Thirteen Reasons Why

Clay Jensen is one of the only characters in the novel who seems unequivocally “nice.” Polite to parents. Shy around girls. A little quiet. A good student who typically forgoes parties because he is gunning to be Valedictorian, and he studies on the weekends. Clay avoids trouble. Even the barista at Monet’s remembers Clay as “the nicest guy” (71). Clay’s reputation, to Hannah’s surprise and envy, is deservedly sterling. Clay’s mom trusts Clay even when she knows that he is lying to her. Clay has a huge crush on Hannah, but the rumors he hears about her scare him off and make him think he does not have a chance with her. This point is what tarnishes Clay’s image of himself in contrast to his outwardly spotless reputation. Clay is the ninth person featured on Hannah’s tapes.

Along with Hannah, Clay is one of the novel’s first-person narrators. His perspective gives readers more information about Hannah and the other characters. Clay does not always agree with Hannah’s assessment of other characters including Alex, Tyler, and Zach, and thinks she woefully misreads others like Bryce and Marcus. Clay tells Hannah—and the reader—when he thinks she is misguided. Clay’s perspective helps readers more clearly recognize Hannah’s mental health challenges. However, as the novel progresses, the lucidity of Clay’s perspective blurs as he begins to understand the consequences of his own inactions.

Finding out he is on Hannah’s tapes rocks Clay’s worldview. He has a visceral reaction to Hannah’s story. The tapes open Clay’s eyes to the awful secrets of his peers, the finality of death, and the importance of one’s actions. Clay feels guilty for not recognizing Hannah’s distress and not helping her. At the same time, Clay is angry at her for pushing away help. While he spends most of the novel living in the past—listening to the tapes and visiting the places on Hannah’s map—Clay exhibits character development when he reaches out to Skye, showing that, for him, Hannah’s tapes changed his life in a positive way. The novel hence ends by taking Clay from a coexisting difficult past and haunted present into a hopeful future.

Tony drives a classic Mustang and is into old audio formats: His car stereo only plays cassette tapes. While he is a teenager, he is associated with the paraphernalia of an older generation and hence becomes a paradoxically adult—even parent-like—figure in a novel in which adults are largely absent or irresponsible. Clay steals Tony’s Walkman to listen to Hannah’s tapes. Clay and Tony are not close friends but have worked on school assignments together in the past. Tony gives Hannah the voice recorder that she uses to make her tapes, unaware of the reason she needs it. Hannah entrusts Tony with her second set of tapes, and he follows her final wishes to make sure each person on her list listens to her story. His role in enforcing these rules emphasizes his adult characterization. Tony attempts to stop Hannah by calling her, and then her parents to warn them that something is wrong—but he is too late. Tony, like Clay, feels guilty that he missed Hannah’s suicide warning signs.

Although he is just an “average guy,” for new-in-town Hannah, Justin Foley is her “Romeo.” She feels drawn to be his girlfriend. Clay does not understand Justin’s appeal. Justin plays basketball and comes across as a little mysteriously distant and thoughtful, but otherwise seems ordinary to Clay. Hannah, however, dreams of receiving her very first kiss from Justin; his “average” and distant characterization allows Hannah to project her own ideas onto him, which foreshadows what Justin does to her. While her dream comes sweetly true, it quickly sours. Justin starts the rumor mill by bragging that he and Hannah did more than kiss. Justin is first on Hannah’s list of reasons why she took her life, but he also appears 10th when he allows Bryce to rape Jessica. Justin hence illustrates how the theme of how both small actions and inaction can have huge effects on others.

Alex Standall is second on Hannah’s list. Alex is new to Crestmont the same year as Hannah and Jessica Davis. The three of them form a new-kid support group, meeting at Monet’s Café to talk and share their daily experiences, good and bad. Alex eventually drifts away. He lists Hannah on the top of his “hot” list as “Best Ass in the Freshman Class” (37) which sexually objectifies her, causing boys to see Hannah as just a body part. Alex’s list illuminates the novel’s theme “Just Relax”: The Trauma of Sexual Objectification. It also causes more damage to Hannah’s reputation.

Although initially appalled when the guidance counselor, Mrs. Antilly, tries to friend-match Hannah with Jessica Davis, Hannah is quickly thankful. Hannah likes Jessica, and thinks “[s]he was the most outgoing, honest, tell-it-like-it-is girl I’d ever met” (61). This description means that Jessica’s character draws attention to some irony: She is not granted a first-person narrative and does not tell her own story “like-it-is.” This omission is particularly glaring later when the reader learns that she has been raped by Bryce Walker, but it is never mentioned again. After Jessica tops Alex’s “not hot” list, to save face and maintain her own self-esteem, Jessica chooses to believe rumors that Hannah and Alex were together. Jessica violently ends their friendship by striking Hannah and leaving her with a permanent physical scar, and the emotional scar of betrayal.

Tyler Down is an accomplished yearbook photographer and once won a prize for a humorous photo that he took of a dog peeing. Clay comments that he and others thought Tyler was “mentally challenged” in middle school, but later realized Tyler was “just an idiot” (80). This highlights the theme of rumors and reputation throughout the novel, as well as the false sense of perspective that people develop about others. Tyler is the fourth person on Hannah’s list and Asher uses his character to explore these topics of optics and appearances. Hannah accuses Tyler of being the Peeping Tom outside her window, photographing her and getting sexual gratification from the experience, although Hannah never actually sees Tyler commit the crime. Hannah believes that Tyler defiles the sanctuary of her home, stealing her haven. Others on the tapes stone Tyler’s window, singling out his crime as aberrant. Tyler takes the “fake” photograph of Hannah and Courtney, further illustrating how outward appearances, and ultimately reputations, are deceiving.

