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