Trope Workshop:Burning the Past

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"The house held those years of abuse and she wanted it all to burn but, more importantly, she wanted to destroy him along with it. She was forced to marry him and he had beaten her, battered her, used and abused her and she wanted to destroy the house, her memories, and him, releasing those years of pent-up rage and pain." —Satsuki, Kiryuuin Chronicles

In some stories, we have a building that's important to the story or, rather, the characters. Usually, more-often-than not, it's an old home of the protagonist but said old home carries some history, like a curse, bad a memories, etc and that, by staying there or the building being attached to the memories, the protagonist is either tied to their old ways or the past is holding them back.

Then that house gets burned down or, otherwise, is destroyed in some way and the protagonist is "freed".

Examples of Burning the Past include:

Anime and Manga

• Fullmetal Alchemist has the Elric bros doing this, though Ed denies their initial reasons for why they burn their house down.
• From Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's easy to list the times that Seto Kaiba didn't do this. If something is tying him down or is a hit to his pride, he'll go out of his way to destroy it. Ironically, it's his past (and past Egyptian incarnation) that motivates him the most.

Fan Works

• The quote comes from Kiryuuin Chronicles, when a mentally ill Ragyo, after dealing with years of her husband's abuse throughout their marriage, along with the memories and psychological damage thereof, in a fit of pent up rage burns their house down, destroying the house and killing him (whether or not she killed him in the fire or before she started to torch the house is never said).
  • By the same author, How the House Burned Down, this is played with as, while, usually, this trope frees protagonist (and her sisters), Satsuki isn't freed from the past, actually, the events before the act itself is what still haunts her.

Film

• Though it symbolizes protection, this happens in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, where Gilbert, Ellen, and Arnie decide to burn their house down with their mother's body on the top floor to keep Bonnie from being made fun of post-mortem.

Literature

• When Bertha Rochester burns down Rochester Manor in Jane Eyre, she dies in the process, taking the dark secrets of Rochester Manor with her.

Music

• P!nk's "Funhouse" has her character doing this to the house she shared with an abusive partner.

Theatre

• Downplayed in Rent, where to keep warm (after their utilities are cut off), Mark and Roger burn the former's failed screenplays. Further downplayed, in that this happens at the start of the story.

Video Games

• BioShock has this in the backstory of Andrew Ryan, though his motivations were out of spite. When the government wanted to nationalize a forest he owned, he burned it down and then moved to Rapture.

Visual Novels

• Umineko: When They Cry has a road less travelled in that Ushiromiya mansion is blown up on the second day of the murder mystery, something that kills the family and leaves massive crater on the island. In episodes 4 and 8, the storyline suggests its better to forget the issue, so the dead can move on.

Western Animation

• Parodied in Back at the Barnyard with an in-universe song, "You Broke My Heart so I Burned Down Your Farm".

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