In the book Burned by Ellen Hopkins, the way the pages are set up are not conventional, which in my opinion makes the book a very interesting, edgy read. They are written almost set up as poems, and as I read this book I found myself reading the pages in my head with breaks like a normal poem. On the particular page 301, the verses are written looking identical to stairs going downward. On this page the main character, Pattyn, is talking about how her family back home are doing, around the time of her birthday. Her sentence length ranges on this page, matching up to the feeling of this page. The pages in each paragraph or "stanza" if you will are normal but shorten as the point becomes more relevant. Her use of fragments also is a creative way of showing her short, concise thoughts. At the end of the page her writing starts to look like a list, and to me this shows the detachment growing between her and her family and the lack of excitement of her house back where she has spent most of her life. I'd say this page shows a major turning point in the book and the syntax just adds to the emotion.
#8: What is Mrs. Shears opinion of Christopher?
Mrs.Shears does not like Christopher and how he does not understand boundaries. She thinks he came into her backyard and killed her dog, which does not sit very well with her, also after the incident of the dog in the night-time he keeps coming around and asking questions about Wellington, acting as though it is a big mystery he is in charge of solving. It seemed in the past Mrs. Shears had a different opinion of Christopher because she helped him and his father out after his mother died. Her change in opinion only seems to be coming from the thought of him killing her dog, which he is not responsible for. #10: Christopher makes many points to show his behavioral problems. I say Christopher as the narrator because it is him who is telling the story, explaining how he sees things occurring. There are many things Christopher does that would not seem normal to us. For one thing, Christopher does not like anything that is brown and yellow. He does not like when people touch him, he will have a mental breakdown. These sorts of problems hold him back from going to a normal school. At the school he goes to her has many counselors and just now at 15 he can take a normal math class. The thing he likes about math is there is a definite answer unlike other things in his life. #20: People who read this book learn a lot about the human mind an dhow it works differently. How Christopher, who suffers from behavioral problems. He does not comprehend things like other people so explaining things to him is harder than it would be to other people. An example is when he finds out his mother has not been dead and that his father lied he does not understand why or how his father would do that if he knew it was wrong. He does not understand the thought of sparing someones feelings or not knowing what to do since he has never been head to head with a situation like that in his life until now. His father has tried to keep his life simple but it has meant not being completely honest with him all the time. |