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.
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