Jess Kochik

Mrs. Dietrich
English
12/21/16
An Analysis of the Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars is a young adult novel written by John Green, an author known for
his books about life during the transition from teenager to an adult. The novel is well-known
amongst the teenager community, particularly those interested in stories that involve a starcrossed lovers aspect. Outside of this books relatability to young adults, the novel serves a
deeper purpose in terms of its impact. The Fault in Our Stars is an important read for young
adults because it contains literary tools, such as metaphors and symbolism that require some
dimensional thought to evaluate. Although all readers may not get a more symbolic grasp of the
book, reading it while considering its intentions makes the book far more intriguing, and a bit
more groundbreaking when the revelation occurs that an ordinary object represents something
much bigger than itself.
Like most books, the Fault in Our Stars start off with an introduction of the main
characters, and how two teenagers with unique circumstances crossed paths. Hazel Grace
Lancaster is a 16-year old girl living with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. While her
fate of being diagnosed at age 13 with stage IV cancer did not invoke a sense of hope, Hazel was
lucky enough to have survived through a trial medicine called Phalanxafor that has kept her
cancer from spreading. Early on it is easy to understand that Hazel is a realist when it comes to
her situation, and some may go as far to claim that she has a pessimistic view on things. Her
daily routines of reading her favorite novel called An Imperial Affliction (some may consider it
more of an addiction, mainly because she rarely puts it down. Hazel adopts An Imperial

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Affliction as a part of her persona, and from the standpoint of some, may be seen as a symbol of
herself, and her acceptance of death) and attending college courses gets interrupted when she
meets a boy of 17 years at her Cancer Support Group. Augustus Waters was at the meeting to
support his friend Isaac, who had recently found out that he was going to lose his eyesight.
Augustus Waters was no stranger to cancer, as he had osteosarcoma when he was younger.
Augustus has a magnetizing attraction to insecure Hazel that had her confused since he treated
her less like a cancer patient and more like an ordinary teenage girl, despite her obvious setbacks
since she has to wheel around an oxygen cart. Augustus is a very enthusiastic guy with a
personality that he makes well known from the first appearance in the book. He too reads a book
called the Prince of Dawn that consists of heroism, and being a savior for others. Augustus
believes in doing great things during his life so that he can be well remembered when he dies.
The two exchange books, and eventually end up getting in correspondence again once they both
finish reading.
Chapter 4 marks the 50th page of the book, and it starts with Augustus asking Hazel to
console Isaac after the love of his life Monica broke up with him days away from going
completely blind because of his cancer. During this time, Augustus makes it known to Hazel how
intrigued he was by An Imperial Infliction. He goes as far as to email the authors assistant,
Lidewij Vliegenthart, which begins a chain reaction for the plot of the book. Hazel was
ultimately shocked to hear that Lidewij responded after years of trying to get in touch with the
author, Peter Van Houten. Hazel immediately writes Van Houten a letter in hopes that he will
respond. In the meantime, she is preoccupied with her crush on Augustus, and her friend Isaacs
new blindness. Hazel is surprised after a visit in the hospital to see Isaac because Van Houten had
responded, and invited her to visit him if she ever found herself in Amsterdam. Her excitement is

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soon replaced with guilt when she realizes that the money it would take to go to Amsterdam is
being used on her treatment for cancer, and how her parents sole priority in life is to prevent her
death. Within the next few days Augustus Waters surprises her when he announces over a wellplanned lunch that consisted of all things being related back to Dutch, that he was going to use
his Wish, a gift from a group called the Genies that make the wishes of children with fatal
diseases come true, on taking her to Amsterdam to meet Van Houten.
After discussing the trip with her parents, and exploding into an argument with them over
her guilt of how she is essentially a grenade, she storms up to her room, and researches
Augustus previous girlfriend who died of cancer. After seeing that his previous girlfriend looked
astonishingly like herself, she believed that Augustus was just into her because she reminded him
of his dead girlfriend. Still feeling guilty that eventually she would die and leave a mass of pain
when she did, Hazel tried to distance herself from Gus, who would inevitably be heartbroken
when she died if they fell in love. A trip to the hospital because of a lack of cooperation from her
lungs left her feeling even more like she would be a burden for her friends and family for the rest
of her life, and also postponed the trip to Amsterdam. There are elements in Chapter 7 that reveal
a sense of tragedy when Van Houten opens Hazels eyes to the fact that she and Augustus are
star-crossed lovers that are bond for demise because he is doing so well, and she is dying.
Reading that from her idol makes the situation for her even tenser because she does not want to
hurt Gus. After meeting with a team of cancer specialists that come to the conclusion that she is
too ill to go to Amsterdam, the severity of her situation becomes too much and she has a
breakdown while reflecting on an old swing set at the back of her house, which is a physical
manifestation for her problems. When Augustus comes over to comfort Hazel, he immediately
knows that the way to make her pain go away, is to sell the swing set. Although it may seem

