Over the past two weeks, I’ve read both Eleanor & Park and Why We
Broke Up, so I thought I’d discuss the heroes and villains concept within
both of them, since they’re so different (even though they’re both “romance”
novels).
In Eleanor & Park,
there are a few minor characters who give Eleanor a hard time, but the
villain who reigns supreme is her stepfather, Richie. He is abusive not only to
her, but to her mother and siblings. He is constantly at the bar and when he
does come home, Eleanor is sure to stay out of his way. We as readers know very
little about Richie, but we don’t need to: it is obvious that he’s wicked to
the core. Eleanor’s mother doesn’t
harbor the strength to escape her abusive relationship with Richie, so Eleanor
is forced to take care of herself and her siblings emotionally. Eleanor could
be considered a hero to her siblings because she’s there for them on nights
when Richie is especially abusive. However, she’s more of a “hero” to Park than
anyone else. And Park is a hero to her. Though they could not be more opposite
on the outside, they manage to connect and fall in love; this ultimately
changes them, making them dependent on each other emotionally because nobody
else around them treats them the way they should be. Eleanor and Park do not
possess powers, and they don’t physically do anything to save each other (minus
the time Park punches Steve for making fun of Eleanor), but they “save each
other.” As cheesy as that sounds, I think it’s actually really wonderful.
Having been outcasts their entire lives, it’s so nice to see them finding something
(or rather, someone) to believe in.
In the case of Why We
Broke Up, there aren’t really any heroes or villains. Min and Ed are the
main characters, and they’re already broken up before the book even starts. I
guess (spoiler alert!) you could call Ed the villain because he ends up
cheating on Min in the end, which obviously really hurts her. However, Ed doesn’t
possess any qualities of a typical villain – mostly because he isn’t wicked or
isolated or anything like that. He’s just a jock who got stuck between Min and
the life he was taught to live. But he still made an awful choice in the end-
and didn’t really apologize for it or seem to regret it – so let’s just call
him the villain. Min isn’t really a hero or a villain, in my opinion. Perhaps
she’s a hero to herself for telling him off via the letters that compose the
novel, but overall, she doesn’t save anyone or end up in any situations that
require resilience or bravery. Maybe she possesses heroic qualities. I’d like
to think she does. But we never really get a chance to see them. All we learn
is how much she loved Ed, and therefore, why she’s so completely and utterly
done with him (even if she so completely and utterly isn’t).
Both of these novels are realistic fiction/romance novels
that focus on polar opposites attracting. However, the “heroes and villains”
are different in both. In the case of love, though, you can probably often
argue that the lovers themselves are the heroes and villains. We see a strength
in both female characters (much more so in Eleanor), but the male characters
are very different (Park being much more likable due to his
not-being-an-awful-boyfriend-ness). One
novel comes to a crossroads at the end (as many love stories do), while the
other was over before the first page is even turned. Though the stories
themselves are different, the heroic and villainous qualities of people are
still seen in both.
No comments:
Post a Comment