The Glorification and Romanticization

To be honest, everything from Hannah recording those 13 tapes and leaving them behind for her alleged reasons for suicide to hear to her very graphic suicide screamed glorification of one’s mental distress. In the book by Jay Asher, Hannah overdoses on sleeping pills which is way less dramatic but the producers chose to replace it with slitting of the wrists and bleeding to death in a bathtub just to garner some shock value. It almost seems like the suicide and the tapes all together gave Hannah some kind of control or power. It’s only after she commits suicide and leaves those tapes behind that everyone gets her point and finally respects her, she finally becomes relevant, which gives out a an extremely wrong message to the viewers if you ask me. It’s like proving that making sure the people who hurt feel extreme guilt and shame is worth taking your own life. On the other hand, making it seem like the suicide could be prevented if only Clay Jensen had admitted his love for her when she was alive with complete romanticisation of the act of suicide. By the time Clay listens to his tape, he’s forced to believe that he’s one of the reason Hannah died, that she dies because he couldn’t love her. The truth is that love can’t save lives. Nothing could’ve prevented her from taking her life but herself, and her will to work toward leading a positive life.   What Hannah Didn’t Do We know what Hannah did, she ended her life because she was hurt in unimaginable ways but we can’t ignore the one simple thing she didn’t do; try. When her friendship with Jessica and Alex fell apart, she didn’t try to talk to them or put their friendship together. When she found out that Tyler has been stalking her and secretly taking her pictures, she didn’t even try to report him or take any action against him. When she realized she loved Clay, she didn’t try to tell him. When Bryce raped Jessica, she didn’t try to stop him or confront Jessica about it while she was alive. When Bryce raped her, she froze, while that’s something one might end up doing because of severe trauma but that’s what she would’ve learnt from the time Jessica got raped, she should’ve tried to fight her way out of it. In actuality, there’s never anyone to blame for suicide. Hannah Baker didn’t die because of the 13 people she put on the tapes, she died because she couldn’t try to save herself.