Eleanor and Park and Wealth Inequality in America

As I continued to read Eleanor and Park, the story started to turn more into a Romeo & Juliet type story. It seems like Park is willing to do anything for Juliet, I mean Eleanor, and that includes things that are detrimental to himself. He's willing to fight for her and if I bet any money I'd say he'd be willing to die for her. She also loves him but I think she's reacting to him like a damsel in distress. She likes him because he's the first person that was actually nice to her at the new school. The story continually references Romeo and Juliet and I feel that its supposed to be a modern-day version of the story. Especially when the beginning of the book shows that Park will end up without her one day wishing that she were still there with him. Maybe its actually Park 70 years down the road after they've lived a long and happy life and it is written that way to surprise us with how everything turns out. However, I doubt that the story will end happily. I'm going to make a prediction that Eleanor is going to be killed by Richie with his gun after he finds out about Park.
When it comes to income inequality, I've always known how bad the gap is. I've spent a lot of time looking into it. I already knew the top 1% held about 40% of the wealth. I've known that its been growing for decades with the introduction of larger Corporations and chains. However, I did not know that the poverty line in the United States was $12,000 for one person. I did not realize how many families were below the poverty line. I don't consider it possible to survive with less than that in our country anymore. I think something needs to be done to decrease the amount of people below the poverty line.