An Analytical Essay: The Fault In Our Stars

Despite the adversity they face, the characters in The Fault in Our Stars identity lies within their inner selves, and is not defined by societal expectations. Hazel expresses her frustration with the lesser standard that is expected of cancer patients, saying “According to Maslow, I was…unable to feel secure in my health and therefore unable to reach for love and respect and art…which is utter horseshit: The urge to make art or contemplate philosophy does not go away when you are sick” (Green 213). According to society, cancer patients, and those who are not “secure in their health” are restricted from experiencing life at its fullest. The outside world sees Hazel in singular terms, as “a cancer kid”, unable to reach for greatness;

She'd convince her parents not to do anything. She even didn't want to go to the doctors. But that changed. Her mom got her into a social group full of kids who have/had cancer in the past. Hazel wanted no part of it.

Hazel Grace Lancaster has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Thyroid Cancer since she was a preteen and this is one of the conflicts of this novel. This is both an external and internal conflict because she has to deal with carrying around an oxygen cart and being judged for having to keep nasal plugs in her nose in order to breathe. It’s an internal conflict as well because she is constantly thinking about what people are saying/thinking about her and thinks about death pretty much 24/7. That is however before Augustus Waters shows up.

The central idea of The Fault In Our Stars is about facing obstacles in life and finding ways to overcome them. Hazel and Augustus both have cancer, but they don’t let it stop them from making the best out of their life. They keep moving forward no matter what life throws at them, and they find ways to cope with despair. For example in chapter eight Hazel is upset, so she call Augustus, and tells him that she is upset because “I wants to go to Amsterdam, but I can’t……, and because there is an old abandoned swing set in my yard that my father built for me”. Augustus notifies her that the swing set is 90 percent of the problem. They make a funny add to sell the swing set “Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home”. Throughout the entire story you will find that these friends stay close together in both

Augustus realizes that a lot of people let their cancer identify them, which it seems at first like Hazel does. Through the novel Augustus mentions multiple times how he wants his life to mean something other than cancer. “I fear that I won’t be able to give anything in exchange for my life. If you don’t live a life in service of a greater good, you’ve gotta

First, the external problems in both stories failed to prevent the couples love for eachother. In The Fault In Our Stars, Augustus says, “I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you” (Green 153). Augustus acknowledges that death is inevitable, however that will not stop his love for Hazel. To add on, the death of these two teens was expected to come sooner rather than later from their obstacle of cancer. That puts further emphasis on the meaning of the quote. Augustus,

A four-time New York Times bestselling author once said, “Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day.” Even though we all want to make a mark on the world, sometimes we fall into the trap of the routine of a typical day and basically “take a day off.” While reading this amazing novel you will realize you need to make the most of everyday and sprinkle positivity on the world. The Fault in Our Stars is a must-read novel that teaches a valuable life lesson that holds true to all of humanity: a person’s legacy is created by others’ memories.

In the book The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, there is a main character named Hazel, who has a type of lung cancer. This cancer has always caused her a lot of pain from the start, but after she lost someone she loved, Hazel felt the most pain she has ever felt before. In this book, there was a common theme throughout the story: “Sometimes, in the real world, there are no happy endings.”

In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, there are many symbols that help portray important ideas and concepts of the book. However, two of the more prominent ones are a grenade and cigarettes. Hazel sees herself as a grenade while Augustus puts unlit cigarettes in his mouth. Both of these things symbolize their mental battles from the cancer. The grenade is symbolizing Hazel as a whole but the cigarettes are symbolizing just Augustus’s cancer. This reveals how differently they’re affected by their conditions. Hazel is determined to push everyone away for fear of hurting them after she dies. Augustus is optimistic that he’ll survive because of his good chances but still struggles mentally with his cancer. Overall, Hazel uses a grenade as a

At the very early stage when Hazel was detected with thyroid cancer, she was in great depression and she preferred an isolated life. She tells, “I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the causalities.” She is apprehensive of her disease and a bit pessimist in her tone. She doesn’t want even her parents be emotionally close to her because she feels that her death would cause havoc in the lives of her

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: Slowly and all at once” (125). The Fault in our Stars” by John Green, is a heart-wrenching novel showing just how real young love can be. The story is more than just romantic, it is raw, real and bold. The Fault in our stars shows a relatable story about how family can bring both conflict and comfort. The book shows how young people with cancer find there way not only threw the social issues which arise with cancer, but also life itself.

Only a fool would believe that cancer patients have it easy in life. That same fool would also believe that adolescence is not challenging. Contrarily, both are difficult circumstances and when combined it would be an unfortunate situation. John Green’s novel “The Fault in Our Stars paints the life of Hazel Grace Lancaster, Augustus Waters and many other teenage cancer patients tackling big themes of self- awareness. The movie adaptation of “The Fault in Our Stars” is an inaccurate representation of the novel because it does not portray the major themes of self-awareness shown through the characters. The film fails to accurately portray the themes of isolation, identity and morality.

During the first handful of chapters in the novel, Hazel obsesses over the impact that her death will have on others. She fears allowing anyone to become close to her because she is determined to minimize the amount of pain that she is responsible for. This mindset leads her to refer to herself as a grenade. Hazel refers to herself as a grenade while speaking with her mother one night saying, “I'm a grenade and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay” (Green 99)? Hazel’s fear of hurting others when she dies appears in most regards to her mother. That is one of the reasons why Hazel has an obsession with An Imperial Affliction. Hazel needs the assurance that the characters are okay when the protagonist dies because it will give her a glimpse of what her mother will feel after her own

One of the ways that Hazel’s faith follows him is through his subconscious. It is the voice in the back of his mind telling him that what he is doing in wrong. However, Hazel tries to suppress that voice and ends up hurting himself. While Hazel is stranded in Taulkinham he is constantly being mistaken for a preacher. His denial of any religious connection is returned with disbelief by his cab driver, and dismissal by Leora Watts. Hazel’s outrage at these misconceptions imply that his spiritual connection is visible to those around him, but he refuses to acknowledge himself. During the novel Hazel is extremely keen on opposing the idea that everyone is born with sin, and can only be redeemed by Jesus. However, subconsciously Hazel still believes in his faith, or the idea of sin. He is deeply affected by a sense of inner guilt, and feels the need to do penance through self-harm when he has done something wrong. Like when he puts the rocks in his shoes after sleeping with the Mrs. Watts. He did not find her

Being alive, being conscious - breathing, seeing, touching, believing. As we lumber through our days, it is quite unnoticeable how we fail to see or understand that our lives are just a mere fleeting moment in time, overlooking the sheer fragility and minisculity of human life. As in ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green, the author has reiterated our irrelevance in the world, and yet we perceive life as a string of moments and experiences that affect and relate to us, with the blindness of it also affecting others. That is human selfishness – the trap from of which we believe in that things only happen to us for a reason. So, how has our ‘experiences’ in life affect us? What role does the dynamics of faith and doubt in life play; the doubts of our future and faiths in hope? Is it inevitable? Through the analysis of one of the most pivotal characters in the novel: Peter Van Houten, understanding how “Circumstance has made him so cruel,” (197) the conveyance of the character’s beliefs, and influence, we will understand how has the loss of his child – or ‘life experiences’ affected him, much like how our experiences affect us.