12
Sep
2018

Civic Artifact Speech Outline

categories: RCL

Introduction

  • Show a clip from the episode
  • Thirteen Reasons Why is a TV show that follows the story of main character Hannah Baker’s suicide. Hannah Baker left behind 13 tapes, each addressed to a person that contributed to her decision to end her life. I am analyzing the final episode of season 1. In this episode, the show recounts Hannah’s final day.
  • This show is civic because it aims at preventing suicide. It wants to inspire its viewers to treat others with kindness and stop bullying. It focuses on teenagers, who are its main audience.
  • Commonplaces and Kairos
    • Commonplaces
      • In every school there is bullying
      • Social media can be used for bullying
    • Kairos
      • Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in America
      • The suicide rate rises every year

Thesis

  • Through stark juxtaposition between Clay and Hannah’s interactions with the school counselor and dramatic hyperbole, the creators of 13 Reasons Why attempted to portray that students should be kind to one another. However, these strategies failed to effectively show students the need to end bullying, and the show actually glorified suicide and its use as revenge.

Body paragraphs

  • Juxtaposition
    • Scenes with Clay and Hannah
    • Lighting differences and its effects
    • Message it wanted to portray: Clay looked back at his decisions with regret, however the audience can use this lesson to treat others and avoid regrettable decisions
    • Message it did portray: The suicide was used as revenge against those who wronged her, particularly the counselor who failed to report that she was struggling
  • Hyperbole
    • Hannah’s suicide scene
    • Other students talking about suicide
    • Message it wanted to portray: This is the result of bullying, and it could have been prevented
    • Message it did portray: Suicide should be glorified

Conclusion

  • The show’s message was misinterpreted
  • It reveals information about teenage culture, particularly suicide’s effects on culture

3 Comments on Civic Artifact Speech Outline

  1. Kate
    September 13, 2018 at 4:59 pm (6 years ago)

    I love the direction you are taking with analyzing this. I personally agree, the show was a total flop for me, and I found its production offensive and reckless. I want to believe it had the right intentions in mind, but failed to reach their desired goal of raising awareness. Your outline is amazing, but I think it would be a good idea to emphasize the extent of public outrage from teenagers, since that is its main audience. Good job!!!

  2. Sam Muirhead
    September 13, 2018 at 5:06 pm (6 years ago)

    Your outline is very clear with what you are planning on hitting and focusing on, its very easy to follow and it looks like its laid out in a way that makes sense. I think that this is such an important topic to be able to talk about, one becuase people get weird when talking about suicide when its such a large issue in society today. I agree that the show didnt do well with the message it was trying to send which is so sad. I read the book in 7th or 8th grade and it has such a different feeling than the show does its one of my favorite books and least favorite tv series. I think it would be a good idea to talk about the public controversy surrounding the show especially that last episode that you are talking about and the message it is sending teens. Im not sure that you really need to take anything out of it,depending on what clip you show from the show I would maybe just warn people before hand if it is graphic.

  3. Tiara
    September 13, 2018 at 5:16 pm (6 years ago)

    First I would like to say that your outline is amazing, I am a very unorganized person and like to go with the flow as a write a draft so creating an outline was difficult and unsuccessful for me. Your outline is clear. I also agree that the show didn’t reach the goals it set out. I believe season two did a little better handling topics like sexual assault and rape but the suicide prevention part was still lacking.