Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel by Jay Asher, whose cultural context surrounds discussions on sexual assault and suicide among adolescents. The aesthetic nature of the story is based on the narrations by Hannah using seven cassette tapes. Each tape features two reasons why she decided to commit suicide, with key issues revolving around her school peers. The entire novel depicts a graphical and tense demonstration due to each story captured in the tape, highlighting the grieving of Hannah's death among adults and teens trying to make sense of the unusual suicide note. The novel presents an important and timely platform for the sociologists to contribute to the national conversation on classic sociological phenomena with interest in death among teenagers. The paper will highlight the novel's peer suicide cultural context by focusing on its description, analysis, and evaluation.
Description
Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel about peer suicide culture contributed by miserable life among teenagers caused by issues such as sexual assault. Based on the novel, Hannah, who had committed suicide two weeks earlier, describes through cassettes about the thirteen reasons that prompted her to commit suicide. The cassettes are sent to Clay, Hannah's classmate, who was also her crush. As he listens to the cassettes, Clay realizes that he is among those who prompted Hannah to commit suicide. Through the various storylines presenting in the form of cassettes, one realizes that various people mentioned in the tapes are responsible for Hannah’s suicide. The novel points to thirteen people and the reasons that resulted in her suicide. Through the causes and people blamed for Hanna’s suicide, Hannah lived a hurtful life due to his peers and other people such as the school counselor. The assaulters and those she wanted help from caused many painful experiences in her overall life as a teenager.
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For instance, Zach Dempsey is blamed for advancing peer suicide in Hannah's perspective due to witnessing her anguish, and he failed to offer assistance. In general, Hannah's psychological and physical pain is the main cause of her suicide, a challenge experienced by many youths worldwide.
Analysis
The novel depicts common adolescents’ life in affluent communities and the toll caused by high school peer cultures. The book covers serious social problems in which teenagers such Hannah face and their choices as consequences of life struggles. Hannah and other girls in her school are repeatedly raped, assaulted and at some point, they are objectified; thus, Jay compelling one to view the cultural text as an embodiment of sociological issues affecting teenagers such as rape culture, sexual harassment, and misogyny. The genre utilized in the novel is a tragedy from the start. Different cassettes depict extreme emotions and the graphical representation of how Hannah faced various experiences of assaults.
By utilizing this technique, Jay wants the audience to experience how issues associated with rape culture hurt youth emotionally. Nonetheless, the book presents an important role in the modeling of either unaccepting or accepting particular behavior around sex. Due to an intense hurtful lifestyle, girls decide to consent to sexual advances from male friends. For instance, at some point, Hannah agreed to have sex with Clay though later, she declined in a distressful manner. Hannah's willingness to have sex with Clay is a very important lesson on which the novelist tries to pass to young people on the need for consent when it comes to intimacy.
The book also underscores the social root of suicide among teenagers. Sociologists such as Durkheim and even psychologists used to attribute that suicide is mainly associated with mental illness ( Condorelli, 2016) . However, through the novel, the main contributor to peer suicide culture is caused by social factors. In Hannah's perspective, various social factors such as bullying, sexual harassment, and social isolation contributed to her suicide. Most importantly, the Thirteen Reasons Why opens a much-needed opportunity to conversing on how society can facilitate the reversion in teen suicide and sexual assault. Hannah had the chance to survive; however, society was too disgraceful to her. People saw her being sexually assaulted but did nothing about her case. The school counselor heard her story, but instead of offering the needed psychological consolation, she asked her to leave.
Evaluation
Regardless of the book's strength in capturing the peers' issues, the presentation of suicide culture can be manifested among peers. Exposure of suicide genesis to the young readers, especially those who find Hannah their role model due to similarities in challenges, can expose them to the vulnerability of committing suicide. The presentation of how Hannah planned her death and blaming her peers through cassettes in the novel can lead to suicide contagion or diffusion. Thus, it subjects people in constant contact with teenagers, such as parents and teachers, into a worrisome state. In a nutshell, one finds the peer suicide culture covered in the text form the foundation for suicide among more teenagers. Hannah's motive for committing suicide was to end the constant hurtful life he was experiencing, and thus, Thirteen Reasons Why resonates with choices that young people can make in case they face similar challenges to Hannah.
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Nonetheless, the cultural text is characterized by mistakes that the author intensifies to promote suicide culture among adolescents. The first shortcoming in the story is underplaying Hannah's psychological pain. However, in an actual sense, a great deal of psychological and emotional pain precedes Hannah's suicide. From the early episodes of the novel, Hannah was calm. In such a case, suicide seems to be less due to physical, social, and psychological pain but a way of exerting revenge among those who had tormented her. Secondly, through the cassettes, one realizes that Hannah tells the readers that youths who are about to commit suicide are just like anyone else. However, this is not accurate since observable behavior characterized by psychological pain presents warning signs that society can notice and offer the needed support to those contemplating suicide.
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Thirdly, contagion is also a problem in the novel’s presentation of suicide culture among teenagers. Hannah's character presents an understandable narrative of the lives of the majority of the youth, and thus, a realistic depiction of her suicide case is dangerous. In a sociological context, the cultural text glorified suicide, thus propagating its meaning to the youth. Most adolescents may end up utilizing the technique for their existence in case they face unrelenting challenges.
Lastly, presenting Hannah's explicit blame on her peers for her suicide was inevitably cruel. Some peers, such as Clay, did nothing wrong, but he was traumatized as well; it caused shame and guilty to parents, siblings, and friends since all were trying to make sense in even the most senseless situation associated with Hannah’s suicide. The author should have ended the novel by reinforcing the desired approach to solving issues among adolescents and adults' roles rather than validating Hannah's actions.
Conclusion
Predicting how the novel can help in shaping the lives of peers is was not visible. Youth experiences many challenges related to stigmatization, sexual assault, and oppression; however, society has always failed to offer meaningful intervention in their suffering. The community expects teenagers to accept the sucking school culture rather than provide interventions to facilitate young people's psychological, mental, and social well-being. Due to society's failure, teenagers' experiences with challenges such as sexual assault, suffering, and suicide will continue to be realized.
References
Asher, J. (2007). 13 reasons why . Penguin Books Ltd.
Condorelli, R. (2016). Social complexity, modernity and suicide: An assessment of Durkheim’s suicide from the perspective of a non-linear analysis of complex social systems. Springer Plus , 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-1799-z
