Theme Development in Thirteen Reasons Why

Youth Suicide is one of the leading causes of youth death. In fact, statistics show that approximately 4600 teens commit suicide each year in the US (2013). One of the principal reasons why teens commit suicide is due to the fact that others have a huge negative impact on the teen's life. To prevent less deaths, one should learn that everything has consequences to it so one should consider how they affect others through actions and words. That is one of the central themes that Jay Asher shows in his book, Thirteen Reasons Why. He demonstrates the message by creating the tapes to represent the theme in the book. Asher also shows it by developing two strong lead characters, Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen.

Firstly, the most important symbol are the tapes which is what the story revolves around. First of all, they are a helped develop the theme since they symbolize the theme itself within the novel. They develop the theme because their purpose was to tell 13 different reasons why Hannah killed herself; which is practically how 13 different people have impacted her life. For example, on Cassette 1:Side 8 she tells the story of how Alex Standoll made a difference in her life. He made the "hot/not list" as a joke without knowing how it would affect Hannah's life. He thought of it as a joke yet it lead to multiple results that changed Hannah's life, such as creating conflict with Jessica. This show the theme because it is another example where one did not consider the consequences for their actions. Alex did not seem to think about how foolish life can create so much conflict but it did. As a result of it, the list had lead to many bad effects on Hannah even if it was portrayed as a joke. Another way Asher establishes the theme is by making an effect towards the 13 who were on the tapes. In Clay's case, he was dreadful the next morning. All he could think about are the