Portrayal of Adolescence in 13 Reasons Why

By -
I think Asher was pretty accurate when it comes to his portrayal of adolescence. Rumors happen in every high school. In my experience, I can remember being part of the group that spread rumors but also on the end that rumors were made about. When you are young and naive, you don't realize the impact rumors can actually have on people's confidence and perception of themselves. I know for me personally, the rumor that was made about me made me angry and affected how I acted around certain people. Asher portrays the rumors as lighthearted, particularly with the list that Alex Standall made. This is how most of the gossip in high schools are in my opinion. People think they are just jokes and don't have much impact, but Asher shows just how impactful they can be.

The first rumor that Justin Foley helped spread changed the way people saw Hannah. Slut shaming is a problem because of the hypocrisy that it entails. The jocks applauded Justin for supposedly having sex with Hannah, but then most people looked down on Hannah for it. It gave her a reputation that she did not deserve, and it left a target on her back. Later in the book, Bryce saw Hannah as "easy" and had no respect for her as a person when he puts his hands all over her in the hot tub. Her reputation became so much of her reality that Hannah even started to believe it herself. On page 264, Hannah says "I knew exactly what I was doing.....Not once had I given in to the reputation you'd all set for me....I found myself attracted to someone who only wanted to get with me because of what they'd heard." She then says on the next page, "I let my reputation become me."

I think this is true of adolescence. Once someone gets a reputation in high school, it becomes hard to escape. Rumors formed Hannah's reputation and she was ready to give up because she felt she could not escape what was becoming her reality. The portrayal of Mr. Porter is also a fairly accurate representation of what guidance counselors have become today. He doesn't do much to help Hannah, urging her to simply "move on". There is a lot to take away from this novel. How rumors transform into perceptions is what stood out to me, but Asher also says a lot about noticing signs of suicide among teens. I think he wrote it as an awareness for people to reach out to those in need and also for those in need to ask for help. Hannah had a chance to reach out to Clay and Mr. Porter but she could not find the words to say. I think Asher uses Hannah to urge teens to talk about suicide and not try to deal with their problems internally.

I really enjoyed 13 Reasons Why. It was one of those books that is so interesting that it's hard to put down. I think it's a good book for adolescents to read because it brings awareness to suicide. It's puts rumors into perspective and how much damage they can actually do. This is a book that I would definitely be interested in teaching.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more