13 PEOPLE To Teach 1 Lesson

On Cassette 6: Side B, Hannah is finally able to say SUICIDE. She had thought of EVERY WAY to do it but lastly, she decided to take pills. Hannah remembered that on her last weekend there had been a party at Courtney Crimson's house. She decided not to go but she walked by. After the party was over, Bryce called Hannah, he and Courtney convinced her to go to the Jacuzzi outside the house. After Courtney left, Bryce was hitting on Hannah and at that point she was done with life and let her reputation become true.

Cassette 7: Side A. This was the last tape and it was about Mr. Porter. He was the guidance counselor at school. Hannah said that she had decided to give life a chance and talk. She had recorded her meeting with the guidance counselor and he had basically told her that she could either talk to them and sort it out or she could move on. Finally, Hannah stormed off and Mr. Porter said that Hannah was no longer welcome. She was stunned. And the tapes had ended.

As the tapes ended, Clay cried thinking how he could've loved Hannah. The next day, Clay mailed the shoebox with the tapes to the next person on the list. When he got to school he bumped into Skye. A girl who now Clay realized was just like Hannah. But he wouldn't let this happen ever again. He turned and began talking to her.

As Hannah left Mr. Porter's office, she said that she was going to do it. She was going to swallow all those pills.

"A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that…that is what I needed to find out." (pg. 151)

This part of the book was so stressful in the sense that Hannah made this incredible, mature, and clever decision to talk to someone and this person was so unhelpful and he was guilty of making her think that no one would care if she was gone. This shows how little she thought of her life that just because people didn't go to her rescue meant that she had to commit suicide. I found this section confusing because on Clay's tapes she had written down 13 people she blamed for her life to change. But on this tape she said that she was talking to someone and telling us that it wasn’t a part of her plan. WHO WAS THE 13TH PERSON ON THE LIST? I think that maybe it was herself. She was guilty of not getting help until it was too late. 

Clay realized how unfair it was for people to go through life feeling in the worst way possible. He wanted to change that. Help someone else.

"A flood of emotion rushes into me. Pain and anger. Sadness and pity. But most surprising of all, hope. I keep walking. Skye’s footsteps are growing louder now. And the closer I get to her, the faster I walk, and the lighter I feel. My throat begins to relax. Two steps behind her, I say her name. “Skye.”" (pg. 155)

This was such a profound moment because Hannah had given 13 people a new perspective on life. Clay took advantage of it and thinking of Hannah's story, went to help someone else be happy. To me it seemed like throughout the whole story Jay Asher had been portraying Clay as the hero. He was someone who wasn't a bad person in any way. And even more, he was going to stop a girl from following Hannah's path. I think the author wanted to leave his character pure, innocent so the readers could have a role model while the person making all the mistakes was Hannah Baker. There are a few characters portrayed as innocent heroes such as; Jonas from the giver, Esther from The Fault In Our Stars, Quentin from Paper Towns, Bella from Twilight, etc. And all of these characters aren’t really innocent; they only seem like "good" heroes because the people who surround them make mistakes and are doing things that are wrong. In a way, they contrast them.

This book was so strong and hard to process at times. It gave me a new outlook on life that I am sure will change the way I treat others. It made me realize that even the smallest rude comment can make someone feel like "less" than what they truly are. THE SNOWBALL EFFECT, which I have talked so much about, is a perfect example of how little actions can lead to bigger things. It is SO IMPORTANT for people to always know how difficult and sad they can make someone's life. I feel empathy towards all bullying victims and also bullies because bullies don't realise that they make people's life a disaster. If they do know, it means that there must be something even more awful going on in their lives. What I definitely learned from THIRTEEN REASONS WHY is that if something is making you sad in life SOLVE IT! It is really good for people to talk about their problems. It doesn't matter how small you think they are.

CLICK HERE to listen to all of hannah's tapes and receive more information about the book!

13 People Who Made The WRONG Decision

Cassette 5: Side A. Clay decided to leave Rosie's diner. As he left, Tony told him to get inside his car and when he did Tony said he had the second set of tapes. Clay began listening. 

