Should "Thirteen Reasons Why" be banned?

Denisse Flores                                                                                                                           810
                             
   Hannah Baker was a happy girl, she had friends and didn't have a problem in the world but all of that changed in an instant. A "rumor based on a kiss" is all that started her problems, Justin Foley was the main reason for her death. "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher is a controversial book that many parents want banned. This book should not be banned even though it contains offensive language and it references to suicide, alcohol, and it contains sexual content, it shows the powerful effect of bullying and depression.

   This book shouldn't be banned because it shows the result of bullying. Hannah Baker did not do anything to provoke her rumors- she was only a victim of bullying. For example, Justin Foley made up the first rumor  "Hannah took off her shirt and let Justin put his hands up her bra. That’s it. That’s what I heard happened in the park that night...”(pages 28-31). This rumor was based on a simple kiss Hannah thought would be special for her, however this rumor made her seem like a slut. This book also deals with the effect of depression. When all of her friends left her because they believed the rumors she became depressed because she did not have anyone that could comfort her- she did not have a reason to live because of this.

  Additionally, this book has comfort many lives despite content. There was bullying, suicide, drugs and alcohol but that is some of the problems that many people face today. For example, in the article "Banned Books Awareness: Thirteen Reasons Why " when Jay Asher was in his book signing a woman told him  that her 14 year old son had taken his own life a few years earlier, "She started crying because she said that for the first time she felt she could let go of some of the guilt." Also, this book makes readers think of their actions. In the same article it states "The majority of students are the ones who look the other way,the ones who laugh at someone else's expense because it's "me or them" in the popularity game of high school social life, and feel that they can take advantage of someone's body, emotion, or mentality because it's okay as long as they feel as if no one really gets hurt." 

   However, many people argue that this book has inappropriate topics that children should not be allowed to read. One of the reasons they argue is because of sexually explicit text. For example, when Bryce raped Hannah, “You started kissing my shoulder, my neck, sliding your fingers in and out. And then you kept going. You didn’t stop there.” Also in the article it explains that parents do not want their children to feel what Hannah felt, "Asher's novel makes readers feel nakedly uncomfortable, and this has caused parents nationwide to call for the book to be banned because their children could discover that raw emotion and truth that cuts to the reader's heart and feel and experience the same vulnerability" 

  The book "Thirteen Reasons Why " by Jay Asher should remain in libraries and schools. This book deals with important issues everyone faces today, banning this book would be a loss for a struggling person that deals with the same problems that Hannah had. 

Social Awareness Project

Interview

I interviewed my older sister about bullying since she was bullied as a child.

1.Why do you think you were bullied?

 I was really quiet and shy. I was also a new student to the school so they took advantage of me.

2.What did they do to you?

They punched me in the lips and stomach,in class they would throw the chairs at me, and they called me names and said offensive things.

3. Did you tell anyone that you were being bullied? 

No, however our mother found out because she would see the bruises and cuts I had when I left school. 

4.What happened after our mother found out?

She told the teachers to look out for me in class however at recess they would still pick on me when there were no teachers around. Also she made me take tae kwon do.

5.What did you do when it got to far?

My mother made me take tae kwon do classes in order to defend myself and then l transferred schools a year later.

6. How many fights did you get into after you learned how to defend yourself?

I got into 2 fights in school. 

7.Did anyone else get affected because of you being bullied?

There was a girl that talked to me in class and she got bullied for being my friend.

8.What do you think of bullying now?

I think bullying has gotten worse because there are many types of bullying. For example, there is cyber bullying which wasn't a big deal when I was a child because it wasn't introduced yet. Also, I would say to not be ashamed of telling someone and ask for help because it might get worse, there is always help around us.

Response to a film

    The movie I watched is called "Cyberbully" it is about a teenager named Taylor Hillridge who becomes a victim of bullying. When Taylor gets a laptop for her birthday she creates an account for a social media website. When a guy in the social media website  makes a rumor saying that he slept with Taylor everyone starts to call her a "slut" and "whore". Her friends turn their backs at Taylor and she becomes depressed, later on she tries to commit suicide by overdosing on pills and posts a video about it. Her friend Samantha sees the video and an ambulance comes before she commits suicide. Samantha later confesses that she was the guy that made up the rumor about her.

  This movie was hard to watch especially the scene when she tried to commit suicide. This movie is really realistic and it shows how cyber bullying can really affect a person's life. This movie made me stop and think about my actions and how it can make other people feel. I haven't bullied anyone and I don't plan on bullying anyone in my life.     

