The Fault In Our Stars by John Green: Theme Discussion

          I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to write my final blog post of the year on The Fault In Our Stars. Since I will be getting pretty in depth in the story, for anyone who is not as familiar with the novel's plot, or has possibly not read it in awhile, I recommend viewing the video that I have attached. It is the trailer for the upcoming film version of the novel, and it does a good job of summing up the theme and the plot of the novel in two minutes.



Click here to watch trailer



        Having just finished The Fault In Our Stars minutes ago, I have many thoughts about the book. I believe that this book was intended for many purposes. If I sit here and look back on the book as a whole, more than one theme pops into my head. One of the largest themes comes directly from the very last few lines of the book, in Augustus's final letter to the author of An Imperial Affliction, Peter Van Houten, "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world... but you do have some say in who hurts you."(pg 313) The general idea of hurt is a part of most themes in the book, and most of the themes are enforced in this final letter to Van Houten. In my opinion, another one of the most important themes could be summed up in this simile from the letter, "We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants."(pg 313) In other words, we are desperate to leave our mark on the world, and we are often so desperate to be remembered that our mark can bring more harm than good.



         The first theme discussed (you don't get to choose if you get hurt) is supported numerous times throughout the novel. Throughout the entire first half of the novel, Hazel worries so much about getting close to people. She does not want people to care about her because she knows that she will die soon enough, and she wants to leave as little destruction as possible when she does. She often refers to herself as a grenade. She doesn't want to hurt people. This is why she is hesitant in her relationship with Augustus. What she doesn't realize is that Augustus is dying as well. What she also doesn't take into account is that if Augustus dies first, it would hurt her, but it would be a hurt she doesn't mind. Therefore, she is spending all this time worrying about hurting Augustus and being a grenade and causing more harm than she has to; in the end, it will be her who is hurt first anyway, so her worries of hurting aren't even valid. In other words, the message the author is trying to get across through all of this is that you shouldn't worry about who you are going to hurt and that you should accept the fact that others will hurt you... you just have a choice in who you allow to do so. As the quote hanging in Augustus's living room says, "Without pain, we couldn't know joy."(pg 35)



         The second theme discussed (leaving a mark on the world), is supported through Augustus's desperate need to do something important before he dies. This becomes such a desperate situation that he almost kills himself (on accident, of course) numerous times in an attempt to do so. He makes the realization just before he dies that leaving your mark on the world is not what is so important, but rather, learning, discovering, noticing things about the world. Augustus Waters did not leave such a large mark on the world that millions of people who barely knew him weeped when he died. But he did leave a mark that caused those who knew him well to mourn even more than those million people ever could have.

The Fault In Our Stars: Character Symbolism

As I have continued to read The Fault In Our Stars, by far my favorite part of the novel so far is the characters. I have chosen to create a symbol for each character describing who they are. I thought this would be a fun way to introduce the characters in the novel for anyone who plans on reading, has read it, or maybe even plans on seeing the upcoming movie.

Hazel Grace
Hazel Grace could be compared to many things, but I like to think of her "The Ugly Duckling". She looks at herself and her life, and can't come close to seeing her true value and worth. She sees a "grenade" capable of exploding at any time and destroying everyone in her path. She sees her ventilator that helps her to get through cancer and thinks "ugly". She sees an ugly girl who has no life and wishes to become close to no one for the fear of harming them. And maybe others think this way too, when they first see a cancer patient, just as they did "Th Ugly Duckling." But Augustus sees her for her true value. He recognizes the fact that Hazel is beautiful becuase of all these things. She is far beyond her age in her thoughts, as we see when compared with her friend Kaitlyn. She is not a typical teenager. She has had life experiences that give her true beauty that she cannot recognize.

Augustus Waters
Augustus Waters is much the opposite of Hazel Grace, possible much of the reason they are attracted to eachother. Augustus wears a very confident swagger on his exterior and exuberates it to everyone he meets. However, throughout the story, we notice that truth be told, Augustus is not so stable and secure on the inside. He is constantly fearing death, cancer, and any other bad things. He worries a lot about things he can't control. So he appears strong on the outside but this isn't actually the case.

From these descriptions, we can see that Augustus and Hazel Grace are opposites. Augustus is confident on the outside but in reality is pretty weak, and Hazel Grace believes she is weak on the outside, but is actually very strong on the inside. Possibly this is why they need eachother so much

Research Article Study on the Importance of Spending Time With Your Family

While researching for my Creative non-fiction piece, a found a number of numerous articles which I really enjoyed reading and whose messages I really took to heart, making me desire to spend more time with my family. I have attached links to the three articles I have chosen to compare and contrast at the end of this post. These three articles are called "Importance of Family Time on Kids Mental Health and Adjustment to Life", "The Importance of Family Bonding Time", and "Family Strengths: Time Together". Notice a common theme yet? Anyway, my creative nonfiction project is on the importance of family time in the lives of children and marriages, which is something that is rather lacking in our busy society today. These three articles are very well written, and do an excellent job of moving their audiences to action, and I would love for my creative nonfiction piece to succeed just as well at this.

I love the fact that all three articles open with the importance of family time on everyone in the family and conclude with a list of good ways to incorporate family bonding time into your life. I think this is a really great strategy in moving the audience to action because you give them explicit examples of how to apply the point to their own life. Not to mention the fact that I feel very strongly about the topic that is discussed in these articles. I think it's really interesting that lack of family bonding can hinder the growth and development of a child in every aspect of life. I also completely agree with the fact that family bonding should take primary importance in life because your family will be the people who stick by you your whole life an their love and support will be unconditional, never phony or fake.

Anyway, this is a topic I feel very strongly about, and I highly recommend checking out these articles! Who knows, maybe it will lead you to make a huge difference in your family life that will effect you for the rest of your life.

Article #1
Article #2
Article #3

Kayla