the Fault in our stars

The fault in our stars
The fault in our stars is a young adult literature written by John Green. The main characters on this novel is sixteen year old Hazel Grace and a seventeen year old boy named Augustus Waters who fall in love yet are quite aware of the fact that cancer is a part of both their lives. They still go on with their everyday teenage life which includes playing video games, flirting, falling in love, helping friends out with rough patches in their lives. I will be writing about the innocence within the book and how the characters are so young but have been exposed to things that other people their age have not thought about or considered, for example; death, their future, how their family has been affected by the decease that they have to live with.

Hazel grace is only sixteen and has cancer. This means that she is exposed to emotions that other people in their entire lives wouldn’t experience. Hazel being so young means that she is still quite innocent. An example from in the book is that shows this is when she looks at the swing set and remembers the day her dad bought the swing set home and sets it up in the back yard but was never quite well enough to play on it properly and that is why she wants to get rid of it. Another example of what shows her innocence and her being young is when Augustus dies and she was sitting on the couch with her parents and cuddling them, it shows that she is old enough to fall in love but is not quite prepared to deal with it on her own and it is also shown when Augustus is sitting with Hazel and really wishes that they didn’t get rid of the swing set because even though he didn’t have any personal experiences with it he wanted it because of what it symbolizes, children, innocent, fun, laughter, playing and those are the things that we misses in life.

Mortality is a big part of Hazel’s life, constantly running through her mind and following her everywhere. It shows this on the first page, second paragraph when she says “when you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression as a side effect of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really)”. This shows how much thought she has put into the depression and Decease that she lives with. It is also shown when Augustus says “they don’t kill you unless you light them. And I have never lit one. It’s a metaphor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing”, even though he dies of cancer which is the same thing that the cigarette causes. It is again shown when they do the eulogy because Augustus dying is a real factor that needed to be taken into consideration. For Hazel, Augustus and Isaac mortality was going to be a part of their life.
Even though cancer is becoming a more common and well known decease, it still doesn’t feel right to mix love and Death together. In the fault in our stars that is exactly what happened. An example of this is when Augustus tells Hazel that he loves her on the flight to Amsterdam, he is well aware of the fact that she has Terminal cancer and his cancer has come back and yet it doesn’t scare him away from expressing his over for her, even though the outcome is not going to be good. Another example is when Augustus Said “You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.” Hazel was trying to keep her distance from Augustus because she did not want to be hurt if anything was to happen but she ended up letting her emotions take control and let herself fall in love with him.
The Fault in our stars is a very touching book that plays on many of the readers emotions. The book mixes life, death, fun and heart break. Mortality was a big part of both their live but didn’t stop them from falling in love and sharing experiences so special in the little time that they had. One quote from the book that sums a lot of the book up is “some infinities are bigger than other infinities” meaning; even though their time together was short it was the little things that that made their experiences so special.