Individual Reasons Why The Liars Set Fire

Connor Hwang

Ms. O’Malley

Humanities English- F

30 January 2023

Why the Liars Set Fire There are many different, individual reasons why the Liars set ablaze the palace that was Clairmont. First off, Johnny was usually a jokester when dealing with most situations. However, when it was implied that Granddad Tipper asked Johnny to meddle with Carrie and Ed’s relationship, that crossed a line for him. Granddad assigned Johnny to intervene in “his mother’s love life”, and that if forced to, Johnny would “bloody well” get through community college (Lockhart 190). It was extremely inappropriate and wrong for Granddad to attempt to make Johnny interfere in his mother’s personal life. This spurred Johnny to agree with Cadence and got him thinking about

In addition, this experience can exemplify why Johnny was differentiating himself from the other people in this family. His mother and aunts were fighting over the inheritance as if it was a necessity to have an excess of money. Meanwhile, Johnny was willing to go through life and build himself up instead of betraying his own family. Similarly, the values instilled in Mirren also were the reason why she burned Clairmont down. Mirren had a knack for being kind even to the point where it hurts. Bess wanted Mirren to essentially talk down Johnny and Cadence to Grandad while advertising herself and her siblings as the future of this family. However, Mirren’s love and kindness “would not” even when her mother “took her phone, her laptop, and her allowance” (191). Mirren’s values of staying kind to everyone and sharing love, would not let her tear apart her family. Mirren had a dream that they “could be a family” (197). Mirren believed that destroying something that was so close to the family would bring them together and become a true family. Mirren and Johnny set fire to

Cadence had never been attracted and addicted to a person like Gat. After not having him for so long and then finally getting a chance with Gat, just for him to be torn away, Cadence would “not let [her] love be threatened” (200). Cadence could not accept the fact that sometimes that life does not work out the way one wants. She had built a defense around her love for Gat and was protecting this as best she could. In this instance, she deluded herself into thinking Gat “would never see me” (198). She had made this all about her needs and satisfaction, without taking into account what could possibly happen. This is supported when she claims that they “would be heroes, even” (200). It is possible to sympathize with Cadence, being separated with the love of her life due to her family having unneeded issues. Even with that sympathy, there were many issues for her reason to burn Clairmont. Without having any rationality, without considering that she could drive down to New York, and without considering the possible consequences of this action, Cadence let her love-consumed heart make a mistake that would impact everyone around her. On the other hand, there seems to be a similar and differing reason as to why her counterpart, Gat, agreed to burn Clairmont down. Gat also did this for love, so that he and his first love could stay together. He wanted to be with her and would not let anything stand in his way.