Literary Analysis Essay on Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Introduction

In the school environment, students tend to learn more from one another as compared to the learning they get from the class. The informal interaction that teens often make outside the classroom determines their mental wellbeing, and as a result, some of them involve themselves in risk activities (Nansel et al., 348). School teens usually exhibit the negative emotions from the rejection, victimization, intimidation or isolation treatments they get from other students. The novels, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher postulates how school teens physically and mentally bully a teen girl, and later the decisions she makes after having negative emotions. The novel exhibits the effects of depression and stress on teen girls who prefers self-harm by committing suicide rather than being violent as boys (Udesky). In the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, Hannah a charming high school teen commits suicide after negative school social interactions that make her feel intimidated, betrayed and rejected. As highlighted with the author of the tale, bullying in schools has detrimental effects on the psychological well-being of students; thus it's up to the school management and parents to observe the emotional signals of their children and provide support whenever possible to eliminate chances of their involvement risk behaviors.

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In the novel, Asher introduces the protagonist of the tale, Hannah Baker a high school students that have just committed suicide but recorded audiotapes which she intends to use to avenge for the maltreatment that she got from the listed characters she interacted within the school and at home (Asher 3). The tale narration occurs through a standout male character, Clay Jensen who guides the audience through the life experiences of Hannah up to the time she finally decided to take away her precious life. The setting of the novel reflects on the real feeling of Hannah; the intimidation that Hannah went through, betrayal, rejection before she finally self-convicts some of her action to tame her life. Hannah had all the setting; she produced the tapes and maps that directed people to places where her perpetrators had the intentions of distressing their lives as they did to hers. For Hannah point of view, listing all the people and the places where she received the maltreatment since becoming a high school new kind the town would provide solitude to her spirits. On the maps that she provided along with the tapes, she stared specific places which marked the fallout points from where the suicidal thoughts initiated (Asher 45). Hannah starred four partying places where she got herself in bad-party related events such as alcohol consumption, unprotected sex, failed to stop an incidence of rape and turn down the generous offer of Clay. The events of the party reflected in the real world reminds of the super-emotional world that most students life have while in school, the parting life, which usually has the profound emotional effects on the life of students as it does to Hannah.

Moreover, the procedure which Hannah used to record the tapes, narration from the personal perspective- own voice to was to vividly let the audience get into her mental picture, explore her grief and emotions and leave the audience in the suspense of leabingClay is left with when he first listens to the audiotapes. Hannah openly describes some of the traumatizing interaction that she had with her friends such as the public humiliation she suffered from Marcus and the rape incident that her friend Jessica endured at the party (Asher 91). Moreover, in the audiotapes, Hannah addressed her targeted listeners with the phrase Hey you or by mentioning their names, to depict the blame and the guilt that a person feels when under accusations. In some incidences, Blames are on Hannah for catastrophic events facing her friends such as Jenny who died after they got involved in an accident for drunk-driving. In another scenario of the author's point of view that reflects on the differences of emotions of students, it's when Clay receives the audio tapes and the reaction he exhibits. Aftermath death of a school crush Hannah, Clay received audio tapes from unknown source directed to him, although he is overwhelmed with grief, guilt, anger, despair, shame, and other emotions, he objectively reasons to filter out the strengths and weaknesses of his reasoning; whether its logical or illogical in his argument. Clay is entirely different from Hannah in that he was able to project on the fallacious thinking that Hanna had to claim some incidents drove her to suicide and further he neglects some them for being weak such as that of Tyler, rape and the road stop signal (Asher 117). Seemingly, we can assert that Clay was only trying to glamorize violence in him just as any other American teen boy who tends to retaliate from perceived wrongs but eventually with time, they unleash it to their perpetrators through violence (Nansel et al., 348). But, through Clay's ability to handle a tough situation of emotional health as a student, without violence on Hannah's perpetrators, the audience can see beyond his reactions to understand the essence logical reasoning by avoiding unnecessary gossips and rumors that harms own emotions.

