Module 1

Elements of Fiction
What Is Fiction?

Fiction is make-believe, invented stories. They may be short stories, fables, vignettes,
plays, novellas, or novels. Although writers may base a character on people they have
met in real life, the characters and the experiences that the character faces in the story
are not real.

So, how does a writer write fiction? Characters, setting, plot, conflict, point of view, and
theme are six key elements for writing fiction.

Characters

Characters are the people, animals, or aliens in the story. Readers come to know the
characters through what they say, what they think, and how they act.

E. M. Forster, an English novelist, identified that characters are either flat or round. Flat
characters do not play important roles in the stories. They often have only one or two
traits with little description about them. A flat character may even be a stock character,
which is a stereotypical figure that is easily recognized by readers, for example, the mad
scientist or the evil stepmother.

On the other hand, the round characters play an important role, often the lead roles in
stories. They are complex, dimensional, and well-developed. The stories are about
them; therefore, pages of writing will be about them. They often change by going
through a life-changing experience as the story unfolds.

When discussing stories with other readers and writers or when writing an analysis of a
story, fictional characters can be described as static or developing. Static means the
character stays the same throughout the story. They do not change. Developing, also
called dynamic, means the character changes. The change may impact the character’s
beliefs, attitudes, or actions. The change may be small or large. This change occurs
because the character experiences an epiphany, an insight about life.

If writers write about characters outside their own culture, they need to do research so
as not to misrepresent a particular culture. The same is also true of characters, who
have illnesses. The writer may need to research the illness and treatment for it in order
to be accurate about it.
Setting

Setting is where and when the story takes place. It includes the following:

 The immediate surroundings of the characters such as props in a scene:

trees, furniture, food, inside of a house or car, etc.
 The time of day such as morning, afternoon, or night.
 The weather such as cloudy, sunny, windy, snow, or rain, etc.
 The time of year, particularly the seasons: fall, winter, summer, spring.
 The historical period such as what century or decade the story takes place.
 The geographical location including the city, state, country, and possibly
even the universe, if the writer is writing science fiction.

Setting can function as a main force that the characters encounter, such as a tornado or
flood, or a setting can play a minor role such as setting the mood. Often times, the
setting can reveal something about the main character as he/she functions in that place
and time period.

Writers write about places they are familiar with. If they aren’t familiar with the place,
then they need to research it in order to be accurate about the place.

Plot

Plot is the order of events in the story. The plot usually follows a particular structure
called Freytag’s Pyramid. Gustav Freytag, a German playwright who lived during the
1800s, identified this structure.

Freytag’s Pyramid has five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and
denouement, also known as resolution. See Figure 3.1
 Figure 3.1: Freytag’s Pyramid

Freytag’s Pyramid by Gustav Freytag, a German playwright

Exposition is an introduction to the characters, time, and the problem. At the point
where exposition moves into rising action a problem, sometimes called an inciting
incident, occurs for the main character to handle or solve. This creates the beginning of
the story.

Rising action includes the events that the main character encounters. Each event,
developed in separate scenes, makes the problem more complex.

Climax is the turning point in the story. Usually, it is a single event with the greatest
intensity and uncertainty. The main character must contend with the problem at this
point.

Falling action includes the events that unfold after the climax. This usually creates an
emotional response from the reader.

Denouement or resolution provides closure to the story. It ties up loose ends in the
story.

Do writers plan out their stories? Some do, especially if they are an extreme think-write
writer.  Some don’t. They have a story idea, begin it, and watch it unfold as they write.
Conflict

Conflict is the struggle between two entities. In story writing the main character, also
known as the protagonist, encounters a conflict with the antagonist, which is an
adversary. The conflict may be one of six kinds:

 Character vs. character

 Character vs. nature or natural forces
 Character vs. society or culture
 Character vs. machine or technology
 Character vs. God
 Character vs himself or herself

Point of View

Stories are generally told in one of two points of views:

 First-person point of view

 Third-person point of view

First-person point of view means that one of the characters in the story will narrate–give
an account–of the story. The narrator may be the protagonist, the main character.
Writing in first-person point of view brings the readers closer to the story. They can read
it as if they are the character because personal pronouns like I, me, my, we, us,
and our are used.

