13 Reasons Why Should Not Be Banned

Hannah Baker was lonely, ostracized, and had experienced too much pain to lift it off her shoulders.  She knew harassment far too well, and finally she decided to end it all.  She was gone, just an empty desk where she once sat.  Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, has been challenged in many schools due to the detailed and traumatizing events Hannah describes throughout the book.  Because it is very descriptive, people fear that it will be putting ideas into young people’s minds before they are ready.  Although the book contains under aged drinking, rape, and suicide, it has a strong message about bullying and harassment, and therefore, should be kept in libraries in every middle school.

            Some parents, including Thomas F. Bertonneau, believe that the book is too heavy for their children to read.  He writes in his article, Thirteen Reasons Why Not, “The novel is obscene under the normally understood meaning of that term.  It deals explicitly, in reductive and graphic terms, with actions and events that are crassly sexual and emotionally base.”  It is true, the book deals with many topics that could be too much for a student to read, and the scenes are described very graphically.  An example of this is when Hannah is being molested by a boy named Bryce: “You started kissing my shoulder, my neck, sliding your fingers in and out.”  A scene like this could traumatize a person if they’re immature, but the effect on a mature person would be very different.  They might understand how wrong it is, and learn how rape could affect a person.

            On the other hand, there are many reasons that the book should be kept in libraries, versus it being thrown out, or banned.  One reason is that it puts a very dark light on bullying and by explaining the effects it can have on a person, and in Thirteen Reasons Why, that person is Hannah Baker.   In one scene in the book that Hannah describes, she is at a party.  A girl that was once her best friend is so drunk, she’s unresponsive, and is laying on a bed in a room.  Justin Foley lets Bryce in, and one thing leads to another.  Hannah is trapped in the closet, wanting her life to be over, for it all to end.  She targets Justin with two sentences in that tape:  “First, you started a chain of events that ruined my life.  Now, you were working on hers.”  Those lines express just how deep a scar can be etched in a person by bullying and rape.  They are sharpened knives, cutting deeper and deeper into people, until they’re heart doesn’t have enough strength to beat anymore.  It is written in an article Banned Book Awareness: 13 Reasons Why, that the book could be the thing to get “…people to realize that every action- or inaction- has consequences.”  This is referring to the fact that every time a person bullies another, they could be severely hurting them.

            Additionally, the book teaches you to trust your friends, not to listen to rumors about them, and to never leave or target a person because of the rumors.  Among the many reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide, is her former friend, Jessica.  Jessica believes a rumor about Hannah and her boyfriend, and decides that she can’t be her friend anymore, on false pretenses.  She feels abandoned and alone, and begins to believe that the world is made up of lies.  Hannah says to Jessica, when she is accusing Hannah, “You can’t know rumors.”  The fact that a rumor broke their friendship could show a reader of the book how the rumors they hear aren’t necessarily true. Banned Book Awareness: 13 Reasons Why asks “Have you ever exaggerated the truth in order to impress someone without thinking about how that lie could hurt someone else?”  Rumors like this ruin people’s life, and a reader might understand this after reading the book.

            Hannah expresses the raw truths of bullying and rape, and people will see this truth at one point in their life.  The book teaches lessons and morals, and explains why participating in spreading rumors, or physically harassing someone will never be an okay thing to do.  Thirteen Reasons Why puts the armor on people, so they are ready for negative experiences, and possibly could show them how to avoid them altogether.  If a book has the power to do this for younger readers, it should be kept in libraries. 

Works Cited:

Bertonneau, Thomas F. "Thirteen Reasons Why Not." The Thinking Housewife. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

"Banned Books Awareness:." Banned Books Awareness. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.