Ending of the Book

The ending of the book Thirteen Reasons Why is very ironic. The book ends with one word: Skye. The word sums up the way that Hannah’s tapes have affected Clay, and because the novel is centered on Clay listening to Hannah’s recordings, the effect on him is a major issue. Skye Miller is a girl that Clay used to have a crush on in middle school. After listening to Hannah’s tapes, he realizes that Skye is going through something similar to Hannah’s experience. Clay reaches out to her and possibly saves her life. The ending was a huge twist for the book because it was completely different from Clay’s personality throughout the story. At the beginning of the book, Clay did not want anything to do with the tapes and did not realize that Hannah’s suicide was such a big deal for him. By the end of the book, Clay felt guilty that he could not stop Hannah from committing suicide, so he wanted to help someone else instead. All throughout the book, Hannah was talking about how she could have been saved if someone cared and talked to her. Clay could see that Skye was depressed and that she needed help. Clay didn’t stop Hannah two weeks ago, and now it is too late. But he now has the chance to stop Skye and save her. The ending of the novel will make readers ask themselves if they will seize the opportunity to make a change, or will they live their life the same way, in fear of taking a stand and helping others. The author leaves the reader with the question of what Clay will do next. Will Clay be able to save Skye, or will the same thing happen to her that happened to Hannah?

Purpose of the Book

The purpose of the book Thirteen Reasons Why is to entertain the reader with an interesting, suspense filled story. Although the author’s initial purpose in writing the book may have been to entertain, given the condition of today’s teenagers, this book is informational and helpful for many people. The other major purpose of the book was to inform. It helps people understand the way they affect other people’s lives by showing that you never know what people are going through until you step into their shoes. It shows readers that they need to think before speaking or acting and that words and actions really do hurt people more than some may think. The novel helps us understand some of the possible consequences that our words and actions could have on someone else. The author shows us that we can never truly know everyone we come into contact with, so we should always be careful with what we say and how we act. Many people are able to relate to this book or know someone who can use it for help. Several people have probably changed after reading this novel or have a different outlook towards others. This book persuades readers to reach out and help others who are at risk for suicide. The novel also persuades others to evaluate the way in which their behaviors impact others. It makes people think about the things they have done to others and causes us to wonder if we have ever done anything in our lives to affect someone as dramatically as Hannah. The author’s main purpose for the book is for people to open their eyes and pay attention to what they are doing and saying because no matter how little it may seem to someone, it can make a world of difference to another.

Plot of the Story/Analysis

Clay Jensen returns home from school one day to find an anonymously-sent package on his doorstep. Inside the package is a shoebox which contains seven cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate who recently killed herself. The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to listen to them and then pass them on to the next guilty person on the tapes. According to Hannah, each person on the tapes is responsible for her suicide and the tapes will explain why. On the tapes, Hannah explains to twelve people how they played a role in her death by giving thirteen reasons to explain why she commits suicide. Hannah has given a second set of tapes to one of their classmates and warns the people on the tapes that if they do not pass them on, a copy of the recordings will be made public to the entire school. The tapes also come with a map that listeners are meant to physically follow as they listen to her story. The narration moves back and forth between Hannah's and Clay's thoughts and actions. Through the audio tapes, Hannah reveals her pain and suffering that leads to her death. When Clay gets to his story, Hannah reveals that she doesn't actually blame him for her suicide. But Clay realizes that even though he didn't do anything bad to Hannah, he let rumors about her stand in the way of their relationship. After staying up all night listening to the tapes, Clay decides that he has to go to school and move on with his life. The novel ends with Clay going to school the next day and mailing the tapes to the next person. When he arrives, he sees Skye Miller, another possible suicide risk, and walks toward her, saying her name. The story on the cassette tapes helps build the plot in the tense moments. The plot of the novel traps the reader as they are transported into Clay’s footsteps. With every question he faces and every problem he comes across, the reader cannot help but think about the situations on their own. In this way, by the end of the novel, the reader is able to move beyond the novel and is forced to look into their experiences that they face on a daily basis.  By the end of the novel, Clay is able to understand what Hannah's life could have been if he had taken the time to see the world through her eyes. The plot of the story was uncovered layer by layer through the tapes, highlighting the importance of each individual event.

