in Burned by ellen hopkins. . . .?

Question

what is the problem the cause and result?
cuz like there are many problems and i can't really figure out what the main problem is.

I don't know if it is about her father beating her or about the baby and her love.

And at the end of the book did she kill her father?

please help ^.^

Answer 1

I read BURNED a few weeks ago. I would say she has several main issues. One is that she is having problems with her family. She is EXTREMELY angry at her father for being a drunk who abuses the mother and later one or two of the older children. She is angry, disappointed, and frustrated with her mother for putting up with it all. She can't understand why her mother doesn't value herself more and allows herself to be used like that--a vessel for popping out babies each year. She gets along okay with her siblings I believe. But another main problem that is hand in hand with it all is that she is experiencing a time of REBELLION/REJECTION of the Mormon faith. She is angry and bitter at the religion she was raised. From her perception, she believes that the MORMON faith (local church) doesn't care about how drunk, how abusive, how cruel her father is. That religion is allowing abusive men to hide behind them and be strengthened. So when she is able to go to her aunt and be herself, be free of religion, free of her family, free of rules, free of verbal abuse, she finds out that life is worth living for the first time.

As far as the ending goes, I don't think she killed her father. Although perhaps the ambiguity of it may leave some room for doubt. I don't know what the author meant, but my perception was that she was about to kill herself. It seemed the last poem(s) were focusing on why she had no reason to live, no reason to hope, no people she could turn to for support, completely abandoned by her family. So I thought it was suicidal in nature.