THIS TAPE WAS ABOUT HIM!

 But, as a surprise, Hannah explained that he was so nice to her. At the party, they started kissing but then stopped because Hannah began to cry. She had gone to the party to meet Clay Jensen because she had never heard ANYTHING bad about him. Hannah explained that the reason that she cried was because she remembered all the people who had changed her reputation and they haunted her life. Using a voice with so much kindness--something he had never heard before-- Hannah said that she had put him on the tapes to explain herself and that without him in the story, she couldn't continue to the next part.

On the next tape, Cassette 5: Side B, Hannah went home and wrote a list of all the people who hurt her and crossed some people out until she was left with 13 people. 13 REASONS WHY she had a different life. And, on the tapes, she told what had happened in the party after Clay left. Jessica Davis and Justin Fooley had too much to drink and they went to the room that Hannah was in. Justin saw that Jessica was too drunk and he tucked her in so she would rest and then left. Hannah stood up to leave and saw that Justin and someone else were talking outside of the room. That "someone else" entered and she got inside a closet. Sadly, the boy raped Jessica Davis. Hannah felt responsible for it.

As Tony and Clay drove around, Tony finally said why he had the tapes.

Hannah went to give him her bicycle as a gift and asked to borrow a voice recorder to put on tapes. Tony gave her these things and the next day he received the recorded tapes, the 2nd set. He called Hannah´s parents desperately and no one knew where she was.

Then, Tony and Clay played Cassette 6: Side A. This story begins when Jenny Kurltz, a cheerleader, gave Hannah a ride from the party. As they were driving through, Jenny hit a stop sign and it fell over. Hannah insisted that Jenny wouldn't drive and it pissed her off so she told Hannah to get out of the car. Hannah began walking through the rain. She reached a gas station and called the police to tell them about the stop sign but they said that it had already been reported. The next day she found out that it wasn't a knocked sign that they reported but an accident. After Hannah and Jenny had left, a delivery boy and an old man had a car crash because the stop sign wasn't visible. The boy, who also went to the same school as the others, died. The day of the funeral Hannah decided not to go and instead she had time to think about how her own funeral would be.

As Hannah began Clay's tape, she said something that I can connect to real life. How she wanted to know Clay just to meet him.

“And that’s why I wanted to know him better. Because everything I heard—and I mean everything!—was good. It was one of those things where, once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop noticing it." (Asher 105).

 I think that this example of how she noticed him is more of an excuse to why she wanted to meet Clay. As she said first, "Everything I heard—and I mean everything!—was good". Hannah had gone through so much pain and sadness that she just needed to see for herself how happy can a good person be. For example, I relate this to how people who don't have enough money to have a "comfortable" life sometimes think of how it would feel to be a "rich" person. Some even become so obsessed that waste their leftover money on casinos or have other gambling issues.

Hannah, at that point, already felt that she was helpless. Her life was just too messed up for anything to get better. If anything, things would stay the same instead of getting worse. But, of course, that didn't happen. When she was hiding in the closet Hannah thought,

“Like things had been out of control for so long that whatever I did hardly mattered anymore. And I couldn’t stand all the emotions anymore. I wanted the world to stop…to end".

Hannah's life was already considering suicide as the only exit to her awful life. Some people may argue that people who commit suicide are victims of their bullies. I think differently, these people are their own victims. If people are suicidal they must talk to someone or stay out of the scenarios where you know that you can get hurt. Hannah should change schools or talk to a counselor for her life to stop having these issues.

13 REASONS WHY has twists and turns on every chapter that has given me a new outlook on life. As I have said before on previous posts, even the smallest act of kindness or rudeness can change someone's life and it is up to us to determine which kind of act we want to live by. Overall I feel overwhelmed by this book since it has such strong messages and topics that are hard to reflect on. This new THEME about making the right decisions has made me realize how important it is to always think of others and reacting in the best way. I cannot wait to read what will happen next!

Always Help Others in any way you can!

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