Courtney Crimson, the fifth person on Hannah’s list, is a pretty girl on the outside and, to all appearances, pretty on the inside. She is popular, “flirts with everyone” (99), and has a reputation of being “genuinely sweet.” However, the reality of Courtney’s self-centeredness also allows Asher to explore the idea of optics and outward appearances. Hannah mistakenly thinks she and Courtney are friends, but Courtney uses Hannah to get to the party, and then betrays Hannah’s trust by spreading the false story that Hannah has sex toys in her dresser. Courtney further damages Hannah’s reputation and makes Hannah more reluctant to trust others.

As the class clown and general “goof-off,” Marcus Cooley is the sixth person on the list. Although Hannah is wary of Marcus because he is friends with Alex, Marcus makes funny comments that liven up class and get Hannah laughing. However, Marcus shatters Hannah’s trust when he gropes her in the restaurant and she is forced to fight him off. Marcus compounds Hannah’s promiscuous reputation, humiliating her by calling her a “tease”; while Jessica physically imprints Hannah with a scar, Marcus figuratively imprints Hannah with this accusatory label. Although he listens to the tapes, Marcus callously believes did not do anything wrong. Clay can “tell that he’s not ashamed” (108). His reaction is hence purposefully juxtaposed with Clay’s own shame to ultimately emphasize Clay’s character development.

Zach Dempsey is seventh on Hannah’s list. He is shy, and Clay thinks he is a “good guy” (159). Like Clay, Zach has a crush on Hannah. Zach steps in to comfort Hannah—and ask her out—after her encounter with Marcus, but Hannah ignores him. Embarrassed and angry at the rejection, Zach steals Hannah’s encouraging notes from their Peer Communications class which isolates Hannah further from positive connections. He therefore presents one of the most explicit examples of the motif of Stealing. Zach walks silently away from Hannah’s angry confrontation, leaving Hannah feeling insignificant and valueless. She believes that Zach thinks she “wasn’t worth an explanation—not even a reaction” (168). Zach not only takes away the last things that give her hope, but he also tramples on the last vestiges of her self-worth. Hannah blames Zach for not reaching out to her after the suicide discussion topic comes up in class.

As the editor of the school’s Lost-N-Found Gazette, Ryan is a talented poet and the eighth person to make Hannah’s list. Hannah and Ryan both attend the poetry class at the local library, and afterward they hang out and read and interpret each other’s poetry. Hannah feels comfortable with Ryan, admires his poetry, and trusts him enough to share her poetry notebook, which includes “Soul Alone,” a poem that expresses Hannah’s raw, private feelings. Ryan seems to understand the emotional pain that Hannah is going through, but he betrays her trust and friendship by publishing her poem without her knowledge. While he betrays her trust, the function of Ryan’s character is to show Hannah attempting to sharpen her faculties for emotional communication. This is something on which the narrative structure of the novel hinges. Ryan’s betrayal exposes Hannah’s innermost thoughts, but this exposure is doubled by the fact that Hannah is simultaneously portraying her innermost thoughts to the listeners of the tapes.

Jenny Kurtz, the 11th person on Hannah’s list, is the friendly cheerleader who gives Hannah the results of her “Oh My Dollar Valentines” and enthusiastically supports Hannah in making her Valentine’s date with Marcus. Jenny is kind, sweet, and seems to care about other people. After being a bystander to Jessica’s rape, Hannah feels like a zombie. Jenny comes to her rescue, treating Hannah gently and giving her a ride home. This action epitomizes the way that the teenagers in this novel often take on parental roles in the absence of adult figures. Hannah feels safe and secure with her, but the car accident reveals that Jenny is more concerned about herself than others. Jenny is more afraid of getting in trouble than what could happen to other drivers and refuses to report the incident, which highlights the problems with teenagers becoming surrogates for absent parental figures. Jenny’s self-serving inaction likely causes the fatal accident later at that intersection. The guilt Hannah feels for her own part in not making Jenny report the accident drives Hannah deeper into depression and plays a large role in prompting her suicide.

Bryce Walker is an unapologetic misogynist, womanizer, and rapist. Everyone, including Clay and Hannah, knows that Bryce “goes through girls like used underwear” (230); this simile associates Bryce with dirtiness and wastefulness. The narrative momentarily adopts his viewpoint since Bryce thinks that girls are merely objects to use to please himself: He does not care what they think or feel. His signature comment used to the point of motif, “[j]ust relax” is not just dismissive of girls’ feelings but an order. Bryce exemplifies the theme of the traumatic effects of sexual objectification. Bryce is 12th on Hannah’s list, but she does not send him the tapes, knowing they would stop with him, and not get passed on. This suggests that there is a lack of futurity to Bryce in contrast to Clay or Jessica—he creates either narrative stopping points or disruptions—and he only appears within the narrative in relation to Hannah, which flattens his characterization. This is reinforced by Hannah’s “use” of Bryce to destroy any remnants of her self-worth.

The English teacher and guidance counselor for students with the last names A-G, Mr. Porter is “lucky number thirteen” on Hannah’s list. His alphabetical grouping of assigned students is impersonal and foreshadows a lack of proper care that he will go on to show. Hannah tells Mr. Porter—though readers do not yet know he is number 13—in the very first tape that he “can take the tapes straight to hell” (9), associating him with Hannah’s gallows humor. Mr. Porter exemplifies not only the ineffectiveness of adults in the novel but shows the dangers of not taking a student’s suicidal ideations seriously. As a professional educator, Mr. Porter is the most qualified character in the novel to help Hannah and should be responsible for reporting students’ suicidal ideations, immediately getting help, and referring students and their families to mental health resources. However, his unhelpful reaction to her is undermined by the small and flawed examples of parent-like responsibility—giving rides, supervising each other, enforcing rules—that the teenagers exhibit to each other throughout the novel.