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.