Critical Essay on Thirteen Reasons Why: The Impact of People on Our Decisions

Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher is a story that is directed to young adults on the anguish that they go through resorting to murder as a way of overcoming the challenges. The author uses the life of a high school student, Hannah, who decides to commit suicide out of the despair and anguish caused by the people around her. Generally, the author brings up the relevance of those around us in the decisions that we make through Hannah and Clay, who narrate the story. For instance, on receiving the tapes, Clay says, "Who would send me a shoebox full of audiotapes? No one listens to tapes anymore. Do I even have a way to play them?"(6). Clay discovers the tapes that Hannah had recorded before her death, and in the tapes, Hannah narrates the reasons she decided to commit suicide and asserts that all the people included in seven tapes were responsible for her death, but she feels that Clay would not have been part of it. However, an in-depth analysis of issues in the story is aided by imagery which the author uses to clarify certain concepts. This paper, therefore, analyses the authors' use of imagery in providing an in-depth description of the issues addressed in the story.

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The first person implicated on the tapes is Justin Foley, whom they had the first kiss but went ahead and exaggerated it. Hannah being new high school and strongly guided by the perception of the people around her, became shy, and this lands her into committing suicide. Justin played a role in changing Hannah's perception of everything around her in the new environment. Being the boy that she had a crush on, the impression that Justin creates plays a role in her perception as witnessed in the subsequent scenes, which further contribute to the decision to commit suicide. The imagery, when describing the reason he was included in tapes it provided an understanding of the relationship between the two. In the first tape that Clay listens to Hannah says, "I know what you are thinking, Hannah Becker is a slut" (14). She goes ahead and says that all she ever wanted was to kiss the boy that she liked. Considering the decision that Hannah eventually resorts to, it is clear that she is egocentric, and crushing on Justin meant the loving nature and the beauty of her new environment. The small mistake that Justin makes changes everything, and through this, the author shows the importance of the little things that we encounter in our lives.

The other imagery is seen in the description of the dream that Hannah had in the first tape that Clay listens to. Hannah provides a vivid description of the dream that she had about Justin, which makes her resort to kissing with Justin in reality. The description of the dream is essential in making the reader understand the kind of affair that the two characters had. She says that she climbed the rocket ship slide to wait for him and this dream happens before she meets Justin in the park. Imagery is mainly used to capture a given concept that the author has not fully incorporated into the text. In other words, it helps in enhancing the clarity of an idea that the author tries to bring out. As posited by Ifrah Ali, "the idea of audio recordings is unique as it takes the readers into the mind of someone who is not in the world anymore" (342). In the story, much is not told about how Hannah crushes on Justin, but through the dream, it is apparent that Hannah loved Justin, and it is the reason she dreamt about him before they met. Thus, the idea on the tape makes the reader look at the situation from Hannah's perspective.

Alex's decision to put Hannah's name on the list of the hottest girls in the freshman was something that was done by for fun. The description of the list and the inclusion of Hannah in the list is meant to enable the reader to visualize how light the issue was but led to her death. Also, her inclusion of the Alex as one of the people behind her death depicts the power of what Alex did and the reason it is included among the reasons Hannah decided to commit suicide. In the tape, she says, "this tape is about how people change when they see your name on a stupid list."(66) Therefore, Alex aided in her death because he changed the perception of the people around her. Moreover, she attributes to the Alex list to the reason the guy in the hold her waist against her wish. Hannah says, "Alex list gave the guy an excuse"(68). She adds on by saying, "the point is, when you hold people up for ridicule, you have to take responsibility when other people act on it." Hannah provides insight into what drove her into committing suicide.

The person that is most affected by the tapes is Clay, and it is through the character that the author describes the feeling that is evoked by the tapes. The author manages to convey to the readers the impact of the tapes through Clay by describing the mental and physical reaction of the character to Hannah's tapes. Asher makes us care about Clay. According to Gillis, "we want to know how why he is involved in all of this because of the description by the author" (542). This is after the author describes the scenarios when Clay listens to the tapes that provide an in-depth analysis of the things that are not literary covered. For instance, when Clay begins listening to the tapes, the author describes his limbs and appendages, where he says "feel hollow, and he doesn't have enough strength to press a single button on the stereo" (17). The far-reaching impacts of the video are portrayed through the description that helps the reader to emotionally relate with the characters feelings. Imagery use involves common events that the reader can relate with to strengthen a given idea. The impact is further portrayed when Clay vomits because of listening to tapes. This helps the readers who have once experienced vomiting because of different reasons to relate to the situation of the characters exposed to the tapes.

