Thirteen Reasons Why Post #4

- Males are shown as a negative topic in this novel, what are your feelings towards this?

• I do agree that the majority of males in this novel are shown in a negative light. Hannah names several people and instances that contributed to her suicide. Among the list of names, most of them are males. Out of the thirteen tapes, nine of them were guys.  However, only eight of those nine guys were negative. As Hannah goes on and tells the reader the reasons of why that person contributed, we hear the brutal experiences she had. Unfortunately, her most unpleasant experiences were from the guys in her life. Justin started a rumor that she was a slut. Alex said she had the best ass in the freshman class. Tyler was a peeping tom. Marcus tried to push Hannah sexually. Zach steals her notes of encouragement. Ryan plagiarizes Hannah’s poems. Bryce takes Hannah’s virginity. Mr. Porter ignored Hannah’s cries for help. I can see where the reader would get the impression that all guys in this novel are bad and that the author is trying to portray that image. I do not think that Jay Asher set out to say that all males are bad; after all, he is a male himself. If all guys were negative in this novel, then Jay Asher would not have put Clay and Tony in it. Clay and Tony, even though they are the only two positive models for guys in Thirteen Reasons Why, play a huge part in the novel. The reader learns that Clay is one of the very few reasons Hannah thought against committing suicide. Tony was also a reason as to why Hannah thought against it, but neither of the two was substantial enough to really change her mind. Hannah really started to like Clay and was friends with Tony. She knew that she could depend on them for anything, even after she was gone. I feel that the people in Hannah’s life, in general, were portrayed rather negatively. I do not think it focuses just on the males. Females play a role in her suicide also, although they are not mentioned as frequently. Guys at Hannah’s age tend to be very immature in their words and actions. Unfortunately for Hannah, it was too much to handle. If the book had portrayed it as an even distribution of negativity on both genders, the emotion of the novel would not be the same. Yes, the majority of guys in this book are portrayed negatively, but I do not think it was on purpose that it was mostly males.