  Cyber bullying is one of the most common type of bullying I've seen happen. Since technology can be found anywhere, people have the ability to take advantage of it and bully someone online. It's serious because like Taylor, people become depressed or hurt and when it gets worse they eventually decide to take their own life. No one should ever take their own life because of another person's fault/mistakes.

 Reading response on literary work

    In "Am I Blue" by Bruce Caville deals with stereotypes, discrimination and bullying. These are one of the many main issues that the world is facing today.In this book the way the characters are described is stereotypical and there is a lot of discrimination because of a character who is gay.

  In the book Melvin is a gay guys who is preppy and outgoing. He walks in a different way and has a different personality. Everything about Melvin is how a stereotypical gay guy is. Also there is Butch who is big kid and is a homophobic bully. Butch is a stereotypical character because he is big built bully that is always calling people gay.

This book deals with discrimination because gay people are the main ones being targeted in the book. Melvin died by from a group of people bullying him. The issue in this book was gaybashing. Another character named Vince was also bullied for his sexuality. I don't get why being gay is a big problem, you should respect them because they aren't doing any harm to our country. It's 2014 and in a month it's going to be 2015, people should start getting used to this and accept them for who they are.   

nonfiction reading response

    The article " Surviving High School " by Tom Junod from the Atlanta magazine is about the different effects of bullying. The article focuses on two boys named Eric Stone and Curt Hersey. It portrays how bullying effected these two boys in different ways.

    Both Eric and Curt got bullied in middle school because they were overweight and didn't play in any sports. When they went to high school they were determined to get rid of their "geek" and "no-account" reputation in middle school, they wanted to redefine themselves. So by the time they went to high school they lost weight and grew tall and grew their hair long.However, they would also they enrolled in drugs like pot,acid,coke and would drink liquor. However, this caused meant that one would survive high school and the other wouldn't.

  Curt joined the Walton's drama club in school and starred in plays. He competed in the Academic Bowl and produced his own videos. He also had a pretty girlfriend and he drove a red camaro Z28. He didn't drink, use drugs or condone in casual sex. He eventually graduated from Walton high school and enrolled in Berry College. However, Eric was not like that. He smoked pot at age 13 he flunked grade 10 and dropped out of high school. Eric's parents kicked him out of their home so he had to live in the woods or break into churches and sleep on the pews. However, when  he went to a party he encountered an old girlfriend that told him that "he was dying" so the next morning he talked to his mother, they had breakfast and asked for help.he went to a hospital and now works at Mc Donalds. They both had similar beginnings but different endings.

My ELA trip reflection

   For the ELA trip we went to the Museum of the City of New York. This museum was interesting because it didn't focus on one topic. For example, the first thing we did in the museum was look at the pictures. These pictures were interesting because it involved a technique called stitching. Stitching is when a photographer takes a variety of pictures at different sets of time and when the person is done he or she will get all the pictures and turn it into one picture.

 Lastly, on the trip the museum had a room about social activism. The room had different types of social activism like segregation and gay rights. This was my favorite part of the trip because I loved how many people united together to fight for their rights.  



 

13 Reasons Why Reading Response

Denisse Flores                                                                                                                            810

       The book "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher is based on social issues the world is facing right now. There has been some issues regarding if this book should be banned or not. One of the reasons this book may be banned is because of what happens in the book. For example suicide, bullying, depression and sexual content is the theme throughout the book. 

    In the book Hannah Baker the main character makes tapes of reasons why she committed suicide. For example, a boy made up rumor about her which lead to people thinking she was a slut, later other boys started to take advantage of her. She lost her friends and people bullied her by emotionally destroying and hurting her because they believed the rumors about her and she became depressed because of this. Also, when she was in a party she got drunk and at that same night she got raped by a boy.After deciding that she was done with being alive she made tapes of 13 reasons why she committed suicide and in the list are also the people that did her wrong. These are some of the reasons why people might want to ban this book.

  However, I disagree that this book should be banned. I think that this book teaches people not to bully people and it shows how far people can take their actions. For example, some people in the list didn't think that calling Hannah a slut would hurt her, but next thing you know your one of the reasons why she committed suicide. It teaches that everything you do to a person can hurt them.

  In conclusion, I think that this book shouldn't be banned. I know that some people think that the concept of this book is too harsh but in the end people will learn not to do the mistakes that the characters in the book made.               

Character Archetypes- New Moon

Denisse Flores                        New Moon: Character Archetypes                                          810



The Mentor                                                                     Threshold Guardian
The mentor in new moon would be                                 The threshold guardian would be Edward.  
Dr.Carlisle Cullen. He is the mentor                                Edward risks his life and also Bella's life in
because he trains Edward and the                                   this book and also in the first book. They
rest of his family how to control                                       risk their lives in order to be together.
themselves around humans.          