The despair that Hannah was subjected to left school as one of the unsafe places for her. The situation at school left her home as the safest place, but all these changes as a result of her encounter with Tyler. When narrating the reason Tyler was included in the texts, Asher describes the situation by saying that Tyler's act took away the last remaining places that were "safe from the outside" (140). The situation of making the home unsafe for Hannah contribute to her decision to commit suicide because what considered safe was not safe anymore. The use of imagery is evident in Hannah's description of Tyler's photo taking sessions. Hannah talks about the click of the camera, and it was hard for her to initially believe Tyler's acts by terming it "too creepy" (125). The words make it easy for the reader to conceptualize Hannah's decision not to report the issue to the police. The act denied her privacy and made her wallow in self-pity, which eventually resulted in her death. The author includes the analytical detail, which helps to illustrate the effects of Tyler's trespass, which resulted in Hannah's death.

The other imagery that is utilized by the author is when clay visits the Blue liquor store where he develops a headache. Asher uses descriptive words such as pounding to describe Clay's headache. For instance, he says that Clay sometimes developed a "throbbing" sensation (439). The words are used by the author to illustrate a given concept powerfully. According to imagery in literature helps create a vibrant presentation of a scene that is appealing to the reader's senses. Therefore, the latter words that are used by the author to describe Clay's headache help a reader to envision the scenes in the story. Simply mentioning headache does make effects of the tapes to sound clear and as such, the use of descriptive words by Asher was necessary for aiding to the reader's imagination thus, making the ideas being communicated in the story to be clear. As a result, the words used to describe the headache are meant to envision how serious the headache.

Hannah arranges to go for a date with Marcus during Valentine's Day despite not trusting Marcus. Although he decided to go for the date out of trust, her fears are proved right by Marcus, who sexually assaults. The author builds this idea through a vivid description of the thirty minutes that Hannah waited for Marcus. According to Chisholm and Brandie, "the ability to read texts critically and try on multiple perspectives on issues of social justice to effect change in the world, the description of the flow of the events during the date helps to relate with the situation from Hannah's perspective"(76). Although the author could have literary mentioned that Hannah waited for thirty minutes, Asher goes ahead to describe the thirty minutes of waiting in a manner that can help the reader understand the situation of Hannah included why she chose to go for the date and how the encounter with Marcus landed her into the decision to commit suicide. The analysis of the author of this scene helps provide full details that are crucial in understanding the situation of Hannah. Also, the imagery in the scene among others helps the reader to anticipate the situation that is next, which help readers to understand the story well. The idea builds through describing a given scene not only helps in putting specific ideas into context but also helps one story in creating the subsequent scenes.

Clay, although wonders the reasons why he was part of the time because despite crushing on Hannah, he did not have the guts to approach. The story does not directly address the reasons behind the inclusion of clay in the tapes. However, it through a description of events that the reader establishes that clay who can prevent Hannah from committing suicide if he would have approached her. Asher incorporates descriptive words that enable the reader to understand a given idea, which in turn helps in understanding the entire story. When listening to the tapes, clay says, "I'm starting to understand. I'm starting to see what Hannah means. And that opens up a black hole in the pit of my stomach"(52). Also, it prompts the need for the reader to want the reason behind these words, which further helps in following up the story. Although the reasons behind the inclusion of the other characters in the text are clear, it is not easy to tell the reason behind involving Clay in the tapes, and it is through the use of imagery such can be understood which in turn helps in building a nice flow.

Lastly, the connection between the narration by clay and Hannah are also harmonized through the use of imagery. The two narratives are easily understood because specific details are provided through imagery, which helps the reader to understand the connection between the two narrations. For instance, in the first scene, this set by clay who describes his shock after receiving the tapes. Clays say, "Who would send me a shoebox full of audiotapes?"(6), the shoebox full of tapes creates the anxiety of wanting to the person behind the tapes, as well as, their content. As posited by Jay Asher has done a remarkable job of integrating Hannah's voice (via the tapes) with Clay's thoughts, responses, and memories to create an inventive and seamless dual narration. The story is a dual narrative which utilizations descriptions to help readers relate with the situation of the characters. After, the description provided by clay, a reader can easily distinguish between the words by clay and Hannah and how the author has enhanced the flow of the story. Imagery provides details and often helps in bringing out the meaning of a given idea. This helps the authors' unnecessary description that can make it hard for connecting between different scenes of a story.