Group Circle Preparation Homework

– “Eleanor & Park(R. Rowell)” pp. 288 ~ 328

I. Image Presenter

This picture represents Richie’s abuse to his stepdaughter Eleanor, the way she’d describe it at the
whole chapter 49 with Italic characters. She said he seems to bid his time to keep his eyes on her
and abuse or harass her. It was also described in other part of the book about why Richie
wouldn’t allow her going out with Park that he is a kind of man who would oppose anything
Eleanor would like to do, just to make her frustrated. And when Eleanor had finally found out that
it was Richie who wrote notes in her book, the feelings of contempt and disdain she used to feel
about Richie might have turned into an emotion of fear, horror and disgust. When she found out
that this man who restricts her every time and is willing to kick her out was also sexually
harassing her, she might have felt extreme panic and pressure from the existence of her stepdad,
just as the girl on the picture might feel. She might have felt helplessness when she realized that
going back to her own house would be impossible, and she might have felt Richie’s existence as a
giant fist violently squeezing her just as shown in the picture.

Q1. What would you do if you were Eleanor having a stepdad like Richie, and how would you feel
to be in Eleanor’s situation?

As a kid just as frightened or afraid as Eleanor in my young ages, I think I wouldn’t have thought
of anything such as going to her uncle’s rather than returning to her house. Though Richie
seemed to be the worst man in Eleanor’s life, I think I might have lost any will or hope to escape
from him since I had just found him abusing me everywhere including the notes in my textbook.
If I had known that it was a kind of sexual abuse that could be accused, I would have definitely
called the police for Richie’s abuse, but I believe by then there weren’t any stabilized,
sophisticated safety systems or preserving education for child abuse. Such environment would
have made me passively accept my current situation, go back to my house, and repeat such
violent abuse from the stepdad over and over again.

Q2. What kind of ways do you think would be there to prevent such awful parental abuse?

There are plenty of specific problems about parental abuse or domestic abuse. First, the evidences
are hard to find and the investigation is quite difficult, since the crime scene is their house and
because the parents are the legal “Next of Kin” to their children. They can make various excuses
about their violence to their children, and it is hard to prove it’s not. Therefore I think the
authorities of police must be enhanced in such specific cases of parental abuse, and during
investigation the child must be provided segregated area from his or her parents not to worry
about the pressure or fear they are giving. Also the punishment must be more serious, since there
are such ambiguous cases in parental abuse that make it confusing to judge punishment. Second,,
there are difficulties for the victim to confess or accuse the crime, since their parents, who are the
criminals, are the people dominating their whole life, and this won’t be just the end. So we must
first kindly give comfort and certainty about safety that the government would protect her as a
child from his or her parents’ abuse, and then carefully instructs her about what is an abuse and
what she should be aware of.
The second picture reminded me of Eleanor and Park at the middle of the cornfield in Minnesota,
from dawn to morning, thinking about their first time holding hands and talking about the next
chance meeting each other. It was such a romantic moment of farewell, depicting their earnest
hope for the next chance of facing each other as lovers. On that scene Eleanor was worrying
about the possibility of second chance since she might not come back, and Park was there to
settle her down. How Park comforted Eleanor by showing firm belief about their relationship
matched very well with how they felt in holding hands for the first time. At the end of chapter 52
Eleanor had described the moment of holding hands as crowding out all her worries, and Park
had depicted it as having assurance in himself ending up with her as lovers. Later when they
finally made farewells at the truck near her uncle’s house they finally grabbed hands together, so
this “holding hand” seemed to have a huge metaphor in their love – representing both the
beginning and end of love. That is why this picture seemed perfect to describe the moment of
their farewell, right at the middle of the cornfield, facing a beautiful morning sun shining against
them, holding hands together, longing for a next chance.

Q3. What do you think Eleanor had meant to Park, and Park had meant to Eleanor? Do you agree
with the first impression they had when they first held hands together?

I mostly agree with the expressions they had made when they first held hands together. Eleanor
described that his hand crowded all her worries away, and just like the expression Park was a
beam of light in her miserable, hopeless life. Though Eleanor seems to be a strong, active girl,
since she feels free about her outfits or appearances, the environment around her was too harsh
for her to stand against. Abusive stepdad, her underprivileged house, school kids bullying her – it
might have made Eleanor feel that the world was too hostile and ruthless to her. Then Park
showed up, shining her life with joy, giving her purpose to live life happily. Yes, Park was a sun
who crowded away all the dark clouds of worry and despair. Park thought of her as a weird girl,
but had firm belief in relationship with her. Not as much as Eleanor, but Park might have also had
difficulties of opening his heart to others, because he was sort of an “outsider”, and because
maybe he loved to be different from others to distinguish himself. Eleanor seemed to be the
perfect pair for him, how she stood firm about being a “weirdo” or an outsider in the school. That
would have made such assurance in Park’s heart that she is the one, just like his parents met each
other as perfect pairs.

Q4. What is your most memorable, impressive farewell scene you’ve seen in books, films, or
dramas? It can be either romantic or tragic, and it doesn’t have to be lovers’ farewell.

