Thirteen reasons why is a Netflix series which came out in March 2017. Thirteen reasons why talks about the story of Hannah Baker, a 17 year old girl, the main character who, before committing suicide, decided to register 13 tapes in which she explained the thirteen reasons or more specifically, the 13 people who drove her into committing the Thirteen reasons why is a Netflix series which came out in March 2017. Thirteen reasons why talks about the story of Hannah Baker, a 17 year old girl, the main character who, before committing suicide, decided to register 13 tapes in which she explained the thirteen reasons or more specifically, the 13 people who drove her into committing the extreme action. The story takes place in October 2017. Hannah made the voice over and the episodes are viewed under Clay Jensen’s (the second main character) view while he is listening to all the tapes.
It all begins when, one day Clay Jensen finds a box in front of his house’s entrance: in that box there are 13 tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, the girl of the Liberty High School who killed herself a week before. He picks a Walkman from his friend Tony, he went back home and began to listen to the first tape: “Hello boys and girls, Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements, no encore. And this time? Absolutely no requests. I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life…more specifically, why it ended. And if you’re listening to the tapes, you’re one of the reasons why. I’m not saying which tape will bring you into the story but fear not if you received this lovely little box, your name will pop up. I promise.” Then she explains the rules that he must follow: he must listen to all the thirteen sides, rewind the tapes, put them in the box and pass them to the person who follows Clay in the recordings. Before she died she made a copy of the tapes that will be released in public if Clay doesn’t follow the rules. And during the period he’s listening to the recording he will be watched by someone who was assumed by her. The whole story is like a long chain: if one part of it missed, the rest of them wouldn’t exist. Also what happened to the 13 guys after, is a consequence of Hannah’s death and after listening to her tapes all enigmas were resolved.
The first tape talks about Justin Foley, basketball player and one of the most popular guy at the Liberty High. He knows Hannah at a party organized by her friend: they fell in love and one day they met at the park where they kissed and while she was coming down from the chute, he made a photo where Hannah’s underwear was visible and she was also photographed while she was kissing a friend of her. Then, a friend of Justin and the photographer shared these images on the web to all the students of the school and this was the beginning of Hannah’s bullying. She was bullied, laughed at, mocked rejected and excluded. She made friends with some new students. Jessica and Alex, two new students at the Liberty High school. They immediately became close friends and she felt very happy because she had someone to talk to and to share her adventures with; but she also began to feel excluded because these two had more things in common: she also found out they were in love! She was jealous! This made her withdraw from their friendship, but when Jessica and Alex broke up, she was again accused by Jessica as been responsible because her name appeared as the “the best ass” in a list wrote by Alex so she thought that her ex boyfriend cheated on her with Hannah.
Hannah felt rejected by her friends and schoolmates, she was been bullied publicly and via web, she’s always been mocked scorned and laughed at, she was raped and was known as being cheap, cheater and a party girl. She was ashamed, scared and lonely she could no longer stand it, the pain, humiliation, loneliness and stress was too heavy for her to carry and she took the “easiest” road: suicide. Before deciding on taking her life, she shouted for help on her way! Leaving traces of her upcoming decisions, talking in proverbs, writing anonymous letters, leaving signals but nobody listens, nobody understands, nobody cares! Not even her parents! For example, in the last side of the tapes, Hannah pointed her school counsellor, Kevin Porter, as the 13th reason of her suicide: she saw him as the last chance to find a reason to continue living, but he just thought about saving the reputation of the school instead of listening carefully to Hannah’s problems and helping her to get out of that difficult situation.
I think the huge mistake Hannah made was not talking about what was happening to her parents, the only people who would always be there for her no matter what, those that love her unconditionally and understands her. Okay, her parents were busy and focused on their job, very shallow. They were so distracted that they never noticed some strange behaviours of their only daughter. They bought her a new brand car, a nice dress for her prom, but they didn’t give her what she really needed: their presence, love and help.
She was a teenager and as all teenagers she had many problems: during teenage years it is very important for us to talk to our parents, because they are the only people who can better understand us and can really help us. Hannah unfortunately, seeing her parents busy with their jobs, didn’t want to add more problems to them meanwhile she was trying to keep going without even realizing that she would never solved her troubles without opening up. Actually she was increasing them and they were hunting and hurting her until she committed suicide.
This series has to be viewed with a critical mind and everyone has to watch it, because it makes you think about our lives, our way of living, our relationships and about the fact that every action could affect negatively or positively others lives even though we don’t realize it. Hannah said: “You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything… affects everything. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same”.
Celine Polepole, 3 B Scientifico
