Burned By Ellen Atkins Summary

“Real love finds you once, if you 're lucky.” In the story, Burned, Ellen Hopkins is focused on the torturous life of a Mormon teenage girl. Pattyn is a 16/17 year old girl who dreams to be free from abuse and hatred. Pattyns life is surrounded by her father and his “best friend” Johnnie WB, a mother who has too many children she can take care of and the hope to be a normal girl. She does not feel like she belongs in her own home, school or body. She dreams every day and night to be different but her parents always push her away from her dreams. “I felt angry, frustrated. I felt I did not belong, not in my, church, not in my home, not in my skin.” Pattyn had all of this stress built up inside and she needed a release from it. Drinking, dating boys and getting suspended from school was the answer. Her parents finally had enough of her sinful shenanigans. “It’s funny how when your life is mostly a lie, you turn off feeling. But sometimes it 's hard to turn it back on again.” Pattyn is sent to eastern Nevada to live with her Aunt Jeanette for the summer. There, she will find the love and happiness she has been looking for. The …show more content…
By her surprise, her father was beating her little sister all summer instead of her pregnant mother. When she returns home, her father resumes hitting on her. All she learned from her aunt pushed her to fight back and not take the abuse from her father. She starts talking back and tries to prove a point by making her dad feel like crap. “Defiance rose up like vomit. I swung back and yelled, do not ever do that again!” It seemed like a good idea, until her father got even angrier than he was before. Every day, Pattyn is beaten nearly to death by her father. He hits her to the ground, kicks her as hard as he can and just leaves her there. “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.” (Dave