Impulse

     

             Hannah was through with all of the lies, rumors, and betrayal. She was on the edge and her reasons gave her a huge push to end her life. She committed suicide by overdosing on pills. Hannah Baker had a rough start to high school and from then on everything just became worse. No one was aware of how much their actions effected Hannah's life. Hannah Baker impacted the lives of many people with her tapes. It even says that at the end of the book Clay recognizes a possible victim of suicide, Skye Miller. She was showing the same signs as Hannah and Clay couldn't let her go. 

       This book teaches us how easy it is for someone to become weak and lose hope. We should think before we speak because we don't know what others are going through. Let people know that you are there for them and even something as little as smiling can change the minds of the people around you. 

Suicide (image)

Unmasked

      Hannah Baker's final reasons for committing suicide were Bryce Walker, number twelve, and Mr.Porter, Hannah's final reason. On the last week of her life, there was a second party at Courtney Crimson's house, Hannah was house sitting in a house near Courtney's. Once the party was over, Hannah wanted to see if anyone needed a ride home, but on her way out someone was calling her into a hot tub, Bryce Walker and Courtney Crimson.  She knew she didn't want to, but she had nothing to lose. Bryce started touching Hannah in the water even though she didn't want him to, she didn't say anything.  Hannah was just using Bryce so she could let go of herself completely. Finally, she was going to live up to her reputation.After it was over, Hannah went back and made her final decision, she was going to kill herself.
   Hannah's last reason was her last chance of living, but he didn't care enough. Mr.Porter knew Hannah wanted to commit suicide, she admitted it to him and he said, "just let it go".Hannah was now looking for reasons to kill herself, not reasons to live. After Mr.Porter's response Hannah ran out of the room and he didn't even try to stop her, he didn't care enough to go after her. He didn't feel the need to save her. Mr.Porter's tape is finished with her saying "sorry".


I'm Sorry (image)

Unfold Me

Slipped Away - Avril Lavigne

  The main conflict in Thirteen Reasons Why is that Hannah has committed suicide and left tapes. Hannah was tired and sick of everything so now, every single person who received her message, their lives' have changed. Clay Jenson has no idea why he was on Hannah's tapes but he is now conflicted because his love, Hannah Baker is dead. Clay had a goal to try to get through all the tapes, to find his name, to know what mistake drove Hannah to end her life. Hannah was a very smart girl. She gave a second set of tapes to someone in their school and threatened to make her tapes public if anyone refused to pass them on. But who? Hannah gave her second set of tapes to boy named Tony, she knew that he was loyal. Tony played a big part in this book, because he would follow each reason around and made sure they received the tapes, fulfilling Hannah's last wishes. Tony comforts Clay, he drives him around while Clay listens to his tape.The climax in this book was when Clay heard his name on the tapes. Clay was Hannah's ninth reason...sort of. 
      Hannah sent Clay the tapes so she could explain to him why she killed herself, for him to fill in the blanks, she said he didn't even belong on these tapes. Clay felt bad after listening to his tapes, he regretted not fighting for Hannah, he regretted not trying as hard as he could. But he never knew...how could he? Hannah pushed him away. He was the only person at school who saw Hannah for who she really was, he didn't believe any rumors about her. Hannah and Clay had a connection. A real connection.

