Week 10 of Thoughts

This week I had to think about my final project. I was not in class so I did not get to do the free write then. One thing I have been doing a lot in this class is talk about the emotional portion of letter writing. How letter writing helps people express their emotions in a healthy way. How writing a letter and letting yourself get lost in the experience of your thoughts and feelings coming out. I thought a lot about one of my favorite books 13 Reasons Why. It may be a little deep for a class presentation, but I feel that comes with the topic. I am sure some of my classmates will have seen the show they created about the book, so people will at least an idea of what is going on in the story. I enjoy the book more personally, because it does dramatize the entire experience of Clay’s. He simply listens to all of the tapes in one night as he adventures around his town thinking about the girl who is speaking to. I feel it shows how deep these letters hit for him to be hearing. How it must have felt to have to write and talk about them for Hannah. I want to talk about specific parts of the book where Clay loses himself in the story that Hannah is telling. How the letters she wrote to all of these kids had sucked him into her world, and made him understand how she really truly felt. With that being said, the show does have some important details to it as well. Even thought it does not follow the original story, it still shows the mental toll it took on some of the kids in the tapes. How hearing the other side of their actions, how it could make someone feel, what it could make someone do. It was an entirely different experience to see them separately. I think my presentation could benefit from refreshing myself on both the book and the show in order to get both of those stories. I am not sure how I will separate them especially for my presentation, and which one I could take as more important evidence. I think exploring into a deeper section of how letter writing can affect mental health will be interesting.