13ReasonsWhy-MovieComparison

Bell 2

12/16/13

Ashley Bowman

Claire Elise Murray         Thirteen Reasons Why- Movie Comparison

            The main character in Thirteen Reasons Why is a teenage girl named Hannah Baker. She recently moved into Crestmont with her parents. While attending school, many rumors and negative events happened to Hannah. One of these events included losing her closest friends. All of these things being said about her overwhelmed her and eventually led Hannah to the decision to end her life. She left behind tapes sent to thirteen people that affected her or influenced her decision to kill herself by overdosing in pills. Thirteen Reasons Why is closely comparable to the movie Cyberbully featuring Emily Osmet.

            In Cyberbully, a teenage girl named Taylor Hillridge (around the same age as Hannah) receives a laptop for her seventeenth birthday. With the support of her friends, Taylor quickly signs up for a social networking cite used by the majority of her classmates; Cliquespace. After having Cliquespace for a couple days, rumors about her start being posted. Also, a fake account (later we find out was created by her friend) gets to know her then uses what she said against her, humiliating Taylor online. The foul comments only get worse, soon the comments continue at school. Thinking nothing could get worse, Taylor takes an attempt at killing herself by overdosing on pills. Thankfully, she was unsuccessful and was found by her friends before anything else got worse.

            Thirteen Reasons Why and Cyberbully are closely related. First, for the obvious similarities; they both try to take their lives by overdosing on pills, both have friends that turn on them, and people at school were starting rumors about them and also calling them foul names. Those similarities are easily seen throughout both summaries. Another clear similarity is that they both go to public school and are about the same age, Taylor being 17 and Hannah 16. Both had about the same mindset about what was going on in their lives, because they go through almost the same exact thing.

            Some difference between Thirteen Reasons Why and Cyberbully include where most of the bullying takes place and the response to this bullying. In Thirteen Reasons Why, most of the bullying happens at school and Hannah’s reaction isn’t revenge it is simply trying to ignore it or at least seem like she is. In Cyberbully, as the same says ‘cyber’ most of the bullying takes place online. Although, the bullying also makes its way to school eventually. Taylor also deals with the bullying in a different way; she strikes back at the bullies with rude comments similar to what they were saying to her. So at the same time as being the victim, she was also being the offender.

Book Connections

Bell 2
12/16/13
Ashley Bowman
Claire Elise Murray                                  Book Connections

 

 “I hope your ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life.

More specifically why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes,

you’re one of the reasons why.” (Asher7)

Throughout Thirteen Reasons Why I have been able to make many different connections. One of those connections is text-to-world. In this book there are two major topics presented; suicide and social acceptance. The reason for these topics and thoughts by Hannah Baker are her classmates and so called ‘friends’. In society people don’t understand that their little comments or actions can have a negative effect on others. In this case in the book, Hannah traces her thirteen reasons on why she chose to take her life. Most of these reasons were small and the person doing the actions didn’t realize they were greatly affecting her.

Another connection I made is text-to-text, or in this case text-to-movie. The movie Cyberbully featured on ‘abc’ has many similarities to my book. Cyberbully is about a teenage girl, about the same age as Hannah, that attempts to kill herself because of her ‘friends’ turning against her and rumors that were being spread about her. Almost the same exact thing happens in Thirteen Reasons Why. Hannah kills herself due to friends turning on her, rumors being spread about her and just life experiences. For example in Cyberbully, two of Taylor’s friends turn on her and the same thing happened in Thirteen Reasons Why. Two of Hannah’s friends; Alex and Courtney turn on her.

The last Connection that I made was text-to-self. This book relates to me from past experiences. It’s not that I have tried to kill myself or anything, although there have been tough times; I am mostly relating this to me from the look of cause and effect. For example- Hannah based her decision and life on what others said and did; the effect was her ending her life over those factors. In my life, I tend to care too much what others think about me, that’s how I base decisions a lot. So I feel like Hannah and I have many similarities.

Author: Jay Asher

Claire Elise Murray
11/25/13
Honors English
Bell 2

          The book I chose is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Thirteen Reasons Why was Jay Asher's first published novel. Jay was born September 30th, 1975 he was born in Arcadia, California and grew up there. His family supported all of his interests including writing and playing the guitar. Growing up Jay was a very shy but when he got close to a group of friends he was very outgoing. He was involved in a lot of garage bands playing the guitar and singing. He attended Cuesta College right after graduating from high school. At that point Jay wanted to be an elementary school teacher. He transferred to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he left his senior year to pursue his career as a serious writer.

 

He has published two books to this date, Thirteen Reasons Why in 2007 and he co-wrote The Future of Us that came out in 2011 with Carolyn Mackler. Today, Jay is touring cities around the country to speak and sign books. He has one son and is married. An interesting fact about Jay is that he spent most of the time writing his first book in a coffee shop, and for his second book he spent most of his time at a small table in his living room. A lot of experiences that Jay had in his life were portrayed in his book Thirteen Reasons Why.

This video shows Jay Asher's interview with Barnes&Noble about his book Thirteen Reasons Why.

The Fault in Our Stars Theme

           The Fault in Our Stars by John Green        Theme           Claire Elise Murray  

             "I'm in love with you," he said quietly. "Augustus," I said. "I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling "I'm in love with you, and i'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.." (Green 153)

               I believe that the central idea of The Fault in Our Stars is love. Hazel and Augustus have a strong and abundant love for each other that grows with time and throughout the book gets stronger. When Augustus and Hazel first meet, they automatically 'click.' They start talking and grow a better relationship. They both start sharing their favorites including Hazel's favorite book An Imperial Affliction and Augustus's favorite movie V for Vendetta. When times get tough they stick together and their love for each other only gets stronger. Towards the end of the book Augustus tragically dies and Hazel realizes how much she actually loved and cared about Augustus.

 

             

           > Stars Article  The article I chose is a very well written review on

The Fault in Our Stars. It talks about many key parts/details in the story.

 The article also goes into more detail about cancer, who it affects and some

cancer statistics.