Just Give Up Already

  Hannah's school had valentine surveys you could take and would match you up with "YOUR ONE TRUE LOVE!" Some people, like Clay, took the surveys as a joke, but Hannah described Clay in her survey. A boy named Marcus Cooley,Hannah's sixth reason, had gotten her on his list for valentines. He asks her out on a date to Rosie's Diner and she says yes. Marcus had obviously believed the rumors he had heard about Hannah because he arrives thirty minutes late and then assaults her in a public place. Hannah starts to loathe herself and everyone around her more and more. Her encounter with Marcus was the first time she ever considered...suicide.
   She was so shocked by Marcus's actions she could barely speak. Soon after Marcus left, she was approached by Zach Dempsey, reason number seven. He tried to comfort her, offered to buy her another milkshake, but Hannah knew he was only trying to hit on her. Hannah couldn't even talk without bursting into tears. Zach was embarrassed and felt rejected. He was soon going to get his revenge. Hannah joined a Peer Communications class. This class was Hannah's "safe haven". No one was allowed to be mean to each other and everyone respected the teacher enough to not harass anyone in that class. There was even a wire rack in the room that had paper bags on them with everyone's name written on a bag. You could drop messages in anyone's bag giving notes of encouragement. Hannah was so sure that she wanted to end her life at this point so she needed anything that she could get, even a little note could make a big difference. Not knowing how much Hannah needed those notes, Zach stole any note she got and made sure she never received them. Hannah made a plan to catch Zach in the process of stealing and once she did, he just ran away. He didn't even give her an explanation which made Hannah feel useless.
     After she found out about Zach, she realized she didn't want to turn to anyone anymore. She was losing hope in herself and the people around her. She started writing poetry every time something went wrong and soon met Ryan Shaver, her eighth reason, in poetry class. She honestly thought Ryan was her friend, she shared her poems with him and expressed herself during this difficult time. Soon Ryan Shaver betrayed Hannah. He published one of her poems in the school newspaper, without her permission. He never gave her credit for the poem and everyone was talking about it in school,dissecting her poem. Now, Hannah's want for committing suicide grew stronger.

You're A Fraud And You Know It

Smoke and Mirrors - Gotye

Most of the kids at school already had an image made for Hannah. Some wanted to learn more about her, specifically Hannah's classmate, Tyler Down also known as her fourth reason for ending her life.Tyler took away Hannah's comfort and stalked her. Her bedroom was the only place she really felt safe, away from the world. Tyler took that away from Hannah taking candid pictures of her at night. Hannah was sick of Tyler and wanted to put an end to this "peeping tom", so she caught him with the help of Courtney Crimson, Hannah's fifth reason. Courtney always wanted to have a squeaky clean reputation but that just made her a phony. She put on an act for everybody so everyone will think she's perfect. The more Hannah got to know Courtney, the more she realized how fake Courtney was. Courtney was a user. After catching Tyler, Hannah and Courtney drifted apart...until one day when Courtney needed a ride to a party. Even though Hannah took Courtney to the party she still made up a rumor about Hannah. Courtney lied and told some people at the party that Hannah had "naughty things" in her drawer which just made Hannah break down even more. Hannah Baker started losing faith in everyone and Courtney was just another example of how people at her school looked nice on the outside, but were monsters on the inside.

Enjoying My Pain?

             
   When Hannah first moved, Jessica Davis and her were great friends but somehow ends up being Hannah's third reason for committing suicide.They were both new and a teacher had set them up together. Hannah and her new friend would meet up at Monet's after school and eventually became friends with Alex Standall. Jessica and Alex dated for a while but then they all slowly drifted apart and after Alex Standall had put Jessica Davis and Hannah Baker up against each other on the "Hot or Not" list, Jessica had heard rumors about Hannah "stealing her man".
     These rumors were obviously false, but still put Hannah in a bad situation. Hannah and Jessica met up at Monet's to talk about the rumors, to clear things up. At the end of their conversation  Jessica was jealous and furious,she hit Hannah on the face. Jessica left a small scar above Hannah's eyebrow, leaving a reminder. Another friendship destroyed over a stupid rumor, Hannah was fed up. Hannah said in her tapes that, it was more than just a little scratch. It was a punch in the stomach and smack in the face. It was a knife in the back because Jessica would rather believe some made-up rumor than what she knew to be true.
      Jessica's story doesn't end here though. She comes up in another "reason" which was a second tape dedicated to Justin Foley. Jessica wasn't exactly named in this tape, but the people involved and Clay could identify Jessica. Justin Foley was enough to be Hannah's first and tenth reason for ending her life. On the night of the party Jessica was extremely drunk. Knowing this Justin allowed his friend, Bryce Walker to  pretty much rape Jessica. Hannah was hiding in the closet during this time, but she couldn't help, she was too numb. She wasn't even capable of saving herself how could she have helped Jessica? Over the loud pounding music Hannah was in a closet, slowly letting her life fall apart.  After Bryce had "spent a few minutes with Jessica", Hannah ran out of the room and got a ride with, Jenny Kurtz.
   Jenny was number eleven on Hannah's list. Sure, Jenny was polite enough to offer Hannah a ride home, but on the way she hit a stop sign. The stop sign got knocked over which made it easy for someone to get hurt. After Jenny had crashed into the stop sign, Hannah tried to convince her to call the police. Jenny kicked Hannah out of her car and left her on the road. Jenny Kurtz didn't want to call the police because she might have gotten in trouble. Later that night, there was a car accident due to Jenny's crash and a senior from their school had died because of it. Hannah could have helped out two people that night by stopping Bryce and calling the police. But now, she was broken and her life was just getting worse.

