Book Review
John Green, The Fault In Our Stars, Young Adult fiction, romance
Hospital, support group, Indiana
Hazel Lancaster Grace: She is diagnosed with Stage 4 Thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs, but has managed to live with her disease owing to doses of an experimental drug called Phalanxifor
Augustus Waters: Augustus was an amazing basketball player, that is until he got cancer and an amputated leg that came with it. But Augustus doesn't let that stop him from living his life. He tries to have a regular life; going out with friends, socializing, and living life to the fullest. When Isaac drags Augustus to a cancer support group, he meets Hazel and is immediately drawn to her. He feels the need to talk to her. When
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Hazel and him get closer, Augustus realizes that she is the piece that was missing in his life. Now they go out and start to live their lives, forgetting about the cancer. When Augustus used a wish that he was given by the hospital, he decides to take Hazel to Amsterdam to meet her favourite author, who is now his favourite too. In Amsterdam Hazel and Augustus come to terms with their relationship, but when they return things take a turn for the worst. The doctors find that Augustus' cancer has returned. Hazel's and Augustus' relationship becomes stronger than ever. They try and conquer the newly found cancer together. Hazel spends every waking moment with him, she cares for him and supports him. A couple weeks after finding the cancer, it proved to be too much for Augustus to handle and it gets the best of him. Isaac: Isaac is another friend of Hazel and Gus's from Support Group. He lost one eye to cancer before the book begins and must lose another early in the book. He and a girl named Monica seem to be passionately in love when the book opens, but she dumps him shortly before he loses his second eye, leading to great anger and sadness. Frannie Lancaster, Hazel's mother: Frannie Lancaster obviously loves Hazel very much, but Hazel feels that she is limiting her mother since she has had to leave work and devote all of her attention to Hazel and her medical treatments.
Late in the book, however, Hazel and the reader find that for the past year Frannie has been pursuing a Masters in Social Work online.
Michael Lancaster, Hazel's father: Michael Lancaster is incredibly emotionally invested in Hazel's survival, though he must continue working to support the family and so appears less in the novel and knows less about Hazel's illness and treatment. Hazel's father cries often, leading to more guilt on Hazel's part that she is going to leave her family devastated when she dies.
Peter van Houten: Peter van Houten is the American author of a fictional novel within The Fault in Our Stars, An Imperial Affliction. He is an witty, mean older man and an alcoholic, nothing like Hazel had imagined when reading the book so many times. van Houten keeps up a correspondence with Gus that leads to Gus and Hazel visiting him in Amsterdam, though the visit is largely unsuccessful. However, van Houten attends Gus's funeral in America and attempts to apologize to Hazel, whereupon she realizes that he had a young daughter who died of
leukemia. Second paragraph (Describe the conflict and resolution WITHOUT giving the story away) I. Conflict: The conflict in this book is both internal and physical. The internal conflict is that Hazel has come to terms with her cancer. Her conflict is to also trust herself with others. She believes she is "a bomb" which means that she wants the best to not get close to people so her death won't cause many people hurt. This is why she doesn't want to get close to Augustus. However, Augustus is a the bomb. He's the one that sick (well fatally sick, like on the verge of dying sick.) She slowly starts to open up to him and lets herself love. The main conflict is that Augustus is dying and they won't be able to be together. Throughout the book, she is very childish, she complains and looks down on everything .However Augustus comes into her life and she starts seeing things different. II. Resolution: In the end, Hazel is full-on mourning Augustus's loss. But she reaches some closure when she talks to Peter Van Houten at the funeral and learns that he had a daughter who died of cancer, which is why he wrote An Imperial Affliction. She also discovers a eulogy that Augustus wrote for her before he died—one last word from her first love. Third paragraph (How did you react to the work?) This book was very interesting. I actually cried during the end because if what happened. Yes the book did because I already knew what was going to happen because I watched the movie but I liked the book better because it was more detailed. I wished that the author didn’t make Augustus die because that was saddening. Fourth paragraph (Would you recommend this book to other readers?) Overall, I do recommend readers to read this book because like I said before it is really romantic yet full of suspense. The ideal reader for this type of book is people who are interested in something with a plot twist.
The Soloist (Foster, Krasnoff & Wright, 2008), is based on a true story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr. who develops psychosis and becomes homeless. In the film, Nathaniel is considered a cello genius who is discovered on the streets by Steve Lopez, a journalist from the Los Angeles Times. Steve was searching for a city story and he decided to write a newspaper article about Nathaniel. Nathaniel always had a passion for music. He was a child prodigy and attended Juilliard School of Music. However, he faced many complications at Juilliard, particularly hearing voices speaking to him. Unable to handle the voices, Nathaniel dropped out and ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. Steve and Nathaniel develops an unexpected friendship, in which Steve tries to help Nathaniel to live a normal life; having a home, treat his mental disorder, and to fulfil his dream of being a cellist again.
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a story about a football town. The name of the town is Odessa. It is a small town on the west side of Texas and football is the only thing that matters. Bissinger gives the reader a glimpse of what life is like at an area high school called Permian. Very few towns are obsessed with sports like Permian and Ringgold when it comes to sports programs. In this essay, Permian and Ringgold sports will be compared by their programs and values that they place on sports.
Throughout life individuals face many challenges testing their values and personality one situation at a time. In the evocative novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton themes of growing up and innocence are shown. Ponyboy is not your average 14 year old he is part of a gang known to many as the Greasers. He encounters many situations testing his values and beliefs. Having lost both his parents recently he and his brothers stick together like a true family but this relationship is tested when Darry hits Ponyboy. He also experiences the loss several close friends in a very short period of time. Throughout this novel, Ponyboy encounters many life changing experiences that prove he is a dynamic character.
At this stage of the story we are compelled to feel a little bit sorry for Charlie who has been separated from his father.
