By Arturo Brooks, Haley Brown |Staff Writers|
“13 Reasons Why” is another glorified show rigged for teens that advocates suicide as a way to express yourself.
If you do not know about this series, it’s a show that airs on Netflix.
It takes place in a high school setting where the main character, Hannah Baker, a sophomore, creates a collection of tapes to epitomize how the actions of her peers lead to her untimely demise.
After watching the show Haley and I had a discussion on some of our concerns about events that unfolded.
Our main concerns with “13 Reason’s Why” were the portrayal of the reasons that lead her to commit suicide.
We agreed that some of the events were overly exaggerated, contradictory and delusional especially with use of this quote.
“I started with Justin and Jessica, who each broke my heart. Alex, Tyler, Courtney, Marcus, who each helped to destroy my reputation on through Zach and Ryan, who broke my spirit. Through Tape #12, Bryce Walker, who broke my soul,” said Hannah Baker.
Another example would be the handling of photographs that created the epitome of her suffering through bullying.
We thought these photos, could have easily been dealt with by not only adults but law enforcement as well.
Ryan, an editor for the school newspaper, befriends Hannah at a poetry club meeting and helps her unlock her passion for poetry.
Ryan anonymously puts one of Hannah’s poems in the student magazine without her consent.
Hannah deals with the situation, verbally expressing her disgust and later stating that he broke her spirit.
We feel that Hannah never realized that Ryan’s intention although selfish were to help her promote herself to a wider audience, and she took it as hurtful.
We thought this was unbelievable.
There are teachers who monitor what is published in school or handed out.
Showing a teacher reading the intimate poem was unlikely due to policy and guidelines teachers have to follow due to their curriculum.
We were concerned by how she was affected by her peers. Then we were appalled how she flips the script and causes emotional and physical distress to people who are still alive while she is dead.
Zach a star basketball player attempts to befriend Hannah when she had just been traumatized by a previous event and is very vulnerable and angry, but Zach never broke her spirit
Hannah lashed out at Zach’s kindness, she miscalculated/objectified his intentions towards her they had a miscommunication that led to them, both feeling hurt.
She anonymously stated to the class she was thinking about ending her life.
Instead of confronting Zach personally she called him out anonymously for not being her savior.
Even after the way she treated him by calling him “stupid.”
Zach had been dealing with other problems such as his perceived reputation and his parent’s expectations.
Hannah did not take this into consideration when she did this.
We felt the show was geared towards anti-bullying, and given the circumstances she was a bully.
Through the events we see a common theme of Hannah putting herself in avoidable situations while looking for sympathy anywhere possible.
We thought a lot of Hannah’s actions were contradictory to the main theme of how words and actions of your peers can affect someone emotionally.
Even though she was the main focus of being bullied she in turn bullied others after her death revoking everything this show stood for.
We truly do not agree with the showing of suicide, because it could bring back hurtful memories that some may not know how to deal with it.
Although the series was created to attract and inform teenagers. To be rated MA was appropriate but it as.
Leave a Reply