The Snowball Effect

    Hannah has mentioned the term, "The Snowball Effect", several times while recording her tapes. The Snowball Effect is the thought of one little, insignificant thing that grows and turns into a huge problem as more things are rolled on. When a small rumor turns into a huge important thing because of what other people have added on to it, that created more and more problems for Hannah. The "snowball" is first introduced when Hannah's first kiss, Justin Foley exaggerated what happened when they kissed. This gave more people a reason to treat Hannah the way they did. She started to get a bad reputation and everyone thought less of her. Justin Foley was Hannah's first reason why she killed herself.

    Alex Standall was Hannah's second reason. He also helped the snowball gain speed by ranking Hannah on the top of his "Hot or Not" list. Alex put Hannah in the "Hot" column while putting Hannah's old friend Jessica, right next to her on the "Not" column.  He used Hannah to get back at Jessica, not knowing the consequences of his actions. The list Alex Standall made had given her classmates to think of her the way they did.One of them, Bryce Walker, even used the list as an excuse to humiliate Hannah and caused Bryce,who is mentioned throughout the tapes,to grab her in public. They took advantage of her and Hannah felt worthless. No one was aware of the battles Hannah would face and that...the war had just began and Hannah had already lost.

Snowball effect (image)

Leave Me Broken

  Sia- Breathe Me

    In Thirteen Reasons Why it explains and shows many examples of how little things you may think are insignificant, can have big impacts on other peoples' lives. Every action had consequences. The words of Hannah's classmates haunted her. Many false rumors starting to spread about Hannah Baker gave the wrong people an excuse to cross the line, which broke Hannah. Another theme that you come across in this book is suicide. Many teenagers can relate to Hannah because everyone has gotten bullied or has had problems in their life. This book sends very important messages, for example, sometimes if a person is considering suicide all they need is a little push,and a little comment can just be that extra "push" for letting go.

    Memories are always brought up in this book. Clay remembers Hannah. He loved her but never built up the courage to speak with her. “I’m listening to someone give up. Someone I knew. Someone I liked. I’m listening but I’m still too late.” Clay Jensen was so shocked after her realized he was a reason for Hannah's death. Guilt. He felt guilty and he wished he would have tried harder to help Hannah, even though she pushed him away. Clay had no choice but to fulfill Hannah's last wishes and listen to the tapes.

   “When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything affects everything.” Hannah became weaker as her life came to an end. She was sick and disgusted by all the lies. The secrets. You never know what kind of battle someone is already going through. Things will not get better if you're not wanting to ask for help, or in Hannah's case, not even able to help yourself. Hannah would get suicidal thoughts every now and then, but at one point her thoughts turned into a mischievous scheme, against herself.

THEMES.

Once Upon A Suicide

 
    The setting takes place in a small town where Clay lives. Along with the tapes Hannah sent, everyone also received a map. Her listeners could have a different experience as they went around looking from Hanna's point of view. In the book Thirteen Reasons Why, the situations Hannah was in and her high school was very modern.  This book takes place in the 2000s.Drinking and partying were encouraged by most kids in her school. It was also very realistic because it wasn't the cookie-cutter kind of high school, some kids were nice while most were mean and betrayed Hannah. Rumors and secrets were also very popular in Hannah's school. We see this story through Clay's eyes but this book also features Hannah's audiotapes, reading Hannah's words as well as Clay's thoughts and actions.

Thirteen Reasons Why (image)

Memoirs From a Girl I Used to Know

  Clay Jenson comes home to find several cassette tapes in the mail. Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, was speaking on the tapes. She had already committed suicide two weeks earlier, so the tapes she had recorded were addressing why. Hannah had thirteen reasons for committing suicide. Thirteen individuals. Thirteen connections. "I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why...." Every single person on the tapes contributed to Hannah reasons for commit suicide because when one small insignificant thing happened, it just escalated and turned into something bigger and bigger. Hannah called this the "snowball effect".

13 Reasons Why Tape (image)