One out of Thirteen

Authors Note: This piece is my Character Analysis. I chose to analyze the main character in the book "Thirteen Reasons Why", Clay Jensen. Clay is a hard character to analyze because he adds on to his own personality, but I wanted to challenge myself with it.

In the beginning, Clay Jensen is a normal teenager. He goes to school, does his homework, and plays basketball. But one day he finds a mysterious box on his front porch, with seven cassette tapes inside. He finds out that these tapes were recorded by Hannah Baker, who committed suicide two weeks earlier, and that they were made to show the thirteen reasons why she committed suicide. It turns out that Clay was one of those reasons. And by the time Clay is done with the tapes, he realizes what he could’ve done to stop it, and his whole life comes into perspective. Throughout this heart-racing novel, “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher,  Clay Jensen’s life changes, and so does the way he acts.

At the beginning of this book, Clay is a normal teenager. He goes to school, does his homework, and likes to play basketball. As he states in the book, “Basketball. A lot of us played that summer, hoping to make JV as freshmen.” - Cassette 1: Side A, page 22. He starts off as being just like everyone else. Clay was just a normal kid, who went to high school, and blended right in with everyone else. He did what everyone else did, just to make sure that no one gave him too much attention.

Clay changes into a totally new person throughout this entire novel. He goes from a normal teenager, to someone who is filled with guilt. He blames himself for not noticing that Hannah was going through a very tough time in her life. “I was the only person who might’ve been able to reach out and save her from herself.” - Cassette 5: Side B, pg 133. His entire personality changes. It turns into guilt, and regret, from all the chances that he had to stop her, and to help her through the hard times. So many chances were missed, and if he had just realized what was going on, Hannah might still be alive.

Even though Clay changed himself, he influenced the other people around him. The snowball effect, as Hannah calls it, started with Justin Foley, and ended with a teacher. Clay influenced others to keep treating Hannah like dirt, and he didn’t help her situation at all. But Hannah knew that, and the only reason that Clay was in the tapes, was so that she could say she was sorry. Sorry for pushing him away, when all he wanted to do was be in her life.  “I would have helped her if she’d only let me. I would have helped her because I want her to be alive.” - Cassette 7: Side A, page 164.

When I was reading this book, I thought it was very emotional. It made me realize that everything you do can majorly affect other people’s lives. Even the smallest things can have a huge impact on someone. Teenagers in high school always tend to believe all the rumors that they hear, and they add onto them, just making them worse. For Hannah, one small rumor lead to the end of her life.

Changing from normal teenager, to changing yourself as well as the others around you isn’t only in “Thirteen Reasons Why.” Molly Dix, the main character in “Spoiled”, by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks, has to move in with her famous father and his spoiled daughter. She teaches her half sister to treat others with respect, as well as some important life lessons. Molly and Clay have the same problem. Both of them are confused about life, they both lost people very important to them, and they each learn who their true friends are.

Clay Jensen’s life changes, and so does the way he acts, in the heart-racing novel “Thirteen Reasons Why”, by Jay Asher. He changes into a completely new person, and not necessarily in a good way. But people change throughout life, and sometimes for reasons that are tragic. People change in reality, and in fictional novels.