14 May 2011

Here is an illustration
by Annika Borsch:

Reason # 6 - cassette 3: side B

Name of the person: Marcus Cooley
What did he do to Hannah? Marcus called Hannah and asked her for a date, claiming that she was the # 1 on his list of results of the Valentine sweetheart survey.
Although Hannah did not trust Marcus because he was a friend of Alex Standall's, she agreed to meet him after school that day at a popular diner called Rosie's (p 114, ll 16 ff).
Marcus was 30 minutes late, thereby embarrassing Hannah who was waiting for him all by herself. After he finally arrived, they had a good time together, Hannah enjoyed herself. But then Marcus took advantage of the situation - him and Hannah sitting in a booth, partly hidden from view - and touched Hannah's knee, then moving his hand upward. Although Hannah told him to stop, Marcus didn't. Nobody at Rosie's helped Hannah. Maybe people didn't see what was going on, maybe they didn't want to see. When Marcus touched Hannah's privates she pushed him out of the booth onto the floor. He called her a "tease" and stormed out of Rosie's.
After this incident, Hannah "decided to find out how people at school might react if one of the students never came back" (p 122, ll 19-21). She started giving up.

Reason # 5 - cassette 3: side A

Name of the person: Courtney Crimson
What did she do to Hannah? Courtney is known to be the perfect girl - beautiful and nice to everyone. She helped Hannah to set a trap for Peeping Tom Tyler Down. After that Hannah thought that they were friends. But Courtney was just friendly enough to Hannah to not damage her perfect reputation. On top of that she used Hannah as a ride to a party. At that party, she contributed to the rumors about Hannah by telling lies, indicating to some boys that Hannah owned sex toys.
Courtney did not want to be photographed with Hannah for the yearbook which means she didn't want others to think that they were friends.

9 April 2011

Reason # 4 - cassette 2: side B

Name of the person: Tyler Down
What did he do to Hannah? Tyler Down is a voyeur, a peeper, a Peeping Tom. Hannah was one of his victims. One night, when Hannah's parents were out of town and she was all alone in the house, he waited outside her bedroom window and secretly took pictures of Hannah through a crack in the blinds. At that time, Hannah did not know who the voyeur was, she just heard the "click" of the camera. Being alone in the house late at night, she was frightened and did not know what to do. So she did not do anything.
Later, Hannah found out that it had been Tyler, and he stopped coming to her house and taking pictures, but from then on Hannah did not feel safe in her house and her bedroom anymore ("... you stopped coming around my house. But your presence, Tyler, that never left. After your visits, I twisted my blinds shut every night. I locked out the stars and I never saw lightning again. Each night, I simply turned out the lights and went to bed. Why didn't you leave me alone, Tyler? My house. My bedroom. They were supposed to be safe for me. Safe from everything outside. But you were the one who took that away." p 79 ll 14-21).

Reason # 3 - cassette 2: side A

Name of the person: Jessica Davis
What did she do to Hannah? Hannah, Jessica and Alex (see reason # 2) were all new to the school and the town of Crestmont. For a short while, they met regularly and talked about their school day.
Jessica and Alex became a couple, but they soon broke up. Alex wrote the "who's hot / who's not" list (see reason # 2) and put Hannah in the "hot" column and Jessica in the "not" column. There were rumors that Alex and Hannah had a sexual relationship. Although Hannah denied them, Jessica believed those rumors and thought that Hannah was the reason why Jessica's relationship with Alex had ended. At the end of a heated conversation, Jessica hit Hannah in the face, which left a small scar in Hannah's face, forever reminding her of this incident ("But it's more than just a scratch. It's a punch in the stomach and a slap in the face. It's a knife in my back because you would rather believe some made-up rumor than what you knew to be true." p 63 ll 1-4).

24 March 2011

Reason # 2 - cassette 1: side B

Name of the person: Alex Standall
What did he do to Hannah? Alex wrote a list, "Freshman class - who's hot / who's not" (p 40 l 11), and voted Hannah "hot" and "Best ass in the freshman class". This gave another boy an excuse to grab Hannah's butt (p 46 l 28). Hannah does not tell the name of the boy, but he is decribed as rather violent and intimidating ("... he grabbed my wrist and spun me around. He said my name, and when I looked into his eyes the joking was gone. I yanked my arm, but his grip was tight." p 48 ll 22-26) and Clay recognizes him because of Hannah's description ("I know who Hannah's talking about now. I've seen his wrist-grabbing stunt before. It always makes me want to grab him by the shirt and push him until he lets the girl go. But instead, every time, I pretend not to notice. What could I do, anyway?" p 49 ll 1-5).
In the "NOT hot" column of his list, Alex Standall wrote the name of Jessica Davis. Hannah indicates that this had consequences ("You wrote Jessica's name in the Not column. You held Jessica up for ridicule. And that's where our snowball picks up speed. Jessica, my dear ... you're next." p 51 ll 12-15).

13 March 2011

Reason # 1 - cassette 1: side A

Name of the person: Justin Foley
What did he do to Hannah? When Hannah was a freshman and Justin a sophomore, i. e. about two years ago, the two of them were a couple for about a month. Justin was Hannah's first kiss and her first boyfriend. They only kissed, but Justin "started bragging" (p 33 l 9), he started rumors as to what he and Hannah had been doing besides kissing ("I've heard so many stories that I don't know which one is the most popular." (p 32 ll 18-19)) which damaged Hannah's reputation. In the end she was rumored to be a "slut" (p 27 l 25).

10 March 2011

Hannah's map

"If you're on my list, you should've received a map." (p 18 ll 15-16)
Map copied from http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com.

7 March 2011

The box

Clay Jensen receives a box with seven audiotapes which were recorded by Hannah Baker.

There are 13 sides of spoken text on them.
Each side features a certain person and gives one reason why Hannah committed suicide.
So it is 13 sides, 13 people, 13 reasons.

Hannah made two sets of tapes.
One set is being passed around among those 13 people.
Hannah's rules are: 1. listen, 2. then pass it on to the next person in the story.

Hannah gave the second set of tapes to someone who is making sure that everybody follows the rules: "You are being watched." (p 17 l 16). If somebody does not, the second set will be publicly released.

Blurb

A brief blurb, copied from http://www.amazon.de: When Clay Jenson plays the cassette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he is surprised to hear the voice of his dead classmate Hannah Baker. He is one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide.