Sunday, August 19, 2012
Tone
"In every class, the teachers gave us free time. Free to write. Free to read. Free to think. And what did I do? For the first time, I thought about my own funeral." Most of the time Hannah would talk into the tapes, the tone was eerie and mysterious. She seemed to forewarn her suicide, and even though I've know from the beginning that she is dead, I still feel like I don't know how she will end up. The tone is set so that I still feel like the rest of her life is a mystery or the outcome of the book might be different if I keep reading. Though the conclusion of the book does not change the fact that Hannah is dead, the tone makes the reader want to continue reading until they put the puzzle together at the end and connect all the stories so that Hannah's story makes sense to them.
Symbolism
"Romeo, oh Romeo. Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Clay's side of the tape begins with the now cliche line from Romeo and Juliet. The author meant to put William Shakespeare's work in his novel for another reason than just to be apart of the bandwagon of books which use this line. Hannah Baker used this line to foretell her thoughts of suicide, since the in-love teen aged Juliet killed herself too after her true love died. And Clay Jensen seemed the best person on her tapes to relate this tragic story to since they liked each other, Clay a little more than Hannah since she said "To be honest, there was never a point where I said to myself, Clay Jensen...he's the one." The point of referencing to Romeo and Juliet was not particularly pointing out that she could not live without Clay Jensen's love, since he was still alive and well at the time of her death, but that she couldn't live without love period. No one else, except maybe her parents, seemed to love her as a friend or more at the time.
Foreshadowing
"In the end, I only made it through three of those poetry groups. But something did come of it. Something good? Hmm...I wonder." The foreshadowing of Thirteen Reasons Why was one of its great aspects. Hannah Baker hinted on what was going to happen next through her cassettes tapes, but never told the reader until the very end. She made me want to read the next page to understand why this person was set into the tapes. The way the author set up the foreshadowing in this book was amazing and perfect.
Sometimes, when an author leaves too many cliff hangers, the reader becomes frustrated,and puts down the book. But the author of Thirteen Reasons Why concocted the perfect amount of foreshadowing in his novel to make the reader intoxicated with the plot. Even when the tape ended and a kid's part of the story was over, the reader still needed to read on to see why the event was so important to Hannah Baker.
Hannah was a master on keeping her audiences' attention, being both Clay Jensen in the novel and the readers of the real world, the best example of foreshadowing was the first chapter of the book. The first three pages or so was actually set at the near end of the novel, when Clay Jensen sent the collect of tapes to the next person on Hannah's list and then walked to his school. "At the front of the room, facing the students, will be the desk of Mr. Porter. He'll be the last one to receive a package with no return address. And in the middle of the room, one desk to the left, will be the desk of Hannah Baker. Empty." After that line, the story takes a day jump backwards to begin the start of the tapes. But that paragraph was the reason I was so interested in the book to begin with. I wanted to know what was in the package, and why Hannah Baker's desk was empty. This novel was one of the best thriller/suspense novels I've read, all because of the way the author foreshadowed his writing.
Sometimes, when an author leaves too many cliff hangers, the reader becomes frustrated,and puts down the book. But the author of Thirteen Reasons Why concocted the perfect amount of foreshadowing in his novel to make the reader intoxicated with the plot. Even when the tape ended and a kid's part of the story was over, the reader still needed to read on to see why the event was so important to Hannah Baker.
Hannah was a master on keeping her audiences' attention, being both Clay Jensen in the novel and the readers of the real world, the best example of foreshadowing was the first chapter of the book. The first three pages or so was actually set at the near end of the novel, when Clay Jensen sent the collect of tapes to the next person on Hannah's list and then walked to his school. "At the front of the room, facing the students, will be the desk of Mr. Porter. He'll be the last one to receive a package with no return address. And in the middle of the room, one desk to the left, will be the desk of Hannah Baker. Empty." After that line, the story takes a day jump backwards to begin the start of the tapes. But that paragraph was the reason I was so interested in the book to begin with. I wanted to know what was in the package, and why Hannah Baker's desk was empty. This novel was one of the best thriller/suspense novels I've read, all because of the way the author foreshadowed his writing.
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