In the novel, Thirteen Reason Why, Hannah got a permanent scar on her forehead after she was involved in a fight with her friend Jessica Davis when she was new in town as a school girl. Jessica accused Hannah of forcefully taking her boyfriend (Asher 87). Hannah's scar on the forehead symbolized one of the episodes for her downfall since it provided a permanent reminder of the humiliations she endured unknowingly as an innocent schoolgirl in town. At a tender age, school teens usually develop rogue interactive relationships when having love partners to some extent they end up picking fights with friends, which may haunt their emotions health after that. The permanent mark on the forehead ever made her feel inferior and hopeless to the extent that the suicidal thought ever caught up with her whenever she checked on the mirror. Imagery is also used to represent the emotions by using blue polish to name the tapes, a similar color that Hannah polished her nails with on the last scene when Clay saw him. In literary analysis, the blue color symbolizes the sadness or heartbreak. The dressing code of Hannah exhibits the glamour and the beauty that she had before the eyes of Clay who ever admired her (Ashley 234). At the last scene, Hannah understood the love that Clay had for her, and likely she purposely dressed as such manner to permanently remind Clay, the girl he loved. Similarly, the color could signify the sadness that was about to strike the community, where she had finally decided to commit suicide.

Hannah suicidal minds were brought up with some reasons that may be perceived to be weak to some people such as Marcus yet they had a profound effect on her personal life. When Marcus sexually assaulted Hannah in a telephone booth and went on to humiliate her in public after she rejected his sexual advancements marks one of the most persuasive reasons that signified the turning point in Hannah's life who went on to make a series of wrong choices (Ashley 184). Equally, in the first reason, Hannah claims that Foley gossiped to other school children that they had more than just a kiss when they met. Under other person's perspective, such reasons are only justifications as to why she committed suicide in that might have had other in borne mania and hypomania episodes of mental dysfunction. In the real world, some rumors and gossips have a significant adverse effect on tainting a person's personality and reputation. And with a continuous accumulation of rumors day in day out, which tainted Hannah's personality, she self-criticized, involved herself in reckless activities in parties up to the time when she self-mutated herself to death (Udesky).

Although Hannah pays the price of her actions, the treatments of other characters towards her are what drives her to suicide. Some characters spread false rumors and gossips on Hannah without the evaluation of the impacts of such gossips on her personal life (Davis). As such, the tale's author, Asher, sends a warning to the rest of the students and people who fail to consider the sensitivity of the interaction they have with other people through a cautionary tone. In the novel, the first accused character among the thirteen audio tapes; Justin Foley who Hannah gave her first kiss went on to spread rumors that they had more than the kiss (Thomas 45), which significantly haunts the emotions, Hannah. Furthermore, Clay narrates the following, "I'm listening to someone give up. Someone I knew. Someone I liked. I'm listening, but I'm still too late"(Thomas 282). Clay represents among the few school teens that Hannah interacted with, but never spread rumors or gossiped about her instead he showed love and support towards her. Asher portrayal of Clay as an entirely different character is to postulate on the society that they should be sensitive enough about other person's personal life and avoid pushing them into risk actions (Davis) as other people in the novel did to Hannah.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as asserted by the author of the novel, the school's social interactions have profound adverse effects on the life of the protagonist. With the consideration of Hannah, other students lacked to bear the consequences of the gossips and rumors they spread on her as well as other treatments they had with her. Through the literary analysis of the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, we establish that each episode of the action that Hannah's friend subjected her her to suicidal thoughts until she finally tamed her life. When she even tried to look for external support from other people they failed to provide until she convicts herself useless. Parents should evaluate the mood disorders in their teen students and provide social support to them since students in schools are at a risk of abuse and bullying in school, which distracts their mental wellbeing. And where possible, parents can contact the school mental health professions to aid them in the provision of intervention to their children who might have depression (Udesky). Consequently, people close to a mentally disturbed student should avoid the use of physically and psychologically abusive words to reduce the chances of violent projection of their emotions.

Works Cited

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. Razorbill; Reissue, 2017. Print.

Davis, Jeanie Lerche. "Cutting And Self-Harm: Warning Signs And Treatment". WebMD, 2018. Accessed 11 Dec 2018.

Nansel, Tonja R. et al. "Relationships Between Bullying And Violence Among US Youth". Archives Of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, vol 157, no. 4, 2003, p. 348. American Medical Association (AMA), doi:10.1001/archpedi.157.4.348. Accessed 11 Dec 2018.

Udesky, Laurie. "Depression And Violence In Teens". Consumer Healthday, 2018, https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/depression-12/depression-news-176/depression-and-violence-in-teens-645005.html. Accessed 11 Dec 2018.