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Mariana Guzman
AP Lang.
Summer Reading Assignment
July 23rd, 2013
The Fault In Our Stars (Tfios)
Introduction
Sympathy. We often use it when someone has a paper cut, or they broke an arm. Many of the characters in this book, don’t want you to feel sympathy for them but honestly, there is no possible way for you to avoid it. John Green wrote “The Fault In Our Stars” in the most realistic way possible, using things that we use everyday: our feelings and emotions. That’s what made it an astonishing a book; it seemed so real. I felt like Hazel was the one telling me the story, not just the author. She was telling me her story and why was it important to her. Many critics and fellow readers may also compare this
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Yes, that is what Hazel Grace thinks of herself at the beginning of the book. “Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Chapter 1, Page 1) Hazel is very aware that she has cancer, but that didn’t stop her at all. She constantly makes humorous jokes about it in a sarcastic way, and doesn’t seem to mind that she indeed has cancer. She is a regular teenager like any other. In the beginning of the story, she didn’t want to go to the Support Group her mom kept telling her about. This Support Group was meant for people to meet and talk about the good and bad things they went through due to cancer. She never found interest in it, until one day she finally made up her mind about going. Her attitude was just completely negative about it, but after meeting Augustus Waters, everything changed. Later on in the story, she begins to understand the whole cancer subject, with a different perspective; the deathly perspective of love. Love changes the way you look at things. Hazel Grace was in love, and someway somehow, love healed the negativity in her heart. Hazel Grace loved Augustus Waters. He was everything to her; “He wasn't perfect or anything. He wasn't your fairytale Prince Charming or whatever. He tried to be like that sometimes, but I liked him best when that stuff fell away.”(Chapter 25,
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
Hazel has a strong identity in the story, she has much self-confidence and is not afraid of letting everyone know that she is the best, “Now some people like to act like things come easy to them, won’t let on that they practice. Not me. I’ll high-prance down 34th street like a rodeo pony to keep my knees strong even if it does get my mother uptight.” p. 1 ll. 29-31. Thus her strong and proud personality, she still loves and protects Raymond and is not afraid of showing this either. At the end of the story Hazel’s view on other people changes, when she sees Raymond running parallel with her at the May Day race in his own unique style. She realizes that everyone is not just who she sees them to be, that there are more to people than you can
The Fault in Our Stars depicts Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer. The book chronicles her relationship with Augustus Waters, who has also been diagnosed with cancer. Throughout the novel, Hazel constantly struggles with her identity in relation to her disease. She is conflicted whether to accept the prescribed image society has of her or to embrace her true inner self. Through a period of self-realization, she eventually comes to terms with and redefines her identity. Although society may define an individual’s self-image, The Fault in Our Stars demonstrates that identity is defined by the inner self, rather than external forces; in turn, that self-perception deeply impacts one’s perspective on life.
Third, Hazel is a person to admire since she’s humorous. Specifically, Hazel talks about her diagnosis with Stage four thyroid cancer when she was thirteen. “(I didn’t tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You’re a woman. Now die)” (Green 24). This shows Hazel is a person to admire since she is humorous because she jokes about the irony of her becoming a woman to soon be basically diagnosed with character and most likely dying instead of being depressed or self-pitying. Lastly, Hazel is a person to admire since she is smart. In particular, when first conversing with Augustus in the car, she mentions that due to her condition, she had to drop out of from high school, and she can’t go back since she already has taken her GED so now she taking classes from the local community college. This shows that Hazel is a person to admire since she is smart because although, she has dropped out of school, she was still able to take the quite tough test, GED, in order to do so, and seems to be fine taking college level classes at her age of sixteen. Therefore, Hazel is funny and smart, making her a person to admire. In conclusion, the main character in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Hazel Grace Lancaster, is an admirable
Overcoming a terminal disease is not easy, and I have experienced that with my mom, first hand. Usually when this happens and the person dies, you go through five stages of grief. When Augustus Waters dies in the novel, Hazel experiences this. The first stage is denial and isolation. Denial by its very definition is asserting that a statement or allegation is not true. It can be seen that the
To begin with, this story takes place mainly in Indianapolis in the 21st century. The story also takes place in hospitals, support groups in churches, as well as each other’s homes. From this, I can understand when Hazel describes
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.”
First off Hazel is this sweet, vibrant girl who just wants to live a life cancer free. But she learns things along the way that make her think “wow I actually kind of like my life the way it is.” Hazels has this swagger about her that is just natural she can state quotes from the top of her head, here’s one “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” I love the fact that Hazel thought about what she was getting into with Gus because she didn’t want to hurt him and worse than he
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
Firstly, within the novel, it is clear that Hazel is a caring person and is fully aware of what her body’s condition does to her
Hazel realizes that having cancer encourages people to treat her differently. Because of this, she attempts to avoid interaction and communication with others so they do not get hurt when her life ends. In order to cut down her emotional stress, she tries understand that the world does not revolve around her and her pain will eventually go away.Hazel’s main focus was just how pain might eat you up mentally, but would not do anything in your life but make it worse. Pain in the end
Throughout the book, Hazel and Gus show that sometimes just being there for each other could mean the world to them, even when there are no words needing to be said. For example, Gus and Hazel’s conversation on the phone after their first date. In the text it states
Hazel flawlessly describes her pain at multiple points in the book. One definition is, “Even then, it hurt. The pain was always there, pulling me inside of myself, demanding to be felt” (Green 142). Pain is an underlying condition that damages one from the inside out and hides itself until it’s expressed. Pain can represent itself physically, mentally, or psychologically. In this way, it destroys a person; it doesn’t matter how or where the pain started. All humans experience pain and suffering, creating the concept that pain is humanly impossible to avoid. At some point, people must overcome pain to survive which is what Hazel is trying to do with her cancer. Overcoming suffering is a difficult process, especially when it’s always there, however one must cope with pain to live.
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
The book revolves around 16 year old Hazel Grace Lancaster, and 17 year old Augustus Waters. Hazel doesn’t lead an ordinary teenage life, she suffers of lung cancer. After a long time of struggling with her illness, her parents decide that