The Shadow                                                                 Star-crossed Lovers 
The shadow would be the Volturi                                  The star crossed lovers would be Jacob Black
and Victoria because they both want                             and Edward Cullen. In this book Edward breaks
Bella dead. The Volturi wants to kill                              up with Bella because Edward believes he and his
Bella because she is human and knows                          family are too dangerous for her after Jasper
to much about vampires. Victoria                                  attacks her. When Edward leaves Jacob is there
wants to kill Bella and Edward because                         to comfort her and he falls in love with Bella.
Edward's family killed Victoria's boyfriend.

Shapeshifter                                                               
Edward and Jacob are the shapeshifters.
Edward makes Bella depressed after
he and his family leave Forks. However
when Jacob comes he makes Bella feel
happy again.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Denisse Flores                                                                                                                          810

                                    

      The book "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer is the second novel in the Twilight series. This book continues the relationship of Edward and Bella. However, when Edward leaves Forks she seeks comfort from a friend named Jacob. Throughout the novel, Edward and Jacob symbolize her emotions because she feels worthless and numb but she also seeks happiness. Edward is the reason Bella starts to change in this book. 

      New Moon is about how Bella deals with her life after Edward leaves Forks. The reason Edward and his family leave Forks is because when celebrating Bella's 18th birthday she gets a paper cut while opening her presents. When Jasper smells her blood he tries to attack her, Bella gets cuts in her arm when she is smashed into a glass object and this makes Edward believe that they are too dangerous for her. he decides to leave with his family. This leads her to be depressed and she begins to have nightmares which is how she changes. 

    When Bella becomes depressed she doesn't talk to any of her friends. Therefore she starts losing all of her friends and she is lonely, Bella also becomes rebellious, she begins to talk to strangers and rides motorcycles. Her father notices the changes in her and he threatens her by saying that he will send her to her mother's home in another state.when she hears this she decides to visit a family friend named Jacob black, he is a big part in this novel because he is the one that makes her feel happy. However, she still feels that Edward is her one true love. Through out the book they face challenges but they reunite and decide to be together.

   

    Even though Edward changes her in a bad way, they both still love each other even if they have to face harsh consequences. Jacob and Edward have their differences because they both love her.but in the end Bella loves Edward even though Jacob brought happiness to her.  

     

The Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Denisse Flores                                                                                                                          810
 
       The book The Hate List, by Jennifer Brown, is a story about a girl named Valerie Leftman. The book deals with the aftermath of a school shooting. The shooting was caused by Valerie's boyfriend, Nick Levil. However, she also has to deal with family problems. Throughout the book Valerie faces many difficulties when she is left to blame for her boyfriend's shooting.

       One of the difficulties that Valerie has to face is going back to school. She has to face everyone at school after her boyfriend opened fire on the morning of May 2, 2008. The shooting killed six students and one teacher but also left many people wounded including Valerie. When Valerie enters the school everyone looks at her in hatred and disgust even though she had nothing to do with the incident. The worst part is that her friends stop talking to her therefore she is alone and hurt because the people that are supposed to be there for you are ignoring her. However, no one thinks about what was the cause of this shooting.

       One of the main reasons this shooting happened was because of bullying. Bullying is a big topic throughout this story. One day Valerie decided to make a hate list in her notebook. The people that were in the hate list were the students that tormented Valerie and Nick for being outcasts. However, the hate list that they created starts off as a joke between the two of them but later Nick starts to take this list seriously. In the day of the shooting Nick specifically wants to kill everyone who is in the hate list. In the book when Nick is about to shoot Jessica Chapbell, a girl who has tormented Valerie for a long time, Valerie suddenly jumps in front of Jessica to save her and gets shot in the leg. When Nick realizes what he has done he then takes his own life not realizing that Valerie was still alive.

        The same day Valerie returns to school Jessica tries to befriend her. The reason Jessica tries to befriend Valerie is because she risked her own life to save a girl that has bullied her entire years in high school. Another difficulty that Valerie has to deal with is family tension. Valerie's parents are in the process of a divorce and feels guilty because the school shooting has a lot to do with her family problems. Also Valerie's brother resents her.This book deals with themes of bullying, family problems and suicide.

       I love this book because this shows how far bullying can go. Valerie is a tough character throughout most of the book because she faces many challenges and situations. I really like how Jessica reacted with Valerie after the shooting. I knew that Jessica felt like a big part of the cause in the shooting, you can tell she regretted bullying Nick and Valerie. I was satisfied in how Jessica maintained this situation and I wonder what will happen to Valerie's new future.