9/29 assignment

The interesting thing about the protagonist of Thirteen Reasons Why is that she is already dead (and this is not an autobiography). The book is actually the long suicide note of Hannah Baker. She decided to tell thirteen people why she committed suicide, but the really sad part of the story is that she is telling them after she has already taken her life. No one can help her anymore. The story is also written from first person omniscient from Clay's perspective. From the information that the reader is able to gather from Clay, he is agonizing about the fact that Hannah did not tell him that she was hurting and contemplating suicide, despite having multiple opportunities to tell him. That fact alone is tearing Clay up inside. Is Hannah worthy of praise of criticism? I am not able to find anything worthy of praise for her. My main criticism is that Hannah did not tell anyone her feelings and suicidal thoughts when someone could have helped her. Maybe Hannah should have added a fourteenth reason telling why she did not tell anyone these reasons before she died. Throughout the book, Clay is asking Hannah questions, which will never be answered, because he REALLY cared about her! She made a life and death decision based on assumptions. Lots and lots of assumptions. She didn't have to open up to all thirteen people, just one. Opening up to one person could have given her the courage to open up to other people. I hope that the author is able to portray that it takes much more courage to deal with our daily problems, big and small, than to take our life and think that the problems are solved.

9-22 assignment

Although the story of To Kill a Mockingbird  is set in the 1930s, the message is still as vibrant today. The message that Harper Lee was telling was that of prejudice, which has been around for thousands of years and no real hope in sight of eradicating it. According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, prejudice means, "to injure or damage by some judgment or action". Does that sound like something that happens in this day and age? Yes, most certainly, which makes this message timeless! The crux of the plot line is based on the racial prejudice that was aimed at Tom Robinson. Tom was accused falsely of a crime, but when he went to trial, he did not stand a chance of being acquitted due to the pre-judgment of the town and the court. Throughout the book, there are other examples of prejudice. One of those examples is the opinion that Scout and Jem, the narrator and her brother, have of their adult neighbor Boo Radley. The children are convinced that Boo is either dead and has been stuffed up his chimney (yikes!), or if he is alive, he could cause great harm to them. The irony of their prejudged ideas about Boo is that Boo is not only alive and well, but he ends up saving their lives and killing their dangerous stalker! The timelessness of the plot is that our society is so steeped in prejudice that we don't even see it. How many times do I prejudge people based on things that don't tell me anything about them? Things such as the color of their skin, the color of their hair or how many tattoos they have. The first step in dealing with prejudice is identifying it in myself.

9-15 assignment

If I was in my local book store, browsing for my next book to read, the title Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher would certainly catch my attention. My first thought would be "Thirteen reasons why...WHAT?" That suspense alone would prod me to open the book and read the front inside jacket. I think that the author purposely left off more information in the title so that people would be intrigued, impelled, and ultimately interested enough by the title to do as I did and read the summary inside the book. The author's choice of the number thirteen is also a technique to try to seize the attention of readers. Although I do not believe in luck, the number thirteen is certainly considered unlucky. The number thirteen in the title gives probability that the outcome of the thirteen reasons is an unfortunate event. The numbers twelve and fourteen would not have the same effect as the number thirteen. As I am now partially into this book, I know clearly that the author is telling the story of a high school aged girl who has committed suicide and she has left behind thirteen reasons (on tapes) why she has committed suicide. Each of the "reasons" is addressed to a certain person from her life so that they can know why she chose suicide for her life and so they can bear the guilt. One last thought on the title is: why did the author choose to leave the word "suicide" out of the title, when that is the underlying core of the book? Having the word "suicide" in the title may cause the reader to focus too heavily on the suicide itself, rather than the real point of the book which is the reasons why she committed suicide.