Reading Response

            The book, “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, had characters and events representing different archetypes. The main character Clay is listening to the tapes and the book is kind of in his perspective and him responding to the tapes. In the voice of Hannah, she is the other main character who went through a lot and then talked about them in thirteen different reasons. Clay, Hannah and their experience showed what their archetype would be.

            In the book, Hannah was kind of the Tragic Hero because of how she was treated and how it ended. For example, she said, “What are you doing?” as Marcus began to touch her at Rosie’s, the restaurant. In the tapes, she said “And I couldn’t look away as your fingertips caressed my knee… and started moving up,” which made her uncomfortable and was one reason why she killed herself. Second, Clay did something throughout the book, which was the archetype, The Task. Well, the task was to understand how Hannah experienced her “reasons” and what it was like for her. For example, Clay said,  “It’s only a block away, and maybe it’s not a red start on her map, but it should’ve been.” Last, I would also call Hannah, the archetype Warrior, because she wasn’t treated the best in her years of high school which got so bad it led to death. In the bar “Blue Spot”, the tapes said “…and I knew what was coming. A cupped hand smacked my ass. And then, he said it…” said Hannah. All of these three archetypes were apart of the journey in the book.

            The tragic hero, the task, the warrior and the journey were the archetypes of what really stood out in the book. From reading Thirteen Reasons Why, it taught the different ways people could act and the different sides of people.