13 Reasons Why By Jay Asher: The Controversial Issue Of Suicide
This essay aims to look at the very controversial issue of suicide, that is very common amongst teens living and struggling throughout their semi adulthood life, particularly in the United States of America. It is a topic that I have always been interested in, mainly because I read about it in news, books, and articles; and I always hover around the same question, which is the reason behind them doing such a cruel and heartless act and the damage that it leaves not only on themselves but to the families and friends they abandon behind. My main research question will be “How does the author of the novel convey the theme of “everything affects everything” through the 13 mini-plots presented in the recordings of Hannah Baker?”. Initially, I think that this question could be answered with three responses, Asher does so through striking the plot, by making Hannah seem so real and by leaving space for the readers to have different perceptions and thoughts on the novel. In this essay, I will be using the main source of analysis that I will be articulating throughout the essay, and it is a book by Jay Asher known as 13 Reasons Why.
In 13 Reasons Why a teen fiction novel by Jay Asher, one of the main reasons that he had written this book was because one of his own relatives took their own lives. Hannah Baker was a high school student who was led by herself and the influence of other people and events that were too traumatizing and explicit that had emptied her heart out of any past peacefulness, affection and benevolence thoughts, yet instead had fulfilled and replaced them with rage, anger, and resentment; and eventually had escorted thinking and committing the cruel act of suicide. No one saw it coming, nobody expected it or had any sort of indications that she was contemplating suicide. Before she committed this tragic event, Hannah left behind thirteen recorded tapes that explained the thirteen reasons for the actions that led her to take her own life. The storyline takes into account very important issues that are mainly haunting teens, as they experience this period of their lives in high school.
In this essay, I am exploring the factors and issues Hannah (the protagonist of the story) has faced and dealt with to lead her to what she has done, which is committing suicide. I want to gain an understanding and get more educated on what it was for a teenage girl like Hannah who is only 17 years of age, living her life just like any other teenager. I am investigating very interesting yet mainly significant subjects such as cyberbullying, slut-shaming or victim-shaming, sexual assault, mental illness, and rape. These are all issues that not only teenagers interact with or suffer from, but it is also adults who deal with.
This book contains many important issues that in today's society are often ignored and get brushed over the carpet, because of how uncomfortable and sensitive they are to talk about, some of these issues can be considered a mental disorder, depression, and bullying. The author employs the structure in the novel to engage the readers and attract their attention both through their mind and spiritual notions and to establish suspense through several dramatic moments. Plots that are intense yet considered to be an allurement to the human mind in an addicting way that creates an element of suspense and excitement. The structure Asher decided to write his book with is a unique layout; he starts with an inciting event, an event that mainly excites or prepares the reader onto the next events that will be carried out throughout the novel.
One of the main characters Clay receives a box containing tapes and starts listening but needs a special machine that he steals from his friend Tony. This hints a sense or a perception of what the upcoming events will look like, which is a stylistic feature known as foreshadowing. We as an audience were left with our only source of information coming from Clay Jensen, as he tries to come into terms with his old memory of Hannah, to comprehend and accept the fact that Hannah Baker was no longer living. Then the author decides to move to the first plot point, which was when Clay listens to the first three recordings to which they all attach to one unforgettable event; these tapes contain Hannah’s first friendships she made when she moved to Liberty High School, but she was very new to the place that she did not think about backstabbing friends, which were the unfortunate case for Hannah not only with Justin, Jessica, and Alex but with the everyone that she had any sort of relationship with. Adding to that, the first pinch point when Clay then listens to the next five tapes and starts to slowly observe and feel the damage that each and every character has left on Hannah. Clay notices one of the teens (Alex) feeling down as always, as he is the type of person to be walking with their heads looking to the ground or be the type of teen to always get into fights; which led to Clay feeling almost sorry and showing sympathy towards him. As a result of the heavy pressure Clay is passing through for taking a journey into Hannah’s point of view, he started arriving home late and tired making his parents worry about him, his father started speculating whether Clay knew her well, and how he is devastated, and he questioned if Hannah was Clay’s girlfriend. It was also Clay’s mother Lainie Jensen works as a lawyer, where she was asked by Hannah’s parents to defend a lawsuit they filed for her daughter taking her own life, and Lainie was wondering if Clay was a part of that lawsuit. Then the author reaches to the midpoint where Clay listens to the next tape, and Tony warns Clay that if he does not pass the tapes to person number thirteen Bryce Walker, Tony will have to release them himself, as Hannah instructed to.