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black and white, Augustus selling the swing set is symbolic of how he is the source of her
happiness nowadays by making her problems seem to disappear. Soon after, Hazel is stunned by
an email from Lidweij that describes her trip to Amsterdam that was supposedly called off due to
her cancer, however was approved by the team of specialists without her knowledge. On the day
of their flight to Amsterdam, Augustus confesses his love for Hazel after watching a heroic
movie. She was left speechless.
While in Amsterdam, there are themes of freedom, and to Hazel, that is a freedom from
her cancer that she will never have. Despite travelling halfway across the world, people still see
her, and treat her as a girl with a life-threatening disease, something Hazel despises. The only
thing that gives her full freedom from her cancer is Augustus, which may be the reason she
slowly starts accepting his love for her. He recognizes during the first day of their trip that Hazel
does have the same situation of his late previous girlfriend, and that is initially what drew him
towards Hazel, but that he is in love with her because of her funny, and strong selfless
personality. During the second day at Amsterdam, they meet Van Houten, and are disappointed
by his lack of good character. Something to be considered for later in the book is how he believes
there are only two emotions: fear, and love. The entire time they were in his presence, he got
drunk, spoke about nonsensical things, and refused to talk about how his book after it ended.
Hazel was rightfully so incredibly angry that the author of her favorite book even dissed the
book, which she took as a personal insult. His rudeness and ignorance towards the two ended
with them leaving with his assistant and going to the Anne Frank house, where Augustus and
Hazel share their first kiss.
Hazel finally became open to the idea of them being together, when on the last day of
their trip, Augustus announces that before the trip he found out that his cancer made an

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impressive comeback, and that the outlook is dim. The irony of this situation is the pivotal aspect
of the novel that provokes a lot of emotions about the unfairness of life. Once they return home,
the seek justice for Isaac because he is still torn over Monica who broke his heart before a
massive life change happened for him. Although Isaac isnt brought up much during the book,
his purpose still serves as being the underdog who is quite literally blind to life because of love,
and without it, he serves nothing more than a rather bitter character. The book continues with the
decreasing health of Augustus Waters, and his wavering enthusiasm towards life.
The last few chapters may be predictable, and even slightly boring after the repetitiveness
of Augustus situation, and how in reality, the book is just waiting for him to die. However, they
are worth the read because of a few unexpected elements that could transform the opinions about
the sadness about this book. The end starts with Augustus asking Hazel and Isaac to meet him in
the Church where he first met Hazel to read their eulogies about him so that he can hear it before
he dies. In her eulogy, Hazel thanks Augustus for allowing her to fall in love with him, despite
not knowing how long it was last inside of the infinite possibilities of their lifespans. Augustus
died 8 days later after he got an infection. His last moment with Hazel were when she found him
at a gas station during the late hours of the night. She knew when she found him in the hopeless,
and weak state that he was in, that he would die. At his funeral, Hazel was almost angered to find
that Peter Van Houten had attended his funeral. Later on she realized that he had a daughter that
had died from cancer when she was young, and after that his wife left him. This is the point in
the novel when it makes sense as to why he treated Augustus and Hazel so poorly. Although
many would just assume he became a drunk recluse for some reason, it is revealed that the
reason he treated them was because he feared their love (those two key words relate back to the
two emotions, fear and love, he believed in). Hazel finds out from Isaac that he had been writing

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her something during the last few weeks of his life, which set Hazel off on a journey to find it.
After not finding any sort of writing dedicated to her on his laptop, but finding a journal with two
pages torn out, she figured out that he had sent whatever he had written to Peter Van Houten. She
asked Lidewij to help her, and fortunately, she found them. Lidewij sent a copy to Hazel to read.
The letter was to Peter Van Houten, and it was a copy of the eulogy that he had written for Hazel.
The final part to this book is Hazel getting the opportunity to read the eulogy. Through reading
the eulogy, it is discovered that Augustus chose to love Hazel because even if she had died before
him, it would have been worth it to him to be hurt by someone as unique as her.
At first, the novel may seem a little clich, and not worth the time of a reader. Through a
further examination of certain aspects in the novel, the reader can connect to the characters in the
book, and get a better understanding of what author John Green was really writing about, beyond
a special, almost perfect seeming relationship of a couple who both knew what it was like to
endure the suffering of cancer. There is an emotional, and transcending piece of The Fault in Our
Stars that has made it such an attracting read for young adults that is definitely worth it if one is
willing to use a deeper mindset.