Thirteen Reasons Why

Content Warning: The following analysis contains discussions of suicide, and sexual violence.

The color blue appears frequently in the novel and has ironic significance. Blue traditionally symbolizes freedom, trust, imagination, confidence, and stability. Hannah starts out her freshman year with most of these positive attributes. She is free from rumors and her reputation from her old town; she trusts in people she meets; and she has a romantic, creative nature. Various blue objects in the novel reflect these attributes. Clay associates Hannah with her blue bicycle, which she rode to school daily. Hannah buys her candy bars at the Blue Spot Liquor store. The city bus is silver with blue stripes. The bathroom key at Rosie’s is a blue dog. Each of these blue objects comes to represent Hannah’s loss of these positive attributes. Hannah loses her feeling of freedom as locations around town develop painful memories. She is groped in the Blue Spot and Rosie’s. She loses her trust in others, her mental stability, and the imaginative, therapeutic outlet of her poetry.

As the novel progresses, the color blue takes on some of its heavier symbolic meanings, including seriousness, truth, and sadness. The map Hannah gives to the people on her list is numbered in blue writing.