Literary Analysis #3

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

(I absolutely loved this book and I recommend everyone to read it!)

1) This book is about a girl named Hazel who is a sixteen year old with cancer. We learn that she is just like any normal teenage girl with her sarcastic, humorous attitude and her obsession with America's Next Model. Hazel is also a very kind-hearted girl as she does everything possible to make her parents happy like going to Support Group meetings. One day at one of her meetings she meets a boy named Augustus (Gus). Augustus has a fake leg due to the fact that he had osteosarcoma. He goes to these meetings to support one of his good friends named Issac who has eye cancer. Augustus and Hazel start to spend a lot of time together and end up eventually dating. Hazel, however, is very reluctant to this idea because she doesn't want to die and leave Augustus alone. They take a trip to visit Peter Van Houten who is the author of An Imperial Affliction. Hazel and Augustus spend a lot of time talking about this book and Augustus ends up spending his "wish" on organizing a trip in which they get to meet him. Unfortunately, Peter is not the guy they imaged as he acts very rude and churlish when they finally meet up at his house. We then learn that Augustus's cancer has returned and his future does not look good. They are both devastated and start to spend even more time together as they become inseparable. Eventually, Augustus dies. I found this to be very ironic because I feel we were led on to believe Hazel would be the one who dies, not Augustus. At Augustus's funeral, Peter shows up. He confesses that he had a daughter with cancer and Hazel reminded him of her at his house which is why he acted the way he did. The story ends with Hazel finding a letter that Augustus wrote about her to Peter.

2) One theme of this book that really jumped out to me was the struggle of life with cancer. Cancer affects not only the diagnosed, but also the family and friends of the diagnosed. Hazel's dad was constantly crying over the fact that Hazel was going to eventually die. Hazel's mother tried to hide her grief but Hazel was always aware of all of this. She felt like it was her fault for everything including her family's depression and the fact that her parents had little money because they have to pay for her medications. When Augustus passed away, his whole family came together and just grieved together. Hazel had a hard time dealing with his death, but his death also made her relationship with her parents stronger. 

3) I think the tone of this book was very frank yet humorous. We saw the whole book through Hazel's point of view. Hazel is a teenager yet she is very mature for her age. Therefore, we see her come across real serious situations in a humorous manor. She has accepted the fact that she will die and she is just trying to live her life as any other teenager would. 
-"I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die."
-"I went to Support Group for the same reason that I'd once allowed nurses with a mere eighteen months of graduate education to poison me with exotically named chemicals: I wanted to make my parents happy."
- "And so we thought, just as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards."

4) Literary Techniques:

- Dialogue: 

Hazel: "Please just let me watch America's Next Top model. It's an activity." 

Mom: "Television is a passivity." 

Hazel: "Ugh, Mom, please"

- Sarcasm: "If you want me to be a teenager, don't send me to Support Hroup. Buy me a fake ID so I can go to clubs, drink vodka, and take pot."
- Rhetorical Question: "Why did the cast rotate?"

-Similie: "He was looking at his hands, which he'd folded into each other like the top of a tepee." 

-Imagery: "It delivered two liters of oxygen to me each minute through a cannula, a transparent tube that split just beneath my neck, wrapped behind my ears, and them reunited in my nostrils."

- Diction: "So you look around and think, as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards." John Green uses a lot of curse words in his writing but I think it does a good job at characterizing Hazel as just youraverage  teenager. 

- Personification: "Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, if takes the rest."

- Parallelism: "I was looking pretty dead- my hands and get were ballooned; my skin cracked; my lips were perpetually blue."

- Characterization: "I want to minimize the number of deaths I am responsible for." This shows how kind-hearted Hazel is.

- Hyperbole: "HAZEL! IT'S YOUR THIRTY-THIRD HALF BIRTHDAY!"

Characterization:

1) Indirect characterization:

- "I went to support group because I wanted to make my parents happy." This shows that Hazel is a loving girl who would do anything if it were to put a smile on her parents' face.

- "I had a touch of osteosarcoma a year and a half ago, but I'm just here today at Issac's request." This shows that Augustus is very caring towards Issac. Even though he doesn't need to be at the Support Group, he is there to support his friend. 

Direct characterization

- "I'm Hazel. Sixteen. Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs."

- "The only redeeming facet of Support Group was this kid named Isaac, a long-faced, skinny guy with straight blonde hair swept over one eye."
I personally like indirect characterization over direct characterization. Indirect characterization lets the readers characterize characters on their own by making inferences rather than just straight out being told that a character is mean or rude. Direct characterization is important however, definitely in the beginning of a story, as it introduces us to characters by revealing one's name, age, looks, etc. 

2) I do not think that John Green changed his diction when he began to talk about different characters. The book was told in Hazel's point of view and she kept a constant voice throughout the whole book. This involved a variety of different curse words and frank statements. 

3) Hazel was a dynamic and round character. At the beginning of the book Hazel tended to alienate herself from others and not voice her opinions. After she meets Augustus, she becomes more social and open. Hazel was a round character because she played a great role in this book not just a small role. She was the main character and everything revolved around her. 

4) After reading this book I did feel like I actually met Hazel. All the emotions she was going through after Augustus's death was so well explained and brought about that I felt as if I could feel them. I even teared up a bit towards the end. "That's the thing about pain. It deserves to be felt." The pain she went through was clear and it just broke my heart that this character, at only sixteen years of age, has gone through so many cancer treatments and has been surrounded by so many deaths.