Archetype

The Archetypal Actions or Events in Burned are a Journey and Rites of Initiation. The most fitting Archetypal setting is the Sea because everything in the story is unpredictable. Pattyn is an innocent embarking on a journey, but her parents made her leave so she is also like an orphan, her parents are like wicked stepmothers, Pattyn's sister is like her friend, Ethan is a lover, and Aunt J is like a caregiver. The author followed the basics of archetypes and applied them to her story and characters.

Conflict and Resolution

There are two main conflicts in Burned. The first conflict that takes place is Pattyn is seeing a guy behind her parents back and they find out about it. In response, her parents send her to spend the summer with her aunt. The other conflict is that Pattyn gets pregnant when she is staying with her aunt and can't tell her parents so she decides to runaway with her boyfriend and they get in a car wreck and the boyfriend and the baby die.

Recommendation

I recommend Burned to people who like sad, realistic books. I wouldn't recommend it to people that like happy books with fairytale endings. This book has problems that current teenagers face and shows ways that some deal with them.

Character Development

At the beginning of the story, Pattyn is a good little Mormon girl and is one of seven children, all girls. She attended church regularly with her family. Her father struggled with alcohol abuse and beat her mother. Throughout the book his problems worsened. Pattyn also changed throughout the story. She began to have inappropriate dreams and started to question whether or not she believed in her religion. She started dating a boy that wasn't Mormon so she didn't tell her parents because she knew they wouldn't approve. She started drinking when she hung out with him and started fooling around with him, too. She realized that he was a jerk when her dad caught them and was going to kick her out and make her go live with her aunt and he just stopped talking to her. At her Aunt's house she started to feel better about herself and feel pretty when she got the attention of an older, good looking boy. However, she continued drinking and fooling around with the new boy. She ends up getting pregnant and is going to run away with Ethan, the new boy, but they get in a car wreck and Ethan and the baby are killed. Her father's struggle with alcohol is at an all time high at this point and he has moved on from just beating his wife to beating his wife and his older children.

Best and Worst Parts

I thought that the end of the book was the best part because it was suspenseful and made me keep wanting more. Toward the end of the book I was hooked and wanted to know how it was going to end. I was almost in tears when i read the last couple pages and found out that Ethan and the baby were killed in the car wreck. I also liked the beginning becuase I can relate to the things that that Pattyn was going through.

I thought that the worst parts were when Aunt J was teaching Pattyn how to drive her truck and how to ride a horse because those are things that I already know how to do and I don't think they are that interesting. I don't think that Ellen Hopkins should have been so detailed in describing those events and should have just moved on with the story.

Final Update

In the final 130 pages of Burned Pattyn is curios about what went on between Kevin and Aunt J and wants to know if they're going to get back together and wonders why they never tried to get back together before. Aunt J said it was because they both moved on and ended up getting married to other people, and now they are both single. Kevin and Aunt J started seeing each other again shortly after.

Jackie wrote Pattyn letters sporadically while she was staying with Aunt J letting her know how things at home were going. The last letter that Pattyn got from Jackie told her how their father had went from just beating their mother to beating her and their mother, and his drinking problem had spun out of control. She also told her that mother was fatter than ever. She was really upset with her father from what she heard in the letter and in a way wanted to be home with Jackie. Later that week her father called to say that her was going to come pick her up the Saturday before school started. Aunt J told him that she had a friend going to Reno that could give her a ride and he agreed.

Aunt J gave Pattyn a cell phone before she left so she could call anytime she wanted. Ethan gave her a pistol for protection in case her dad got out of control. Ethan was "Aunt J's friend that was going to Reno," so Pattyn and him could spend as much time together as possible. When they reached Pattyn's house they said their good-bye's and Ethan left. She went inside and realized that things were about the same as they were when she left except for what Jackie told her about. Her family acted as though she never left. At dinner that night she back talked her father and he started hitting her repetitively in the back. After dinner Pattyn and Jackie waited until everyone in the house had went to bed and then started talking about what it was like at Aunt J's and about Ethan.

When she started school again, she went back to the old Pattyn. As time went by she realized that it had been a while since she had her last period and began to think that she was pregnant. She went to the store and got a pregnancy test and it came out positive. She told Ethan and he planned to come pick her up from school that Thursday and she would leave with him and he would take care of everything. Word got out around the school about Pattyn being pregnant and her mother found out in no time. She denied everything and her mother believed her. When Ethan picked her up from school, a boy that liked Pattyn wrote down the license plate number on Ethan's truck and in no time there was a cop following them with his lights on. The roads were really bad and when Ethan tried to speed up to lose the cop, the truck went out of control and they wrecked.

When Pattyn came to her senses in the hospital she was informed that Ethan and the baby didn't make it. She was devastated. She planned to kill all of the people that ruined her life, but only if her father would tell her he loved her she wouldn't carry out her plan, but she knew he wouldn't...

Related Links

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/06/14/0532262.php On this site there is a book review about Burned.

http://www.ellenhopkins.com/Bio.html This site tells all about Ellen Hopkins, the author of Burned.