The Fault in Our Stars
John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, a story mixed with love, life and death, topped
the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. The book
was inspired by Esther Earl, a heroine who died at the age of 16 from thyroid cancer. One
of the main characters, Hazel Grace was a courageous character as Esther Earl, who
fought cancer with willpower .The theme of this novel focuses on the faithful love between
Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters as well as the inevitable end of these cancer
teenagers’ life. In the face of this life task- cancer, how do they live, love and get through?
The good quotation in the book, “In the darkest days, the Lord puts the best people
into your life.” Hazel‘s life is full of getting medication, and she is fed up of everything
without any choice. But when Augustus suddenly emerges in her life, she starts seeing
the possibility of a life more exciting than her cancer-ridden one. Hazel is a perseverant
teenage girl who falls in love with a gorgeous boy named Augustus in the cancer support
group. The plot dramatically goes down when they go to Amsterdam to meet Hazel’s
ideal author Peter Van Houten. First of all, they do not go well with him since his
unpleasant attitude enrages them. Secondly, they are finally involved in a romantic
relationship. And thirdly, Augustus breaks the news to Hazel that his cancer has returned
aggressively. In a horrible twist of fate, Hazel lives while Augustus dies. And the book
ends with Augustus’ eulogy for Hazel, which states that he hopes that she is happy with
the choices she made.
The whole story is all told from cancer patient-Hazel’s first person perspective, and
the words and phrases written by John Green demonstrate with a clear and readable way.
Author’s writing style inclines to young adult literature in which fully illustrates the life
experience of young people. As reading the novel, I immediately discovered that the
author states the story from Hazel’s sight, which really brings readers a sense of
becoming her as if we can experience all her feelings, perspective and contradiction in
her life. Furthermore, I also found that there are some imaginary parts in the book that is
a novel An Imperial Affliction and its author, Houten .This fiction has lot to do with Hazel’s
desire to figure out how life works, which is the reason why it becomes an obsession for
her. In brief, this remarkable novel is filled with the emotion slowly brewing to the highest
point along with story line and the thought-provoking issue about live and death.
There are people like Augustus who attempts to make a mark on the world before his
death. Together with, there are people like Hazel who is so intent on keeping everyone
she loved from feeling the pain of losing her. Through the characters’ attitude toward life,
John Green brings me to find out how tough it is to be a cancer kid and how courageous
these teenagers are in front of their limited life and beloved relatives. Even with their
obvious limitations, the characters in this book demand control of their lives and try to
make the most of the time they have—even if it turns out to be an unavoidable end of
their life. I highly recommend this book as it throws light on the complexity of the life.