Character Analysis

The main character of the novel Thirteen Reasons Why is Clay Jensen, the narrator and guide through the story. Clay has a good reputation and is a model student who is always polite, kind, and sincere. He is very cautious and shy, which caused him to hesitate for too long in helping Hannah when he was the only person who could save her. Hannah’s tapes show Clay the truth about the people on her list since only now does he realize that he doesn't truly know them. By the end of the book, Clay’s attitude changes towards the other people on Hannah’s list and he will not have respect for them anymore. The tapes have a lot of different effects on Clay, but the most important is that everything that has happened to him now takes on a new meaning in his life. By the end of the story, Clay learns his lesson about not stepping up and trying to stop Hannah's suicide. Clay has been deeply affected by Hannah's tapes, and he takes some action. At the end of the novel, Clay risks his reputation by attempting a friendship with Skye Miller, his middle school crush and a possible suicide risk. Clay tries to use Hannah’s tragic experience to help make the lives of other people better. After listening to the tapes, he reaches out to help Skye, potentially saving another girl from Hannah's fate. He starts living life a little differently than before, which means that Hannah’s death was not completely in vain. The other main character in the book is Hannah Baker. Hannah was a new student in the freshman class, but due to numerous rumors, became an outcast in her school. Hannah was very quiet and shy at school and did not have any true friends that she could trust. Hannah’s tapes describe her life at her most desperate and disturbed point, which makes us forget that she wasn't always this way. By the end of the story, we can understand what happened to her, but we don't ever really know who she is as a person. The reader does not know what she was like before the thirteen experiences or how she might have felt about herself if she had been able to get some help. Throughout the tapes, Hannah started off by being somewhat outgoing and social, but her thoughts towards the end of her life became very negative. She became very quiet, did not speak to anyone, and began changing her appearance.

Motifs In the Novel

The author of Thirteen Reasons Why uses many motifs throughout the story. One motif used is the number thirteen. Hannah Baker made seven cassette tapes with 13 sides of recordings on the story of why she commits suicide. The number thirteen represents the thirteen events that cause Hannah to kill herself. The seven tapes are passed on thirteen times following the order in which each person’s story is mentioned on the tapes. Another motif used is the snowball. The snowball effect is constantly mentioned, which is used to represent Hannah’s problems. The snowball gets bigger and rolls faster throughout the story, just like Hannah’s problems become bigger and bigger. The yellow Walkman is used throughout the story. With the Walkman, Clay is able to listen to Hannah’s tapes without any one around him being able to overhear what is on them. The Walkman keeps the tapes secretive. He is also able to walk around town while listening to the tapes. Another motif used in the book is the red stars. Along with the tapes, the people on the list each received a map. The map has red stars scattered about on different locations. An important place mentioned on the tapes is marked on the map with a red star. Hannah wanted each person to go to the marked places that she mentioned. The red stars on the map continue to increase throughout the story as Hannah mentions more places on her tapes. The cassettes are another motif used in the story, which represent the life and death of Hannah Baker. Before Hannah killed herself, she recorded the reasons for her suicide on seven cassette tapes. Each side of the tape is made for a different person and different event that caused her to kill herself. Throughout the story, Clay listens to the sides of the tapes one after the other until he has finished all thirteen of them.

Symbols In The Novel

There are many symbols used in the novel Thirteen Reasons Why. One of the symbols used is blue nail polish. Hannah’s tapes are numbered in blue nail polish, and she was wearing blue nail polish the last time Clay saw her on the last day of her life. Since she used the blue nail polish to number the tapes containing her last words and she wore it on her last day on earth, it symbolizes that her decision to commit suicide was final. The nail polish is also a representation of the sweet, romantic girl Hannah is. This typical teenage girl sets up a great contrast with what Hannah has become by the end of the story. By this point, Hannah's heart has turned blue, the color of sadness and heartbreak, which is what the blue nail polish is used to represent.  Another symbol used is the scar on Hannah’s forehead. She got the mark from Jessica Davis, who accuses Hannah of stealing her boyfriend and scratches her over the eye. This affects Hannah both physically and emotionally as it marks her memory forever and will remain on her forehead for the rest of her life. Another symbol used in the book is the “Oh My Dollar Valentines”. The valentines are more symbolic to the characters in the story than they are to the readers. People often have high expectations for Valentine's Day, but for Hannah, it represents a day gone horribly wrong. The Oh My Dollar Valentines symbolize the way things always seem to turn out badly for Hannah when she puts her heart on the line. For Clay, the Valentines symbolize another lost opportunity to connect with Hannah. Another symbol used in the book is Romeo and Juliet. At the beginning of Clay’s tape, Hannah addresses him as Romeo. The book shows that Romeo and Juliet represent suicide by connecting it with the idea of true love. The T-shaped road described in the story symbolizes Hannah’s life becoming a crossroad. Hannah feels caught between two different paths, and does not know which way to turn for help.

Settings of the Novel

The novel Thirteen Reasons Why has many settings; however, it all takes place in a small town in California where Clay lives. In the story, Hannah includes a map that goes along with the tapes so that the people on her list do not only listen to her story, but can also walk in her shoes. She wants them to experience these places in a new way, from her point of view. Clay follows Hannah's map to get the full experience of her story, as does the reader. This novel has a very strong relationship between the setting and the storyline. Clay ends up going to all of the red stars on Hannah’s map all in one night, which is where the book takes place. The locations on the map are where things went wrong since she came to the new town and have an important reason in Hannah’s decision to end her life. The people who were at these settings at certain times had something to do with her suicidal thoughts and actions, and the events that occurred at those certain places all had their place in the reasons that Hannah took her life. The setting of the book is important because the reader is able to get Hannah’s insights on each place, which helps set the scene and makes you able to visualize the story better. The main settings of the book include Rosie’s Diner, Eisenhower Park, Blue Spot Liquor, Monet’s Cafe, The Crestmont Movie Theatre, Clay’s garage, and the streets of his neighborhood that he traveled that night.

