to say in the last six months. She said she was sorry. She begged her to think of Ben and Mouse-and Maisie. She threatened to call the police”(Rowell 316).

Explanation of passage: This passage is a good representation of what Eleanor would do to keep her siblings and mom safe. It may seem like she doesn’t care about her mom but I feel that Eleanor has to be assertive in order to get her mom to change how things are at home with Richie.

# data[].attributes.body
a)Eleanor could run away from home and live with her aunt and uncle that she’s supposed to stay with during summer.

b)Eleanor could stay home with her mom and siblings but then she’d have to live with Richie.

# data[].attributes.body
Eleanor(a high school student) is a girl who has been through it all. From a careless dad and a very oblivious mother, to an emotionally abusive stepdad who physically abuses her mother. Eleanor just moved to a new school because her parents got a divorce. Nobody is really a fan of Eleanor because she is a lot different than everybody else at the school. Eleanor dresses funny (mostly because her family doesn’t have much money for anything) and doesn’t fit in with the anybody. Nobody let Eleanor sit next them on the bus so park felt somewhat obligated to let her sit next to him. Just from that first day meeting Eleanor, Park knew he was not going to like her but somewhere down the road everything started to change.