My most memorable farewell scene was the farewell of the main characters Frodo Baggins and
Samwise Gamgee in the Grey Havens in the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”.
Not just because it used to be my favorite movie of all time, but this scene was such an
impressive scene finishing the long, tough eventful journey of the two hobbits and the friendship
between them. In the fires of Mordor they were assuming to die together side by side longing
about their homeland “the Shire”, so the actual goodbye must have been much more sorrowful
for them. What Frodo said to Sam at the last moment, “I left the last pages for you, Sam” must
have meant that their journey didn’t end, that Sam would be there to finish their lives as
adventurers, remembering the existence of Frodo and friendship with him although Frodo is long
gone to the land of the West.

II. Youtuber

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nc6Tf26afI

The ending part, where Park drove Eleanor to Minnesota and waved goodbye to her, sending
letters after returning home for about a year, and finally receives a reply postcard from her
reminded me of a romantic American movie named “The Notebook”. The characters, Noah and
Allie, and their relationships shown in the movie resembles a lot from Eleanor, Park, and their
relationship. First, they fall in such an immature love with each other during their youth, and hang
out in an abandoned house that later becomes Noah’s eventually, just like Eleanor and Park bump
into each other awkwardly in the bus with comics and Walkman as teenagers, and hang around
most of their time at Park’s house. Though in this movie the reason is her wealthy parents’
objection towards meeting a poor worker, both couple get to leave each other for a long time in
a long distance due to their parental issues. Just like Park writes to Eleanor at Minnesota every
day for a long period after the farewell, Noah writes letters every day for an entire year missing
Allie. But later in the movie Allie returns to the abandoned house which Noah had fixed, reads all
his letters, and they live happily ever after until their last breaths. I wish the story of Eleanor and
Park would end that way too, to finish their love throughout their entire live, not just as a short
memory of teenage years. Just like Noah and Allie had fulfilled their first love, I wish Eleanor and
Park would complete their first love perfectly.

Q1. What do you think about the idiom “First love cannot be the true love”, that first love can’t be
forever? Do you agree or disagree? Do you believe in first love?

I partially agree, because I know that first love usually happens at teenage or youth years, and
during those period the emotions are more intense than our reasons that can make us truly
understand each other and respect the relationship. The urging desire to love might manipulate
our brains to think of the opponent as a true, ideal love that would last forever. Such intense
emotions might let us make irrational judgments, believing in coincidence and miracles rather
than active actions to truly communicate with him or her, but it wouldn’t take so long until such
love hormones decrease and we wake up realizing that he or she wasn’t the one our heart truly
wanted. There might be a miraculous chance of relationship like Eleanor and Park’s, but for most
of the people it is never meant to be.

Q2. Have you ever wrote a letter to someone? It must be a letter of sincere heart to the
opponent, and must be a sole communication medium to him or her.

The latest letter I wrote was to a politician who had passed away before one and a half year. He
was a member of the National Assembly of Korea, belonging to “Justice Party”, and spent his
entire life fighting against unrighteous, unfair privileges in Korean society. He was a “guardian” of
the weak and underprivileged, and the only politician I could trust in the National Assembly. He
never lacked humor and sarcasm to fight against the privileged, and used to give us satisfaction
and relief that the strong couldn’t dominate us as long as he stands. One of my wish was to meet
him personally and ask many things about how to view and live the world righteously, but that
dream couldn’t be fulfilled after his death at 2018. So I wrote a long letter about things I wanted
to tell or ask him, about how I thought and learned from his life and quotes, and placed it at an
altar set up in front of the city hall, as if it were the only medium for me to communicate with
him.

Q3. What is your lifetime-best romantic movie? Describe why it was the best, and how the
characters were in the movie.

My all-time best romantic movie is “The Groundhog Day”. It is a very old movie released in 1993,
and had quite a lame setting of repeating the entire day, but had a very good message to teach
me about life. The protagonist “Phil Connors” is an arrogant news announcer who doesn’t care
about the people around him or how to live life with virtues. After he becomes trapped in
“February 2nd” repeating every day, and realizes that he couldn’t escape it no matter what, he
decides to live his life changing himself and looking over others. He learns that the truly precious
thing isn’t the results shown at the real world – we can’t really do anything about it – but the
process itself and our will itself living the present life that we can do about. He finds out that our
inner world (mind) could be truly nurtured by what we do and think every day, and that is the
only way to escape the endless days. After he understands this and spends the perfect day with
the woman he loves, he finally meets “tomorrow”, the day he was longing for.

Q4. Was there a person in your life that you miss the relationship you had with him or her? It
doesn’t have to be a lover, just a precious person in your life that you never wanted to lose.

I remember my old best friends, whom I’ve lost contact with for couple of years. One of them I’ve
met him at almost the age of 3. Our mothers were friendly too, and we used to travel a lot to
various places in Korea. We used to share hobbies together, went to same academies, and notify
the birthday gifts in advance so that we could play with those together. As we grew up I realized
he was such a cool boy, able to respect and care about people around him. I respected the
hobbies he was in to, and tried to share them, such as football or music, that I also eventually
became maniac at. After entering high school we lost contact with each other, and after a year in
high school I heard he went to study abroad in UK, since he wanted to be a sport agent. I heard
from my mom that he was recently studying marketing and economics, which was quite surprising
because we used to study math and science together. Though I don’t know if there would be the
chance, and though that chance wouldn’t restore the previous friendship back, I just wish
someday I could meet him as friends who could support each other just like the old days.