Third-person point of view means that the narrator is not in the story. The third-person
narrator is not a character. Third-person point of view can be done two ways:

 Third-person limited
 Third-person omniscient

Third-person limited means that the narrator limits him/herself by being able to be in one
character’s thoughts.  Whereas, third-person omniscient means the narrator has
unlimited ability to be in various character’s thoughts.  Writing in third-person point of
view removes readers from the story because of the pronouns he, she, it, him, her, his,
hers, they, them, and theirs.
Theme

A theme is not the plot of the story. It is the underlying truth that is being conveyed in
the story. Themes can be universal, meaning they are understood by readers no matter
what culture or country the readers are in. Common themes include coming of age,
circle of life, prejudice, greed, good vs. evil, beating the odds, etc.

Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-iscontemporary-literature-definition-

writing-style.html.

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MODULE 2
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Plot Overview
Death introduces himself as the narrator and describes the three times he saw "the
book thief." The story begins with Liesel, her mother, and her brother Werner riding on a
train. Werner dies and Liesel and her mother disembark to bury him. At the funeral
Liesel finds a book called The Grave Digger's Handbook in the snow, but she doesn't
know how to read. Liesel's mother drops her off in Molching, where Liesel moves in with
foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Rosa is loud and insulting, but Hans wins
Liesel's trust through his gentleness and support.

Liesel has nightmares of her dead brother nightly, but Hans sits with her and comforts
her. She meets a boy named Rudy Steiner who idolizes the athlete Jesse Owens, and
they become best friends. Rudy constantly asks Liesel to kiss him, but she always
refuses. Hans discovers Liesel's book and starts giving her reading lessons in the
basement. Meanwhile World War II begins, and Molching has a book-burning to
celebrate Hitler's birthday. Liesel steals a book from the fire. She is sure the mayor's
wife sees her steal it.

Rosa does the laundry for a number of wealthy townspeople, including the Mayor. On a
day soon after the book burning, Liesel has to deliver the laundry to the mayor's
wife, Ilsa Hermann. Ilsa invites Liesel into her library and Liesel is amazed at the books.
She returns many times to read.

Meanwhile, a young Jewish boxer named Max Vandenburg hides in a storage room for

weeks. A friend brings him an identity card hidden in a copy of Mein Kampf, Hitler's
book. Max travels to Molching and finds the Hubermanns. Death explains that Max's
father Erik saved Hans's life in World War I, and Hans promised to help Max's mother
should she ever need it. The Hubermanns let Max in and hide him in the basement,
where he starts to imagine boxing with Hitler. Max and Liesel share nightmares and
soon become friends. Max paints over the pages of Mein Kampf and writes a book
called The Standover Man for Liesel.

Ilsa Hermann quits the laundry service, and Liesel insults her. Later Liesel returns with
Rudy and they start stealing books from Ilsa's library. Max gets sick and falls into a
coma, but he finally recovers to the joy of the household. Nazi Party members check the
basement for its ability to serve as a bomb shelter, but don't notice Max hiding there.
Ilsa Hermann, meanwhile, leaves Liesel a note in one of the stolen books and Liesel
realizes that Ilsa is letting her steal the books. The war escalates and there is an air raid
in Molching, and the Hubermanns have to leave Max in the basement. At the next raid
Liesel reads out loud to the others in the shelter.

Soldiers parade Jewish prisoners through Molching on their way to a concentration

camp. Hans, moved to pity, gives an old Jewish man a piece of bread and gets
whipped. Max leaves that night, not wanting to get the family in any more trouble. The
Gestapo come to recruit Rudy for an elite Nazi school, but Alex Steiner refuses to let
him go. Soon, both Hans and Alex are drafted into the army. Rudy and Liesel leave
bread on the street for the next parade of Jews. Rosa gives Liesel Max's sketchbook,
which includes a story called The Word Shaker, about the power of words and Max's
friendship with Liesel.

In the army, Hans is assigned to a squad that cleans up after bombings, but his bus
crashes. Hans breaks his leg, and he is allowed to return home to heal. An Allied pilot
crashes during another raid and Liesel and Rudy watch the pilot die. There are more
parades of Jews, and one day Liesel sees Max among them. They find each other and
both are whipped. Liesel goes to the mayor's library and rips up books in her frustration.

Ilsa Hermann gives Liesel a notebook so she can write her own story. Liesel starts
writing a book called The Book Thief in the basement. Just after she finishes, but while
she is still reading it in the basement of her house, the neighborhood is bombed. Hans,
Rosa, Rudy, and the other residents of Himmel Street all die. Workers rescue Liesel
and she finds Hans's accordion and then her parents' bodies. She kisses Rudy's
corpse. Death rescues The Book Thief from a garbage truck.

