Book Response Burned by Ellen Hopkins Essay

Burned written by Ellen Hopkins Is a great novel, and worth the time to read. Burned is about a teen girl who was born and raised a Mormon; Pattyn Von Stratten she is like most teenagers growing up. Her family is extremely religious but in the same prospective her father is a drunk and very abusive. Pattyn is tired of living the fairytale of a Mormon lifestyle and ready to be energized with her own free spirit and way of life. Pattyn slowly starts to rebel against her family, school, church. While her father spends most of his time drunk; its left up to her mother to take care of the house hold and make sure everything is all in perfect running order to not upset Pattyn’s father. Pattyn begins rebelling even more so than she thought it would go. She gets suspended from school and gets sent to live with her aunt who she doesn’t even know. This is the beginning of it all the worst mistake her father could have made and where Pattyn makes decisions that are about to change her life completely. Pattyn soon falls in love with a boy names Ethan who she is bound to be attached to. Pattyn doesn’t see it but she is headed down the complete wrong path and when all she wanted is attention she’s going to get much more attention that she has intended to get. Ellen Hopkins is showing the themes of abuse and dysfunctional relationship, Pattyn’s father is an abusive drunk. I also think Hopkins is showing the theme of growing up and finding your destiny and who you are, when Pattyn is sent to live with her aunt in Nevada and basically create a whole new agenda for herself. Along with dysfunctional relationship, she’s displaying what love is like, too, when the character falls in love. I think she’s trying to prove that life doesn’t always go as planned and you have to work yourself around the problems that you find in life, and bad decision could change your life forever. I believe the main purpose of the novel is to reach out to teens. Ellen Hopkins expresses many different themes in her novel but one main theme I believe is im portant is physiological. Pattyn goes through many different stages of growing up and expressing her true self. She becomes more social with guys and becomes more of a social butterfly then the Mormon nerd she used to be. Pattyn lashes out and rebels against her family and church in many different ways. When Pattyn is set to live with her aunt she meets a boy and which she ends up in a relationship. Pattyn starts growing up and learning more about her sexual self and starts dreaming about all the what if’s. Pattyn starts to experiment with her new boyfriend Ethan and when she goes back home she shares the secret to her family that she is pregnant. Attempting to escape her father’s wrath, Pattyn and Ethan take off for California, unaware that Trevor, a â€Å"perfect Mormon child† who loved Pattyn, has written down the car’s license plate number. When her father finds out, he calls his â€Å"Highway patrolman friend† to track them down, to find them on an icy road. Ethan speeds up in attempt to lose the patrolman, but loses control of his car and crashes. Pattyn wakes up in the hospital, to find out that both Ethan and their baby are dead. Her father disowns her, unable to bear the recent events. Pattyn is left with a life changing decision in the end; shoot and kill all those who caused her pain and Ethan and their baby’s deaths, or move on? Pattyn states that if her father would just say he loved her she would spare him. Ellen Hopkins is an amazing author and has a unbelievable way of relating to teens. Burned is just one of her fabulous novels all having a great meaning to the lives of teens. If I was asked if I would recommend Ellen Hopkins novels I would say she has a great way of reach out to teens in her books and educating them in a non-boring way and I enjoy reading and looking forward to any novel she creates.