How does this book help you think about social issues you care about or causes you are committed to? - Eleanor and Park

Tons of books are being written about abuse and poverty. These issues have become popular among teens and they can't seem to get enough. "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell satisfies these teens craving. The book focuses on the romantic relationship between Eleanor and Park. Eleanor has a very bad home life; her mother is physically abused by her alcoholic husband and her family is always struggling for money. Park helps her deal with her feelings about her family as he begins to fall in love with her. Reading this book made me care even more those two issues because of the heavy focus on them in the book and how they were explained and presented. That showed me the importance of these issues and how they are a very serious problem in the real world.
Throughout the book, Eleanor's mother gets abused by Richie (Eleanor's stepdad). That being one of the main reasons of Eleanor's passionate hatred of her stepdad. All night long, Eleanor hears her mother screaming, wailing, shouting, and crying. Richie curses her mom out and you can hear the slaps across her mother's face. Their fights are intense and sickening. This happens basically every night. Eleanor even sees the bruises Richie makes on her mother: "Eleanor pretended not to notice the bruises on her mom's wrist" (Rowell 26). Even Eleanor gets abused by Richie. He curses at her and says the most awful things to her and her mother: "FUCK THIS. FUCK ALL OF YOU. STUPID BITCHES." (Rowell 153). Sometime Richie will slap Eleanor. The abuse is a huge issue in the story.
Poverty is also a huge issue in the book. The family is always struggling for money. Eleanor has to wear the ugliest clothes from thrift stores because she can't afford to buy nice clothes from regular stores. At school people make fun of her about it and sometimes it really gets to her, "And she was dressed like...like she wanted people to look at her. Or maybe like she didn't get what a mess she was" (Rowell 8). The family is always struggling to have enough food to eat and to buy necessities such as soap. It seems as if the family never has enough money to do anything, even on thanksgiving they had trouble purchasing all the thanksgiving foods.
So by reading this book I have come to care for the issues of poverty and abuse even more than I had before. The book focuses on these two issues so heavily, I paid so much attention to them, and learned a lot about how the characters felt about these issues and how it affected their daily lives. It showed me that these issues are a serious problem in the real world and that they need to be dealt with. Some people are really suffering with poverty and need to be given money so they can buy food and suitable clothing. And some people are really suffering with abuse and need to be in therapy.
Reading about poverty and abuse have opened up so much for me and have made me care about it even more.