Liesel goes home with Ilsa Hermann and is later reunited with Max. Liesel moves to
Australia and grows to be an old woman with a family. Death comes for her soul and
shows her The Book Thief, and tells her that humans haunt him.

Retrieved from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Plot Summary | LitCharts
THE ALCHEMIST by PAOLO COELHO

Plot Overview

A recurring dream troubles Santiago, a young and adventurous Andalusian shepherd.

He has the dream every time he sleeps under a sycamore tree that grows out of the
ruins of a church. During the dream, a child tells him to seek treasure at the foot of the
Egyptian pyramids. Santiago consults a gypsy woman to interpret the dream, and to his
surprise she tells him to go to Egypt. A strange, magical old man named Melchizedek,
who claims to be the King of Salem, echoes the gypsy’s advice and tells Santiago that it
is his Personal Legend to journey to the pyramids. Melchizedek convinces Santiago to
sell his flock and set off to Tangier. When Santiago arrives in Tangier, a thief robs him,
forcing him to find work with a local crystal merchant. The conservative and kindly
merchant teaches Santiago several lessons, and Santiago encourages the merchant to
take risks with his business. The risks pay off, and Santiago becomes a rich man in just
a year.

Santiago decides to cash in his earnings and continue pursuing his Personal Legend: to
find treasure at the pyramids. He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert toward
Egypt and meets an Englishman who is studying to become an alchemist. He learns a
lot from the Englishman during the journey. For one, he learns that the secret of
alchemy is written on a stone called the Emerald Tablet. The ultimate creation of
alchemy is the Master Work, which consists of a solid called the Philosophers Stone
that can turn lead to gold, and a liquid called the Elixir of Life that can cure all ills.
Santiago learns the Englishman is traveling with the caravan to the Saharan oasis of Al-
Fayoum, where a powerful, 200-year-old alchemist resides. The Englishman plans to
ask the alchemist the secret of his trade.

As it turns out, the caravan must make an extended stop in Al-Fayoum in order to avoid
increasingly violent tribal wars taking place in the desert. There, Santiago falls in love
with Fatima, who lives at the oasis. During a walk in the desert, Santiago witnesses an
omen that portends an attack on the historically neutral oasis. He warns the tribal
chieftains of the attack, and as a result, Al-Fayoum successfully defends itself against
the assault. The alchemist gets word of Santiago’s vision and invites Santiago on a trip
into the desert, during which he teaches Santiago about the importance of listening to
his heart and pursuing his Personal Legend. He convinces Santiago to leave Fatima
and the caravan for the time to finish his journey to the pyramids, and he offers to
accompany Santiago on the next leg of his trip.

While the alchemist and Santiago continue through the desert, the alchemist shares
much of his wisdom about the Soul of the World. They are mere days away from the
pyramids when a tribe of Arab soldiers captures them. In exchange for his life and the
life of Santiago, the alchemist hands over to the tribe all of Santiago’s money and tells
the soldiers that Santiago is a powerful alchemist who will turn into wind within three
days. Santiago feels alarmed because he has no idea how to turn into the wind, and
over the next three days he contemplates the desert. On the third day, he
communicates with the wind and the sun and coaxes them to help him create a
tremendous sandstorm. He prays to the Hand That Wrote All, and at the height of the
storm he disappears. He reappears on the other side of the camp, and the tribesmen,
awed by the power of the storm and by Santiago’s ability, let him and the alchemist go
free.

The alchemist continues to travel with Santiago as far as a Coptic monastery several
hours from the pyramids. There, he demonstrates to Santiago his ability to turn lead into
gold using the Philosopher’s Stone. He gives Santiago gold and sends him off. Santiago
begins digging for the treasure at the foot of the pyramids, but two men accost him and
beat him. When Santiago speaks to them about his dream vision, they decide he must
have no money and let him live. Before leaving, one of the men tries to illustrate the
worthlessness of dreams by telling Santiago about his own dream. It concerns a
treasure buried in an abandoned church in Spain where a sycamore tree grows. The
church is the same one in which Santiago had his original dream, and he finally
understands where his treasure is. He returns to Spain to find a chest of jewels and gold
buried under the tree, and plans to return with it to Al-Fayoum, where he will reunite with
Fatima, who awaits him.

Retrieved from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Plot Summary | LitCharts

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Plot Overview

José Arcadio Buendía and his wife, Úrsula Iguarán, set out from Riohacha, Colombia to
make a new home for themselves. While sleeping on a riverbank, José Arcadio Buendía
dreams of the town of Macondo, a city made of mirrors, and he determines that the
place where they sleep is where they should establish the town.

