Importance Of Bullying Problem: "Thirteen Reasons Why" By Jay Asher
In the novel “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, a highschool boy, named Clay Jensen discovers cassette tapes mailed to his home from an unknown sender. These tapes contained information about Hannah Baker, a classmate who recently ended her life by overdosing on medication. In the tapes, Hannah recalls why she ended her life and which people led her to end her life. Clay then listens to the tapes, confused on how Hannah feels he is also responsible for overdosing herself. After listening to her tapes, Clay finds out that there was more to Hannah’s story. More to her death. Hannah was dealing with a lot. She was being bullied by classmates and by the few friends she had. She dealt with a lot of pressure from others and a lot of embarrassment through her high school.
No one knows about these 13 cassette tapes, unless to Hannah you were guilty of her death. Hannah holds 13 different high school peers accountable. This novel presents two different perspectives of life through the eyes of Hannah Baker, the teen who committed suicide and Clay Jensen, one of the those 13 people of her tapes who feels Hannah is wrong for accusing him of her overdose. Giving intense and descriptive events that have happened to both of them. This novel follows along those 13 people’s guilty actions that led to Hannah’s suicide. In the end, Hannah goes to Mr. Porter, the guidance counselor who is on one of those 13 tapes. Hannah seeks out help from Mr. Porter. He was her only hope on changing her decision to stay in the world, but Mr. Porter lacked to see what Hannah felt on the inside that she kept hidden away. So as her last option to go get help from Mr. Porter fails, she turns to death as a decision to let go of her hardships in her life. One of my favorite quotes in the novel is when it explains, “You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part.
Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person's life, your messing with their entire life. Everything… affects everything.” I like this quote because it shows how people feel when belittled by others, showing us to learn from this novel. Be the person to be there for others and try to change society’s ways. Bullies feel like they didn’t really do anything to hurt you, but in the end they have changed your life in a negative way. Everything you do, has a consequence. Making others think about that negative thing you said to them in the hallway. When you say something, people think that’s what their defined by, a meaningless, no good word. Another one of my favorite quotes is shown when it says, “You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret… is to press play.” I love this quote because it teaches us to learn from our mistakes. To know we can’t take back what we did, we have to keep moving forward. Instead of worrying about what horrible thing you did in the past, work to change the way your future will go. He wants us to lead our future in the right direction by being the best version of ourselves. Asher tells us to not follow the path Hannah took to relieve from the pain and to lose her precious life, instead he wants us to understand the importance of our life and how loved we are.
Hannah Baker is the main character of this novel “Thirteen Reasons Why”. Hannah is super shy at school and doesn’t like to cause to much attention to herself. It almost feels like she makes herself feel invisible. Hannah is quiet and she doesn’t like to talk about how she really feels to her parents or her few friends. She always keeps her problems to herself which is not healthy to do. Most of all she has the honesty and courage to tell people how she really feels about them. Which made Hannah lose a lot of important friendships because people couldn’t handle the truth. In their eyes, all they were doing was good things and they felt that they had this perfect life. Even when Hannah tried to make her life better and step out of her comfort zone, it never turned out as she had hoped.
Clay Jensen is another main character of the novel. Clay is independent in so many ways. Clay never tells his parents about his social life at school or what he does with his time. He worked at Crestmont theatre with Hannah for a little while until Hannah committed suicide. Clay is the type of person to let someone go because he doesn’t want to tell or show his true feelings towards them. For example, Hannah always had feelings for Clay and he had feelings for her also. But since Clay never admitted his love for Hannah, she thought he wanted nothing to do with her. Which made Hannah feel there was no need to be in this world. Since the only person she loved who was different than every guy in school and actually had respect for girls didn’t love her back in her eyes. Tony plays an important role in the novel. Hannah has given the tapes to Tony, one person she felt would carry out her wishes as she pleased. Tony is trustworthy, loved Hannah, and was always looking out for Clay. Making Clay feel as if Tony is stalking him, but Tony just wanted him to listen to the tapes Hannah left, as she wanted. What is good about Tony is he told Hannah’s parents every detail about those tapes she left, being a person the Mother of Hannah could count on to go to for comfort and closure on Hannah’s death.
I learned a lot of social lessons in this book. I learned to not bully others because you may never know what they are thinking to do to themselves. Don’t ever judge someone because you not any better or more better of perfect than someone else. You may never know what someone is going through at home or in their mind. Try to better their day or be a good person to lighten up their day. I learned that bullying is a big problem in society today. People are just more meaner and less respectful to each other today then back then. I learned to never let anyone define who you are, other than yourself. Words can hurt, but actions speak louder than words. Be kind. I learned to not be someone you’re not because it leads to unfortunate events. I learned that social class doesn’t get you nowhere. Be careful, protect yourself, and expect the unexpected. I also learned not to take someone or something for granite because it may not be there tomorrow. I learned to cherish the life you have. Make everyday count. Bullying someone, doesn’t make you or help you feel better. Think before you do. Focus on the important things and don’t live a reckless life. I also learned a very important thing which is that, the impact you have on someone’s life is a big thing.
The novel “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher is a very important novel. This novel speaks out on society's problems today of bullying and suicide. It teaches you some very important life lessons. Asher teaches how powerful social media is and how powerful it affects a person. We learn that bullying is not helping society and how it’s not getting any better. I love Asher’s perception of the novel because it not only tells you different stories of two different people, it improves your understanding on how it’s so important to listen and reach out to others who you think are feeling negative about themselves. Teaching us to improve our character and be there for someone who has no one to turn to. The only thing I disliked about the book was that Asher showed a lot of inappropriate and hard things you never want to see someone go through. Also, it showed how physically and mentally Hannah was.
Reading this book gave me the sense of lack of comforting. This book portrays a powerful message of bullying and the powerful, negative effect it has on someone’s life to lead someone in the wrong direction, which is suicide. The novel I feel is not really for children, it shows a side of highschool and adulthood in a very different perspective than kids see life. I wouldn’t want to ruin a child's perspective on the world because of reading this novel. This novel makes you feel heartbroken and sad, but it helps you understand the importance of bullying problems and why we as people need to change positively. We should not have to risk having anyone else take their own lives. The novel “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher is unique and gives a real life perspective on teens who feel like there’s nothing they can do to better their life.
