Sunday, February 26, 2017
2nd Quarter SSR
During the 2nd Quarter, I read 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher which is about a girl who created thirteen tapes explaining the reasons why she committed suicide. Though this book was dark and very deep, I really enjoyed it and encourage you all to read it as well because it has a very good message behind it. My favorite character throughout this book is Clay Jensen. He is a good student who studied over the weekends rather than going to parties and always called his mom to let her know where he was. He is very insightful when it comes to people's feelings. For example, he knows when people need someone to talk to and when someone just needs some space. He is nice to everyone, talked to people, and helped them out and people found no reason to be mean to him. Everything is perfect for him, but he learns the shocking truth about many things around him as he listens to the tapes from Hannah Baker, the girl who committed suicide. The world is good to him and good fortune is on his side, so he never really noticed the bad things that happened to other people. Through the tapes, Hannah opens Jay's eyes to the reality around him and changes Clay into someone who is more observant and more truly caring towards others. In this way, Clay is considered a dynamic character because he learns about the reality of things and gains a true understanding pain. This change in his character helps the story. Hannah had shown signs of suicidal thoughts, but people ignored them and no one is there to help her. Clay realized that as he listened to the tapes and makes a promise then to always help someone who is being ignored or crying for help. Clay's middle school crush, Skye Miller, pops up here and there in the book and whenever she is mentioned, she shows signs of suicidal thoughts such as isolation and sudden change in appearance. In the beginning of the book Clay notices these things, but he doesn't do anything about it. However, in the end of the book we see him call her name when he sees her in the hall. We can assume that he helped her out did his best to prevent Skye from committing suicide, so he wouldn't feel the same guilt he felt when he found out Hannah Baker had died. Clay is my favorite character because of the change he made in his attitude towards things. He didn't just pout or deny the things that Hannah Baker had said in the tapes. He took the constructive criticism and made changes within himself, so the same mistakes would never happen again.
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Clay is kind of similar to Newt from the Scorch Trials! When Newt was a runner in the maze, he tried to commit suicide. I think that Newt's experience with those types of feelings help him get along with others, just like when Clay listens to the tapes he helps Skye get better.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to read that book I see how the reader can be empathetic to Clay like which we aim to do when we are reading to kill a MockingBird.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to read that book I see how the reader can be empathetic to Clay like which we aim to do when we are reading to kill a MockingBird.
ReplyDeleteI was recommended this book last year and I wasn't really interested until you explain how the book is dark and very deep which interests me now. Reading about the character gets me hook! can't wait to read this story.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about this book these past few months and how it's truly an amazing book. The way you've explained it has made me see that there are people out there in the world who go think about these thoughts like Hannah and Skye and how we should be more like Clay, by helping them out. Actually listening to their feelings, so I would definitely check it out. Also if you really liked it, Netflix is creating a show based on this book actually, so it'd be really cool to see this book come to life. Comes out on March 31.
ReplyDeleteThis thorough explanation gives this novel an appeal, in which I will surely check it out sometime I am really curious about the reasons behind the commited suicide
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