Vocabulary In An Imperial Affliction

Hazel Grace Lancaster is a 16 year old girl living in Indianapolis, Indiana, with stage IV thyroid cancer with metastasis that has formed in her lungs. As a result of her mom’s insistence, Hazel goes to a Cancer Support Group in her local church. In one of the meetings, she encounters Augustus (Gus) Waters, a 17 year old boy who is in cancer remission of osteosarcoma. He is at Support Group for his friend Isaac, who has eye cancer. Hazel and Gus’s friendship instantly kicks off with Gus inviting Hazel over to his house to watch a movie. She gives Gus her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, written by Peter Van Houten and together, Hazel and Gus chat endlessly about the book’s abrupt ending. Soon enough, Gus manages to get in touch with Lidewij
His extensive use of vocabulary and figurative language made the novel all the more captivating and alluring. “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once (125).” A simple feeling like love is expressed in such an intricate manner metaphorically. This brings beauty to the novel. “’You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful’” A paradox is used to convey the happiness Hazel gets from her association with Gus instead of directly saying so. (260).The plot of The Fault in Our Stars is very unique and deep, however the depth to which even minuscule details were put together makes the novel much more meaningful and
The metaphors in this book bring out the meaning of the book to a whole new level. One example of this is when Hazel views Caroline Mathers’s, Gus’s deceased girlfriend’s Facebook page. This leads her to ponder about her own imminent fate, and gets really sullen and depressed. She vents out her anger by calling herself a grenade. “’I’m like. Like. I’m like a grenade, Mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualities, okay?’” (99). Hazel is diagnosed with Stage IV Thyroid Cancer, and she knows that it won’t take a minute for her health to deteriorate, so she wants her parents to have another life after she passes away. This is also why she initially distances herself from Gus. In the letter Gus writes to Peter Van Houten, he claims his thoughts as stars that cannot be fathomed into constellations. “’My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations’’’ (311). While Gus is referring to his thoughts as illustrious and bright, he also asserts that however the bright things they are, they are not systematic or orderly. I found this a very creative way of describing a teenager’s mind, as an abyss of thoughts that are jumbled, but each unique in their own way. While Hazel is lost in thoughts and is slowly coming to terms with the reality of Gus’s death, she reflects on what true pain is. “But that wasn’t quite right. I called it a nine because I was saving my