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.