Thirteen Reasons Why Post #3

4. When you have completed a text, consider the ending. What ended? Is it an appropriate ending? Predictable? Out of left field?

• When I first started to read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, I did not expect the ending to play out the way it did. When you first read the beginning, you get the feeling that Hannah first sends the tapes to Clay because he actually contributed to her suicide. It is the opposite; Clay is one of the few reasons she thought against committing suicide. She sends the tapes to Clay because she wants him, and all the others, to know how they contributed. Hannah tells Clay that all he did was give her hope. The night at the party when they first had a "real conversation" was when Hannah was happiest. She never believed that a guy like Clay would talk to a girl like her. On the tape, Hannah apologizes to Clay for everything after that night and she relays the reasons as to why he should not be on the bad list of tapes. He is on there to hear how happy he made Hannah. Hannah’s purpose for putting him on those tapes is to make him as happy as he made her. After finally being done all the tapes, Clay is angered by everything that happened to Hannah. At the moment, Clay does not realize that he is cutting his hands on the fence. He does not care either, because he is just starting to get a taste of the pain Hannah had felt before she killed herself. The whole novel ends a little after all the tapes are finished. I think that it is an appropriate ending because it makes the reader's heavy heart lighten a little. It is a bright ending to a sad book. The ending of Thirteen Reasons Why is not predictable in the least. Sure, throughout the book little signs are given, but what book does not have that aspect? Although the ending was not predictable, it also was not out of left field. The ending perfectly suits the novel. I think that the ending balances out the book. The ending also helps the reader to understand the novel better. There are thirteen reasons she committed suicide, but one of those thirteen is a positive reason as to why she thought against it. Without Clay, Hannah would have committed suicide a lot earlier. His presence in her life gave Hannah a little glimmer of hope that maybe; just maybe her life might turn around. The conclusion to this novel sheds some light on that topic.