How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was weird to come home and see her mom, just standing in the kitchen, like… like normal. She was making soup, chopping onions. Eleanor felt like crying. (4.16)
Eleanor's home life is so atypical that the sight of her mom doing a normal task like cooking triggers a really emotional response in Eleanor. It's a clue that these normal moments have probably been few and far between.
Quote #2
She wondered where the rest of the stuff from the old house had ended up. Not just her stuff, but everybody's. Like the furniture and the toys, and all of her mom's plants and paintings […] Maybe it was packed away somewhere. Maybe her mom was hoping the cave-troll house was just temporary.
Eleanor was still hoping that Richie was just temporary. (4.43-44)
Before Richie, Eleanor's home was troubled, but still far more like a normal home. When Richie takes over, even their possessions disappear—he's completely erased their former life.
Quote #3
That's how Park's dad came home every night, like the dad in a sitcom. (Lucy?) (6.25)
In total contrast to the nightmare at Eleanor's house, Park's house is as squeaky-clean and happy as a sitcom. The most unusual part? None of it's fake.
Quote #4
She wouldn't talk about her family or her house. She wouldn't talk about anything that happened before she moved to the neighborhood or anything that happened after she got off the bus. (19.182)
Eleanor knows her home is something she wants to keep to herself, because she thinks Park won't like her if he knows about it. She doesn't want to be linked to such an awful place—and she doesn't think it's really hers, anyway.
Quote #5
Every Sunday, they got dressed up, in nice pants and sweaters, and had dinner with their grandparents. (20.15)
Not only does Park come from a loving home, he lives next door to his grandparents. This slice of his family's life (a formal weekly dinner with his relatives) is in total contrast to Eleanor's home, which is cut off from any extended family.
Quote #6
It was just too much. Meeting his pretty, perfect mom. Seeing his normal, perfect house. Eleanor hadn't known there were houses like that in this crappy neighborhood—houses with wall-to-wall carpeting and little baskets of potpourri everywhere. She didn't know there were families like that. (21.121)
Park's "normal, perfect" house is almost a shock to Eleanor, and given her own home, she has a very hard time feeling comfortable at Park's.
Quote #7
You'd think that nobody interesting could grow up in a house as nice and boring as this one—but Park was the smartest, funniest guy she'd ever met, and this was his home planet. (27.58)
Eleanor sees Park's edgy, outsider style as a total mystery once she sees his home. Goes to show that someone's home isn't always a reflection of their personality… which is also true in Eleanor's case.
Quote #8
Eleanor wanted to feel superior to Park's mom and her Avon-lady house. But instead, she kept thinking about how nice it must be to live in a house like this one. With your own room. And your own parents. And six different kinds of cookies in the cupboard. (27.59)
Eleanor, who has a natural discomfort with anything mainstream, doesn't want to like Park's house, but she can't help envying all the creature comforts that her own home doesn't have. And, you know, having parents like Park's would be kind of nice, too.
Quote #9
Nobody brought friends into their house. Not the little kids. Not even Richie. And her mom didn't have friends anymore. (34.67)
Richie's isolated Eleanor's family so completely that their home has become almost like a jail—except the kids aren't even allowed to play inside. If Richie could get rid of the kids and keep Sabrina in a sealed bubble, we think he would.
Quote #10
The only safe time to take a bath in her house was right after school. If Eleanor went over to Park's house right after school, she had to hope that Richie would still be at the Broken Rail when she got home that night. And then she had to take a really fast bath because the back door was right across from the bathroom, and it could open at any time. (34.81)
This chilling description of the strategies Eleanor uses to take a bath not only show what a threat Richie is, but how challenging it is for Eleanor to even exist in her own home. Except, this isn't really her home. Is it?