Young-adult Fiction and Pop Culture Philosophers

What’s that old saying? Laughter is the best medicine? John Green, of all people, certainly understands that. The Fault in Our Stars is a rather tragic tale of two young lovers, both of whom are suffering from fatal and debilitating illnesses. They meet each other at a Support Group –where neither wants to be- and there begins the wild, mad ride that is: “Hazel and Augustus.” As Green explains in his Author’s Note, and again in the Afterward, this is a book of fiction – a book of realistic circumstances and realistic characters, but wholly imagined. Even the drugs and treatments mentioned are created by the author; all this to say – this is not a story about cancer or the treatment of cancer: it is a story about life and living. This story is about being a parent and a friend. It is about being sick and about being healthy. It is about the many different ways that many different people deal with their own grief – some coming out stronger and more focused than they could have imagined, while others sink deep into a dark and dangerous depression that is nearly impossible to escape. This book is about freedom – the chance we all have to live life the way we want to live it, no matter how short and painful that life may be. Circumstances happen, but they do not define us; what defines us is how we meet those circumstances – and that is what we will be remembered by.
One of Green’s strengths is creating believable characters – people we could recognize in our own real worlds. They are loveable or despicable, but we adore them all for the very fact that they are “right” – they fit the world he has created and they serve a purpose in the grand scheme of things. The Fault in Our Stars is no exception to this Green-rule. From our main character, Hazel, who is sick but refuses to let that define her, to her parents – who are strong and weak, open and secretive; from Augustus, who is so consciously self-absorbed that he – and we- are actually able to enjoy