The Fault In Our Stars Theme Analysis

Coming of Age Themes in The Fault in Our Stars

Augustus Waters always used to say, “The world is not a wish granting factory” (Green 214). In The Fault in Our Stars, both Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster are dealt a far-from ideal situation for life. At the young age of thirteen, Hazel was diagnosed with nearly incurable stage four thyroid cancer with metastasis forming in her lungs. By some miracle, she survived; but, she does not thrive at all. In fact, she struggles severely, carrying around an oxygen tank wherever she goes, and even still she has to get fluid drained out of her lungs every so often. Gus, on the other hand, was diagnosed with 85% curable osteosarcoma and had to get his leg amputated. This ended his promising basketball career, and even still the cancer ended up taking more of his life; in fact the whole thing. Though Augustus and Hazel would have both wished for easier lives, sometimes what is real is not ideal; and in their case, what was real wasn’t even close to being ideal. As Augustus’s life came to an end, he always spoke about it being his personal dream to be remembered and not dying in vain. He needed to feel like his life had a purpose, which all individuals search for along with hope and truth. Augustus died and left the “sequel” to An Imperial

Affliction, which was Hazel’s favorite book, as his legacy. Because of this, he felt as if he had not been a complete waste of time and space while inhabiting the earth.
Often, in life, not everything is handed to you on a silver platter. Some people aren’t given the best situations to have a successful and joyful existence, and Augustus and Hazel Grace were one example. Augustus and Hazel Grace were not blessed with the best of lives, and the tension between what was real and what is ideal is evident. For Hazel, every day of her life was filled with looks from bystanders, taking her parent’s lives away from them, and gasping for breath after just standing for too long. The struggle became even worse as the love of her life slowly wasted away and was eventually taken away by the cold hands of Death. Augustus, while alive, lived with having one leg. As he got sicker and sicker, he became wheelchair-bound and eventually became too sick to function and died. Every single day, both of them wished that they could have just been born with normal lives where they wouldn’t have to do everything differently because of their cancer, but nothing could be done about this. Another character in The Fault in Our Stars who seemed to be dealt a bad hand in the poker game of life was the author of Hazel’s favorite book An Imperial Affliction. His name was Peter Van Houten, and he was a rotten old man. His daughter was diagnosed with cancer and sadly died at age eight. He was soon left by his wife and eventually left by his assistant, Lidewij. After this, he spent most of his time drinking and hating everyone who inhabits the world. Van Houten would have liked a better life, but what was real was not ideal for him.
Personally, I feel that it is important for an individual to search for things in life such as purpose and a personal dream. The characters in The Fault in Our Stars seemed to feel the same. For example, toward the end of Augustus and Hazel’s trip to Amsterdam, it became aware that Augustus, like many others, dreamed of not dying in vain. After telling Hazel that he had come down with cancer yet again, Augustus talked about visiting the Rijksmuseum. He described seeing an abundance of paintings of Jesus on the cross, soldiers and martyrs - but no cancer patients. This hurt him because he needed to feel like his life had a sense of purpose, and dying of cancer made him feel useless (Green 217). When Augustus died, the only thing that made him feel like he had done something was his sequel to An Imperial Affliction. Finding purpose in life was a running theme throughout the book. Hazel’s mother found purpose in caring for her daughter and always making sure she was safe. Hazel’s purpose was to not hurt anybody, and Augustus found that heroic. Through these stories, The Fault in Our Stars taught us much about an individual’s search for purpose, hope, truth, and a personal dream. Everybody will search for these in life, and it will become a driving force in accomplishing what they want to accomplish.
In conclusion, the two Coming of Age themes that are evident in The Fault in Our Stars are the tension between the real and the ideal and the individual’s search for purpose, hope, truth, or a personal dream.

Through the difficult, cancer-controlled lives of Augustus, Hazel, and even Peter Van Houten, we see just how bad some people have it. They must deal with the fact that what they were given is not ideal, but must be dealt with. Augustus had to deal with this up until the last days of his life, where he began to focus on his legacy and making sure his life had a purpose, which makes it evident that others will also search for things like these throughout the course of their

lives.