The Silver linings playbook is a movie that showcases the life of a family obsessed with the Eagles. The wife of Pat Salatino Sr allows their son to get out of a mental institution without the knowledge of the doctors or his father after being in the institution for eight months. Pat Salatano Jr had been institutionalized because he had physically abused a man, who was alleged to be Nikki’s lover. The court had ordered him to be put in the Maryland mental institution after being diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. He moves in with his parents after the discharge and refuses to take his medications because they make him feel unwell. However, he has mandatory therapy sessions to help him improve his condition. The case conceptualization of this paper is a character from the movie, the Silver Linings Playbook. Pat’s mother thinks that Pat has not fully recovered from his mental condition after being released prematurely from the mental institution.
The reader sees how detached Hazel appears to be from other women in this story. She can’t understand why they are allowed to be sad but when she appears sad she’s told to smile and how nobody wants to hear about other’s troubles. In fact there are only three women who Hazel holds conversations with at all in the story. The first is her neighbor who lives across the hall while she is married to Herbie. In Mrs. Martin she finds herself an escape from her trapped and unfulfilling life. They drink and play cards with a group of men referred to as “the boys.” This appears to be the only real friend she has through the entire story although they have a falling out based on the men in their life. The next woman is Mrs. Miller whom upon an exchange in the bathroom leads Hazel to the pills she will use in her suicide attempt. The final character is Nettie the colored maid who nurses Hazel back to life after she tries to take her own life. This appears to be a way for the author to explain the tension among women at this time. All the women in Parker’s story are trying to maintain the appearance that society has allotted them. Were some might think this would draw women together in fact made them further separated because they were all afraid of showing the crack in their own “good sport” personalities.
Thyroid cancer is one of the main conflicts in John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars. Hazel Grace, the protagonist, has papillary thyroid cancer that has metastasized to the lungs. Her disease precludes her from carrying a healthy relationship with her love interest, Augustus Waters, and the reader sees how difficult it is to live a normal life with such a life-threatening disease as cancer. There are many different causes as to why people contract thyroid cancer even though it only accounts for 1% of all cancer in the United States (Sarge 1). Furthermore, there are four subtypes of thyroid cancer with different intensities: papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic. Each type of thyroid cancer comes with a different type of treatment care such as chemotherapy, thyroidectomies, and hormone therapy (Sarge 2).
Silver Linings Playbook is a great film based on a novel by Matthew Quick that was released in 2012. This movie is about a man name Pat Solatano who trys to find his silver lining in life, but things get a little difficult for him as he tries to patch up everything from his past. The director of this movie is the well-known American film director David O. Russell. The main characters of the film are Pat Solatano, Pat Solatano Sr. Pat's father, Dolores Solatano Pat's mother, Nikki Pat's ex-wife, Dr. Cliff Patel Pat's doctor, Tiffany Pat’s secret lover, and Danny Pat’s best friend. After losing his job, his wife, and being sent to a mental institution for bipolar disorder, Pat wants to beat the odds and become a better person. After being sent
Hazel should be dead, she was an willing daughter, even if her mother was consumed by greed. She used her powers to put the
Many times in Hollywood, a movie that intends to portray a novel can leave out key scenes that alter the novel’s message. Leaving out scenes from the novel is mainly do to time limits, however doing so can distort the author’s true purpose of the story. In history, Movies were directed to intentionally leave out scenes that could alter the public’s opinion. This frequently let novel 's main points be swept under the rug. There were times of this at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, where white Americans were the only ones making movies. Not many African Americans had the opportunity to be involved in the process of major productions. Because racism in To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is underplayed in the film, it shows
Now, both of their parents had passed away when they died in a tragic accident. Ivy cried for months and so did Hazel, but inside, Hazel didn’t really care about her parent’s death. Because of her parents’ lack of love for her, she refused to show any love to anyone, even her own family. For years after the death of their parents, Hazel and Ivy lived together in a small house, where Hazel was always in control of her younger sister.
The book opens with a young Hazel Grace being dropped off by her mother to a meeting for a cancer patient support group. She notices a young man who she does not recognize staring at her. As the introductions are made, she finds out that his name is Augustus Waters and that he is a friend of, Isaac, who is will be getting surgery and will go blind. The two only make introductions at the end of the meeting, and he tells her that she resembles Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta. Hazel admits that she has never seen the movie, to which Augustus invites Hazel over to his house to watch it. As they are waiting in the parking lot of the church, he pulls out a cigarette. Hazel gets upset until Augustus reveals to her that it is a metaphor. He never lights them, and thus they will not kill him.
As college professors, do you ever consider exploring the world? Christopher McCandless once stated, “The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences.” This quote resonates throughout the movie adaptation, Into the Wild. Based on a true story in the 1990’s, the film explores a man’s existence and the meaning of life. Although released in 2007, I discovered the movie three years ago through the internet. Instantly, it became my favorite movie. Into the Wild describes an eye-opening adventure, an influential message, and a story that I, and possibly others, can relate to.
“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” Even before she admits it to him, Hazel is totally and completely taken up by Augustus Waters. She can hardly control it, just like other people can't stop liking her. Cancer is irrelevant at this moment—and it's pretty amazing. Hazel falls in love with Augustus so quickly i think that it foreshadows carelessness and ignorance to what will happen next. I also believe it foreshadows what Green could be trying to get across to us throughout the book at the climax of the novel. This quote could also represent
The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, depicts the life of Amir, a male from Afghanistan, and his maturation through the social and political turmoil that emerged in Afganistan. Although the story is fictitious, the plot and storyline involves political, social, and cultural problems in Afghanistan. The book also provides a small window of contrast to the contemporary problems of terrorism, cultural battles and coup d'etat in the middle east.