The Fault In Our Stars Research Paper

In John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars, cancer patients Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters find love within their own tragic story, Hazel with terminal Lung Cancer and Augustus with Osteosarcoma. While their romance is comforting, their story is ultimately heartbreaking. The Fault in Our Stars is a sad story, Augustus comes into Hazel’s life and is then killed by cancer, but that does not mean their story was entirely depressing. In Amsterdam, when Hazel recounts her unpleasant meeting with Van Houten to her mother, she explains, “You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice,” and in this, Green emphasizes the message that even the gloomiest stories do not have to be depressing.

When Augustus died, everyone, his family and friends, were devastated, most notably Hazel. Though Hazel didn’t know Augustus as much as his family did, she was probably most affected by his death because he was the love of his life. At his practice funeral, Hazel expressed how much she loved Augustus, because “[he, Augustus] gave me a forever within a number of days, and I’m grateful” (260). Even though Hazel’s time with Augustus was short, they did all they could to spend time with each other and express how much they loved each other. Additionally, at Augustus’ practice funeral Isaac, Augustus’ best friend, wished Augustus “got eighteen years when he should have gotten more [time]” (258). Clearly, Augustus meant so much to Isaac because he had supported him when his girlfriend dumped him and had always been there for him when times were tough, it is most obvious when he stated “ I dislike living in a world without Augustus Waters” (281) because a world without Augustus to Isaac was even worse than when his “true love”, Monica, had left him for dead. Augustus’ deaths’ effect on Hazel and Isaac goes to show that it’s best to spend time with the ones we love, before they are