Burritt 1

Alan Burritt

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 1

9 February 2018

Thirteen Reasons Why: Literary Criticism

The Suicide Rate in the United States is 13.5 percent per 100,000 people says American

Foundation for Suicide Prevention. This is a horrible and tragic occurrence that families and

friends of suicide victims must deal with. Hannah Baker a fictional character who committed

suicide and made cassette tapes that tell her story of why she did it. Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons

Why uses character-centered structure and multiple point of views to depict some believable

characters.

Asher uses a character-centered structure by his use of cassette tapes. The cassette tapes

each tell a different person on each side of the tape. The quote "I'm about to tell you the story of

my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're on of

the reasons why" (page 7). This quote clearly tells the reader that the tapes will tell the life story

of a girl named Hannah Baker. And the quote tells the audience that each tape is a reason why

she committed suicide. This shows the structure of the book will be a character-centered as the

book is read and what Hannah has said about the characters, someone is also listening to the

tapes who will give their point of view also. The quote "will be the desk of Mr. Porter he'll be the

last to receive a package with no return address" (page 4). This quote shows that multiple people

will receive the tapes. These tapes will tell them what they did to her and this creates characters

depicted as ignorant to people's feelings.

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First, Asher uses multiple point of views which are Hannah's point of view and Clay's

point of view as Clay listens to Hannah's tapes. This can be shown in the quote "Listen to the

tape... because it's about you Clay." (page 196). This shows that the next tape is Clay's and he is

being told this by Tony (the guy that Hannah trusted with a copy of the tapes). Thus, this

demonstrates that the POV shifts from Clay's to Hannah's during the tapes. The quote "exactly as

I received it but now addressed with a new name"(page 1). This quote shows a different point of

view because later in the book the reader reads about Clay receiving the package with the quote

"A shoebox-sized package is propped against the front door at an angle... a hurried scribble on

the wrapping addresses the package to Clay Jensen"(page 5). This quote describes Clay receiving

the package rather than at the beginning where the package was being sent. This creates a

structure that depicts the characters showing they will oblige to passing the tapes on to everyone

down the line and the reader knows that the package goes in the order of the tapes being passed

around.

Secondly, the characters in Thirteen reasons why are believable because they show real

emotion and make sense of events in the story. The Author reveals traits about a character

through Hannah's tapes. This conclusion can be drawn from the quote "Tyler . . . it's kind of

creepy... I'm trying to understand the excitement of staring through someone's bedroom

window." This quote reveals Tyler to be a creep and a pervert. Numerous people have done these

deeds before this creates a real character because everyone knows of someone or has seen a

creep or a pervert. The second character I am talking about is marcus with the quote "Somebody

. . . isn't coming … then keep waiting, however long it takes your smoothie... that’s what I did.

[then in Clay's perspective] you're an ass, Marcus"(page 138). This quote shows that the main

character Clay is sympathetic towards Hannah Baker because Marcus had stood her up and made
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her wait. Then Marcus finally came in and, in the quote, "Your other hand was touching my leg,

my upper thigh...below the table my fingers were fighting to pry your fingers of, to loosen your

grip... don’t worry you said... Your hand immediately slid up from my thigh. All the way

up"(page 142 and 143). This quote reveals that Marcus is a man who thinks that a woman he

goes out with is his to take.

Lastly, the Character Hannah Baker one would argue is the most unbelievable characters

in this book. One would argue this because she is an overdramatic character who committed

suicide for some unworthy reasons. The character feels forced by the author because of these

reasons and seems to portray people that have committed or attempted suicide as over reactors

because she didn’t go through all that horrible of situations. The quote "but guess what? My

poem? He stole it"(page 185). This quote proves Hannah as over dramatic because she killed

herself because someone had stolen her poem, this is obviously not a good reason to even

attempt suicide because people plagiarize all the time and steal other people's ideas or work and

not give people credit but, this is not the only over reaction she has. The next quote "You

touched the lip of my bag, saw the note, and reached in the bag fell to the floor... but you bent

down and scooped it up anyways"(page 167). This quote also demonstrates she being dramatic

because someone stole a note that was put into her bag it not that big of a deal. Another quote is

"are you thinking of pressing charges" to which Hannah says "no. I'm . . . no" then Mr. Porter

says "then you have two options... One, you can confront him, we can call him in here" to which

Hannah replies "you said there were two options" and then Mr. Porter says "you can move

on"(page 277 and 278). After this happens she commits suicide which is a little less dramatic

then another example but she kills herself and blames the counselor because she doesn’t want to

press charges nor does she like the other options which is ridiculous.
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Overall, the characters are believable, and the structure helps their believability because it

creates their character traits which are recognizable in just about every high school.

Works Cited

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin Random House, 2007.Print.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Suicide Statistics. Center for disease control

and prevention data and statistic fatal injury report, 2016.Online.