Drifting Through Tumortown Topic of Cancer by Christopher Hitchens is a powerful tale of a person diagnosed with cancer. Hitchens likens having cancer to a trip through a strange town with a strange dialogue. He says this best by saying “I see it as a very gentle and firm deportation, taking me from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of the malady.” (Hitchens) I am fortunate not to have a personal experience to measure the one of Mr. Hitchens but I do have several second hand experiences from the death of my Great-Grandmother, My Grandmother and my best friend Alice. I truly believe cancer is one of the lonely roads anyone must ever travel but like the Author adrift in Tumortown those close to the people involved ultimate have a piece of themselves live or die with them.
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,
The Fault in our Stars analysis paragraph Cancer affects Hazel in every little aspect of her entire life. Everything that happened, not only in this book, but also in her past has been tainted by cancer. Hazel’s greatest loves and fears come from her cancer. One of Hazel’s most explicitly shown fears, is the fear of hurting the world around her: “I’m a grenade, and at some point i’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties.” (99). Here Hazel blatantly states how scared she is of hurting others through this metaphor for death. When a grenade goes off it does two things, it destroys itself, and hurts others. Hazel is afraid of both parts of the grenade. Her fear stretches far beyond her own pain and suffering, it extends
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
Hazel grace is a dynamic character because she changes throughout the story. In the beginning, Hazel doesn’t want to get close to Augustus, because she was afraid he is going to be shattered when she dies. But towards the ending, hazel finds out it doesn’t matter if you die in the middle of a relationship, it’s about the moments you spend together. A quote in the book, on page 214, “Only now that I loved a grenade did I understand the foolishness of trying to save others from my own impending fragmentation: I couldn’t unlove Augustus Waters. And I didn’t want to.”
At first, Hazel and Gus were merely acquaintances. In the first chapter, where they meet, Hazel is only mildly interested in Augustus’ “metaphoric resonances”. When he puts a cigarette into his mouth, Hazel is thoroughly disgusted and she feels that “there is always a harmatia”, which shows that she is repulsed by his behaviour upon their first meeting. As the plot develops, they become much closer friends, as seen from Augustus regularly inviting her to his house and finding common interests in her book, talking about the book and often quoting from the book in their conversations, for instance: ‘Augustus nodded at
For this project, I decided to read “The Fault in Our Stars,” a novel written by John Green. This book is about 16 year old Hazel Grace, who is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She attends weekly Cancer Support Group, where she meets Augustus Waters, a “very intelligent and hot” boy
There is a sense of rebellion throughout the story that reminds the reader of what it’s like to be a child. As a child I can remember talking back, and when something didn’t go my way I would pout and “give (them) some lip.” (Bambara 450) Having this sense of rebellion makes it feel like you can do whatever you want with no price to pay. However, this again shows the rebellious nature of Hazel helping the reader realize she is a child. Even when Hazel talks to the manager of the movie theater she is courageous enough to “…kick the door open…and sit down...” (Bambara 451)and demand the manager her money back. She even puts up an argument to get out of punishment with her parents when she knows she has done something wrong. The connectivity between these two ideas help
Dealing with growing up can be hard enough as it is, but having to cope with facing death and the pain it creates, makes life that much harder. The novel “The Fault in Our Stars” written by John Green is about various teenagers that have cancer and learn to seek relief from their pain that is caused by a terminal illness. The novel doesn’t proclaim outright that one particular method of dealing with pain is the correct way. However, it clearly indicates that there are some methods that are healthier than others. Some of these methods are; being honest and direct through reading novels, being fearful and through the help of support groups.
43 children per day or 15,780 children per year are expected to be diagnosed with cancer (Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation). Cancer is an everyday struggle that families go through. The Fault in Our Stars is a novel written by John Green. Its purpose is to portray a teenagers
Cancer has one of the biggest effects on the patients mental health but also the patients loved ones and friends. It is one of the hardest things to get a grip on when the doctor tells someone that they have cancer and a fifty-fifty chance of making it. "The disease can bring many changes-in what people do and how they look, in how they feel and what they value" (Dakota 4). It makes people look at the world and their lives in a different way, valuing now what they took for granted and seeing the bigger picture in every scenario. It is something that no one can actually brace, even after the doctor tells them. Through it all though, the person must remain strong and optimistic because the cancer can affect the person's moods and in return affect the outcome of the person and the chances of their making it
Character Analysis (Select ONE important character to ANALYZE.) Hazel Grace Lancaster is a sixteen year old girl who is diagnosed with stage 4 Thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs, but has managed to live with
Augustus makes an impact on Hazel’s life. Augustus and Hazel meet at Support Group and grow a close bond. Augustus and Hazel fall deeply in love throughout the story. When Augustus’ cancer sprung up again, he asked Hazel to write him an eulogy. In Hazel’s eulogy she says, “My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won’t be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears”(Green 259). This shows that when Augustus dies he will leave a (mental) scar on Hazel, because Hazel will deeply miss Augustus when he dies. Augustus transformed Hazel
Interestingly, Augustus got in contact with a charity that gives cancer kids a wish. Augustus decided to use his for the two of them to go on a trip to Amsterdam to meet Peter and Lidewij. In the midst of this, Hazel painfully experiences her lungs filling up with fluid causing her to be rushed to the hospital. She lives, however her personal doctors say she isn’t healthy enough to go to Amsterdam. During one of her cancer meetings, one of her doctors, Dr. Maria, says that Hazel should live her life, convincing
In recent years, cancer prevalence has been increasing globally. It is now one of the top 10 causes of death among the middle and high income countries worldwide (World Health Organisation, 2008). In Singapore, cancer has surpassed cardiovascular disease and become the top killer over the last 3 years (Ministry of Health, 2007). Breast cancer tops the chart among Singaporean women (Health Promotion Board, 2007). Thousands of women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually and it causes approximately 270 deaths each year (Jara-Lazaro, et al., 2010). The lifetime risk that a woman in Singapore getting breast cancer is now 1 in every 17 which has risen compared to past two decades (National Cancer Centre Singapore, 2006). Hence, breast