One of the most important parts of the book was when Clay listens to his own tape, however, it was not a Hannah blaming or explaining the way Clay might have hurt her. Little did Clay know that it was an apology to him, Hannah said that she would never be good enough for him, that she would not have the person he hoped she was, and that she would ruin him, and he will never deserve someone like her that would ruin his life. Subsequently, Jay Asher traveled to the second pinch point where he focused on Tony and Clay, where Clay started interrogating Tony on the reason behind Hannah committing suicide, hoping that he would know since she asked him to provide her with a tape recorder without mentioning the reason behind such a bizarre, but he did not. The author then moves to the third plot point, which for Hannah in the recorder is one of the worst parts in throughout the entire book. Since she went to a party hosted by her ex-friends Jessica Davis and Justin Foley where this was the night Jessica while she was unconscious from drinking and she was raped by Bryce Walker. Sadly for Hannah, she was in the room before they came into and she had to hide and pretend like she was not there in the room when Jessica and Justin started kissing. This was the moment were Hannah kept on punishing herself and remained on feeling bad for Jessica and how she did not stop Bryce from raping her; this is because of this hit Hannah at her mind as she was raped by the same rapist Bryce. Asher then moved to the climax, the most important part of the whole novel where everything starts to turn into a certain point and where the highest tension starts accumulating in the reader's minds. In the novel, this is where Clay finally makes it to the final tape, while Hannah gave life one more chance as she was very suicidal and was constantly thinking of multiple ways to take her own life. However, sadly it did not work for her as she ended her life by overdosing on pills, which as she described “So I’ve decided on the least painful way possible. Pills. ”
Lastly, the author reached the Climatic Moment by letting Hannah conclude with “Thank you”; which speaks on how Hannah feels on how she let herself, friends and parents down. According to university observer, Asher is careful to never clearly put his characters is boxes, meaning he does not want people to only look at one perspective of them. Asher added “that’s part of the criticism, that I never diagnose Hannah. If I said she was bipolar or she had this, it would’ve given the characters and the readers an excuse to not look at the small things. ” He is saying that Hannah occupying a space in the reader and characters mind’s prevents them from looking at the minor details that could eventually lead into a mental illness, such as when Hannah was sexually assaulted by Bryce; Asher defends his choice to abandon the protagonist undiagnosed, mirroring to the fact that we don't always know everything about individuals we meet in real life, “We don’t know what people are dealing with. I wanted the reader to recognise that the person that you think you know walking down the hall might have a chemical imbalance that makes what you do to her that much bigger. ”
“All of the reasons Hannah describes were based, at least loosely, on situations I’d either experienced or heard about, mostly from my wife or close female friend. ” Hence, it was a matter of interpreting such incidents through her thoughts and feelings. One of the main reasons how Asher was able to portray Hannah in such a real way was that he had a close female relative who has actually attempted suicide, and she was also a junior in high school.
Hannah had suicidal thoughts flooding through her mind from time to time. “Okay, I’ll say it. I thought about suicide. Usually it was a passing thought. I wish I would die. But sometimes I took things further and wondered how I would do it. A gun? What about hanging? A car accident”, this can be used to analyse one of Hannah’s traits which reflected in the future on some of her impulsive acts. However, she determined on pills which are according to her “the least painful way possible”. Another one of Hanna’s traits is the capacity to be honest, she's not only honest with others but honest with herself. When she states "I know what all of you are thinking Hannah Baker is a slut”. She's confronting reality by recognizing what people are assuming what she is, this not only reflects honesty but the courage that she has to not feel pressured on what people think of her. Moreover, Hannah never truly gained authority over what individuals said about her, “I needed a change, just like they said, so I changed my appearance. The only thing I still had control over”. She did not deny the reality that people have multiple perceptions on her. However, Hannah maintained everything under control the good, the bad and the ugly. By observing such a quote it clearly mirrors a certain way that the narrator is narrating this kind of emotions. Asher evidently uses a style that creates suspense and engagement on part of the reader to seek the detalis and not be satisfied with a general diagnosis; as Asher claimed that it will put the narrator off going deep into tactful issues like teen suicide, depression and mental illnesses.