Mood and Tone of the Story

In this novel Thirteen Reasons Why, the author creates a very ominous tone. We know from the beginning of the novel that Hannah has taken her own life, and all of the stories she tells are very ominous and mysterious. The reader has to sit through all of these stories, knowing that every single one played a part in why Hannah committed suicide. In some parts of the story, even when Hannah describes a good time or sweet moment, the reader knows that all of her experiences played a role in her final decision to commit suicide. The author's tone is also very cautionary as he warns people of the possible effects of bullying others through Hannah's words on the tapes. The tone of the book is mysterious since the reader has no idea how Clay is involved in Hannah’s suicide. It is sad since we have to hear about Hannah’s ongoing struggle that leads up to her death. The tone of the novel is also eerie because of the impact of listening to the voice of a girl who killed herself just days earlier. She is telling the people who are listening of how they drove her to suicide, which will drastically affect these people for a long time. The mood of the book is very somber because of the sensitivity of the topic it is dealing with.  The mood and tone throughout the entire book is dark and depressing. Hannah describes to each person that contributed to her death what they did and tries to make them feel guilty for it. The effect on most people will be horrible since they are forced to live with this realization forever.

Conflicts In The Story

There are different forms of conflict in Thirteen Reasons Why. One conflict in the novel is an internal conflict between Clay Jensen and himself: man vs. self. He is devastated on the inside about Hannah’s suicide. Throughout the book, he keeps on mentally fighting himself on what he could have done differently to save her. Clay has to learn throughout Hannah’s story that he needs to move on and that he cannot rewind the past with what he knows now. Clay is struggling to accept that he played a part in her suicide and could have prevented it. Like Clay, Hannah Baker also experiences an internal conflict. She is mentally fighting with herself over the reasons why she should kill herself, and throughout many parts of the story, she cannot even bring herself to say the word “suicide.”  Hannah has conflicting emotions as she records the tapes and considers suicide. There are also conflicts between Hannah and the people on her list that caused her to commit suicide: man vs. man conflict. Another conflict in the book is an external conflict: man vs. society. Clay strongly dislikes the people on the tapes that had a part in Hannah’s suicide. He struggles with communicating with others while listening to Hannah’s tapes because he is so overwhelmed with the truth that is brought out in the tapes. Hannah also has many external conflicts since she struggled to find acceptance in a school that rejected her because of untrue rumors. Hannah wanted to have friends in her new school, but people rarely gave her a fair chance because of what they heard from others, and many people at school continued to hurt her through bullying and gossip. 

Theme of the Book

One of the main themes of Thirteen Reasons Why is that even though you may not realize it, the little things that you say or do to someone can have a huge impact on them.  People do have an impact on the lives of others. Hannah Baker never denies it was her choice to end her life, but there were many times when someone could have acted differently that may have changed her decision. Her suicide was brought on by a chain of events and incidents that many people caused. Even though most of the events were unrelated to each other, Hannah had a lot of problems going on in her life, and the little actions of others kept on adding to her pain. Not only was Hannah new to the area and school, but her parents were caught up in issues with their business, and she could not open up to them. In the novel, most of the characters did not think about their actions before they did them. They should have thought out their behaviors and words both for their sake and Hannah's, but instead they were not sensitive, which resulted in many problems. This is related to another major theme, which is that an action or statement may not affect someone else at the moment, but it may affect their life as a whole in the long run. Many harsh and hurtful events took place in the novel. People caused these incidents not realizing that in the end, it could affect Hannah’s life to such a point that she would kill herself.

Point of View of the Novel

The novel Thirteen Reasons Why blends Hannah Baker's audio tapes with Clay Jensen's story and his reactions while listening to it. Both stories are told in the first person by the characters themselves. The mixed narration helps the reader relate to the characters and understand what they are going through. Hearing the story from Hannah’s perspective adds a large amount of emotion to the story and helps the reader see inside Hannah’s mind before she is about to commit suicide. Hannah tries to put the listeners of the tapes in her shoes to show them how their actions directly played a role in her suicide. Throughout the novel, Hannah addresses the people on her list directly, which helps the reader understand how the listeners must feel about their actions. Since the points of view of the people on the list are not included, we are able to imagine some of their possible reactions to the audio tapes. Hannah spends a lot of time giving away hints about awful things to come, while Clay's reactions increase the suspense the reader feels as they read her words. Much of the story is told in Clay’s head, so the reader is able to understand all of his thoughts. Clay is the only person on Hannah's list who the reader is able to hear from directly. He helps the readers make sense of Hannah's words, which gives us a deeper understanding of the pain she was experiencing. The dual narration in the story works very well. The back and forth narration between Hannah’s audio tapes and Clay’s thoughts and experiences perfectly display the power of the situation. The reader is able to get both of their personal perspectives on the thirteen reasons. It shows how everyone experiences events differently, and that difference might be the one between choosing to live and choosing not to.