The Fault in Our Stars: Thieu
For the last semester of the Independent Reading project, I am reading the book “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green. John Green is an American “young adult fiction” author. The book also reached number one on the New York Times bestsellers list. Time magazine called it “damn near genius.” It has many excellent reviews and people seem to really enjoy it.
The main character Hazel Grace is battling stage 4 thyroid cancer and she attends a support group for kids living with cancer. There she meets a mysterious, tall, and deep, male she is attracted to name Augustus Waters or Gus for short. Their relationship begins getting closer when they start spending more time together. There is a person vs. self conflict. She doesn’t want to let anybody in because she starts to think that she’s a burden. For example, in the story she says she’s a grenade; one day she’ll explode. She’s saying is that she doesn’t want to be close to anybody because she doesn’t want anybody to mourn over her if she dies. This feeling affects her relationship with Gus because he seems to have feelings for her. My favorite characters in this story are Gus and Isaac. Gus is an gentleman who respects Hazel. He’s also my favorite because he’s very deeps and sentimental. For instance, symbolically he puts a cigarette in his mouth but never lights it because his quote is, “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.” That quote speaks to me because he’s not letting what kills him any fear. I think that, that was such a strong quote to draw from the story. Isaac is also one of my favorites because him and I are alike. He’s gone through a tough heartbreak when we needed them the most. It’s really hard struggling with cancer and having to be blind, while also losing your true love. Who ever reads this book should take away the real emotion behind every character. Hazel is a misunderstood teenage girl who’s having sudden feelings for a guy and she feels like she’s a burden. Augustus just wants to live in the moment and not letting his cancer stop him from doing anything. Isaac is angry and feeling abandoned because his “true love” left him because he became blind. The parents of Hazel are frightened everyday because there’s a chance they’re going to lose a daughter. There are many important themes in this story like, never let anything scare you, or if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.
Aside from connecting with Isaac, I can also compare myself to Hazel Grace. The way she feels like nobody appreciates her and she feels lonely all the time is the exact way I feel most of the time. She usually never goes out of her house and neither do I. Maybe it’s because we don’t want people staring at us and judging us. Everywhere she goes she gets judged or looked at because of her oxygen tank. Everywhere I go I get judged and stared at because I have an abnormal body. It’s not something we asked for, nor can fix.
In my opinion, I’m in LOVE with this book. Have you ever had the feeling that it’s going to be an amazing book, while only reading the first chapter? That’s how I felt when choosing this story. It grasped my attention quickly and I’ve been very fawned of it ever since I’ve been reading on page one. The strengths of the book has to be the characters and the relationships between each other. It’s so realistic and interesting to read to the point I just want to place myself into the story. Another strength of the book is that it’s not overwhelming with so many things or else I would be really confused. There weren’t really any weaknesses about the book. It has a great expansion of words not yet recognized in my vocabulary, so it was difficult for me to understand what the author wrote to Hazel and Augustus. If I could change something about the book it would probably be the events that happened to Isaac. But if it weren’t for them, the reader wouldn’t feel the emotions of sorrow and sympathy towards him. The events happened to him causes excitement and visual aspects of the book.
You can understand what’s happening in this book fairly easy. I would target this book more toward teenagers though because we can relate to the relationships, heartache, and situations these characters are going through. But adult are welcome to read this book as well. This was on the New York Times Bestseller List for a reason.
Creative Portion
The main character Hazel Grace is battling stage 4 thyroid cancer and she attends a support group for kids living with cancer. There she meets a mysterious, tall, and deep, male she is attracted to name Augustus Waters or Gus for short. Their relationship begins getting closer when they start spending more time together. There is a person vs. self conflict. She doesn’t want to let anybody in because she starts to think that she’s a burden. For example, in the story she says she’s a grenade; one day she’ll explode. She’s saying is that she doesn’t want to be close to anybody because she doesn’t want anybody to mourn over her if she dies. This feeling affects her relationship with Gus because he seems to have feelings for her. My favorite characters in this story are Gus and Isaac. Gus is an gentleman who respects Hazel. He’s also my favorite because he’s very deeps and sentimental. For instance, symbolically he puts a cigarette in his mouth but never lights it because his quote is, “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.” That quote speaks to me because he’s not letting what kills him any fear. I think that, that was such a strong quote to draw from the story. Isaac is also one of my favorites because him and I are alike. He’s gone through a tough heartbreak when we needed them the most. It’s really hard struggling with cancer and having to be blind, while also losing your true love. Who ever reads this book should take away the real emotion behind every character. Hazel is a misunderstood teenage girl who’s having sudden feelings for a guy and she feels like she’s a burden. Augustus just wants to live in the moment and not letting his cancer stop him from doing anything. Isaac is angry and feeling abandoned because his “true love” left him because he became blind. The parents of Hazel are frightened everyday because there’s a chance they’re going to lose a daughter. There are many important themes in this story like, never let anything scare you, or if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.
Aside from connecting with Isaac, I can also compare myself to Hazel Grace. The way she feels like nobody appreciates her and she feels lonely all the time is the exact way I feel most of the time. She usually never goes out of her house and neither do I. Maybe it’s because we don’t want people staring at us and judging us. Everywhere she goes she gets judged or looked at because of her oxygen tank. Everywhere I go I get judged and stared at because I have an abnormal body. It’s not something we asked for, nor can fix.
In my opinion, I’m in LOVE with this book. Have you ever had the feeling that it’s going to be an amazing book, while only reading the first chapter? That’s how I felt when choosing this story. It grasped my attention quickly and I’ve been very fawned of it ever since I’ve been reading on page one. The strengths of the book has to be the characters and the relationships between each other. It’s so realistic and interesting to read to the point I just want to place myself into the story. Another strength of the book is that it’s not overwhelming with so many things or else I would be really confused. There weren’t really any weaknesses about the book. It has a great expansion of words not yet recognized in my vocabulary, so it was difficult for me to understand what the author wrote to Hazel and Augustus. If I could change something about the book it would probably be the events that happened to Isaac. But if it weren’t for them, the reader wouldn’t feel the emotions of sorrow and sympathy towards him. The events happened to him causes excitement and visual aspects of the book.
You can understand what’s happening in this book fairly easy. I would target this book more toward teenagers though because we can relate to the relationships, heartache, and situations these characters are going through. But adult are welcome to read this book as well. This was on the New York Times Bestseller List for a reason.
The cigarette is the same cigarette that Augustus puts in his mouth from time to time. Three puffs of smoke for three different quotes. From top to bottom, the first quote Gus says," It's a metaphor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth but you don't give it the power to do it's killing" Augustus means he's not going to let the object that's killing him any power to hurt him anymore. He's not showing any mercy or fear toward the object that hurts him. The second quote is from Hazel, "I'm a grenade" in the story she feels like she puts a lot of stress on her loved ones because she is told that her cancer is not curable. This shows that she's very conscientious of others because she knows she might just explode (die) at any moment. The last quote is from Gus and it says, "Oh i wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you." From this quote, Augustus shows his true feelings for her. He will always love her no matter what happens, even if she dumps him or is out of his life. It goes from Gus being brave(top) then Hazel using her cancer as a bulwark for her real feelings for Augustus then Gus falling for this girl who he would do anything for. It shows the evolution of this conflict going back and forth from Hazel to Gus.
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