José Arcadio Buendía oversees the building of the village as his family grows—his
sons José Arcadio (I) and Aureliano (later known as Colonel Aureliano Buendía) are
born on the way to or in Macondo. A band of gypsies visits periodically to show the
residents inventions like magnifying glasses, magnets, and flying carpets. The
gypsy Melquíades leads this band, and he shares a prophecy written in code with José
Arcadio Buendía, prompting him to become obsessed with technology, specifically
alchemy.

The book flashes back to before José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán left
Riohacha. They were warned that, because they are first cousins, their children could
have genetic defects (two of their ancestors gave birth to a child with a pig’s tail). Since
they’re reluctant to consummate their marriage, rumors swirl that José Arcadio Buendía
is impotent, and he kills a man—Prudencio Aguilar—for mocking him.

Back in the present, the gypsies come to show José Arcadio Buendía a block of ice,
which fascinates him. His older son, José Arcadio (now a teenager), is seduced by  Pilar
Ternera, a fortune teller whom he impregnates. However, he leaves town with the
gypsies. Just after, Úrsula gives birth to her daughter, Amaranta, and leaves home to try
to find her son, discovering a shortcut between Macondo and civilization in the process.

Pilar Ternera gives birth to José Arcadio’s son Arcadio and the Buendía family adopts
an orphan named Rebeca who suffers from contagious insomnia that causes memory
loss, a condition which grows to infect the whole town. Melquíades arrives with a cure
for the amnesia: the photograph. José Arcadio Buendía tries to use the technology to
take a photo of God, but he is unable to, and his son Aureliano tries to learn the
silversmith trade from Melquíades. A representative of the central government, Don
Apolinar Moscote, appears in the formerly-independent Macondo and José Arcadio
Buendía challenges him, stripping him of much of his authority. Despite the Moscotes
being enemies of the Buendía family, Aureliano falls in love with the youngest Moscote
daughter, Remedios.

Waiting for his betrothed to come of age, Aureliano, too, sleeps with Pilar Ternera.
Meanwhile, the Buendía daughters, Amaranta and Rebeca, fall in love with Pietro
Crespi, the Italian pianola expert hired to give them dancing lessons. Crespi chooses
Rebeca, and Amaranta vows to prevent their marriage. After Melquíades dies of old
age, José Arcadio Buendía’s obsessions with the mysteries of the world drive him to
madness. Convinced that each day is the same as the one before, he is tied to a tree in
the yard.

Remedios and Aureliano marry, but Amaranta sabotages the wedding of Pietro Crespi
and Rebeca, which was to happen on the same day. Remedios dies soon after the
wedding, pregnant with twins. When the eldest son, José Arcadio (who ran away with
the gypsies), returns, Rebeca cannot resist her attraction to her adopted brother and
they marry. Úrsula banishes the couple from the house. Aureliano takes an interest in
the Liberal side of the war with the Conservatives, leading a rebellion in town before
leaving to fight elsewhere. From this point on, he is known as Colonel Aureliano
Buendía.

Arcadio is in charge of the town after the victory of the Liberal party, but he quickly
becomes a dictator himself. Attracted to Pilar Ternera, he tries to sleep with her, but she
knows he is her son, and so she pays Santa Sofía de la Piedad to go in her place.
Arcadio marries her and she gives birth to their daughter Remedios the Beauty. When
the Liberals lose the war, Arcadio is executed by firing squad. Pietro Crespi proposes to
Amaranta but, despite her love for him, she declines. He commits suicide and she burns
her hand to punish herself, wearing a black bandage over the burn for the rest of her
life.

Colonel Aureliano Buendía and Colonel Gerineldo Márquez are sentenced to be

executed by firing squad. José Arcadio prevents the execution at the last minute, and
Colonel Aureliano Buendía returns to war. Eventually, he is deserted by the official
Liberal party for his radical actions, and he realizes he is fighting not for his ideals, but
out of pride, so he leaves the army. Santa Sofía de la Piedad gives birth to the twin
sons of her dead husband, naming them José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano
Segundo. Perhaps because of his recent brave actions saving his brother, José Arcadio
is murdered, and his widow Rebeca becomes a hermit. Colonel Gerineldo Márquez is
left to govern the town and pursues romance with Amaranta, but she spurns him, too.
Finally, José Arcadio Buendía, the patriarch tied to a tree, dies, and the sky rains yellow
flowers.
Aureliano José, the son of José Arcadio and Pilar Ternera, grows up and finds himself
attracted to his aunt Amaranta. They sleep naked together, but never consummate their
feelings. When she insists they stop sleeping together, he joins the army just before a
peace treaty is signed. Aureliano José deserts the army to tell Amaranta he wants to be
with her, but he is killed by a Conservative soldier as he returns home.

Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s seventeen sons arrive to Macondo to meet him just before
he returns to fight in an attempt to convince the Liberals to end the useless war once
and for all. He agrees to sign a treaty that he believes betrays both himself and his party
and then attempts to kill himself.

Having survived his suicide attempt, Colonel Aureliano Buendía secludes himself in his
workshop making fish out of gold. Both of the twin brothers sleep with the same
woman, Petra Cotes, though Aureliano Segundo’s relationship with her proves to be
long-lasting and has a magical effect on their livestock, making them incredibly fertile.
José Arcadio succeeds in bringing a boat down the river to Macondo, celebrating with a
carnival. Remedios the Beauty is named queen of the carnival but her position is
challenged by another queen, Fernanda del Carpio, and a riot breaks out, killing many
in the crowd.

The story flashes back to reveal more about Fernanda del Carpio’s upbringing in a
declining aristocratic home that gave her unrealistic expectations for her life. After the
carnival, Aureliano Segundo marries her, though their temperaments are not well-
matched, and Aureliano Segundo continues his affair with Petra Cotes. Fernanda del
Carpio and Aureliano Segundo have two children: Meme and José Arcadio (II). The
seventeen Aurelianos return to celebrate the anniversary of the armistice, receiving a
permanent mark of ashes on their foreheads for Ash Wednesday. Aureliano
Triste and Aureliano Centeno decide to remain in Macondo to build the ice factory their
grandfather had dreamed of and a railroad connecting Macondo to the outside world.

The arrival of the train brings with it other modern technologies and foreign investors in
a banana plantation across the river. Remedios the Beauty remains ignorant of all that
is changing in the village and of the deadly effect her beauty has on men. One day she
ascends into heaven, never to be seen again. Colonel Aureliano Buendía, dismayed by
the changes to the city, threatens to start a war to return Macondo to its original state.
He plans to use his seventeen sons as his army, but assassins kill all of his sons but
one.

Úrsula is going blind, but she is able to keep it a secret because she is so well
acquainted with people’s habits. José Arcadio and Meme go away to school, allowing
Aureliano Segundo the freedom to move in with Petra Cotes. Colonel Aureliano
Buendía dies.
Fernanda del Carpio gives birth to her third child, Amaranta Úrsula. The elder Amaranta
sews her funeral shroud and dies on the day it is finished. Úrsula, grieving the last of
her children, goes to bed and doesn’t move for many years.

Meme falls in love with a mechanic named Mauricio Babilonia, who is trailed constantly
by yellow butterflies. Fernanda del Carpio forbids Meme from seeing Babilonia, but he
sneaks in each night to make love to her. Fernanda del Carpio hires a guard who
shoots Mauricio Babilonia the next time he tries to visit, paralyzing him, and sends
Meme away to a convent. Several months later, a nun arrives to the Buendía house to
deliver the child Meme gave birth to, Aureliano. Fernanda, ashamed of the illegitimate
child, pretends he is an unrelated orphan and hides him.

José Arcadio Segundo organizes the banana plantation workers to strike for better
conditions. At a meeting to resolve their issues, an army kills 3000 of the workers
leaving only José Arcadio Segundo alive. Their bodies are loaded on a train and
dumped in the ocean, but no one in town believes this story. Rain begins to fall. José
Arcadio Segundo hides in Melquíades’ old room and trying to decipher the manuscripts.

The rain continues for nearly five years. Aureliano Segundo, trapped in his house,
begins to care for Amaranta Úrsula and little Aureliano. All of the livestock die in the
flood. Fernanda seeks treatment for a uterine disease by writing letters to “Imaginary
Doctors.” Aureliano Segundo believes he can find the fortune of gold coins Úrsula has
hidden somewhere in or around the house, digging up the land in search. The rain
ends, revealing a decimated Macondo.

Úrsula finally emerges from bed and then dies at the age of 120, closely followed by the
forgotten Rebeca. Aureliano Segundo begins to rapidly lose weight and hurries to earn
the money needed to send Amaranta Úrsula to school in Brussels. José Arcadio
Segundo shows his grandnephew Aureliano the progress he has made in deciphering
Melquíades’ manuscript, so that he might take up with the project after him. Aureliano
Segundo and José Arcadio Segundo, having completed the tasks they aimed to, die at
the same moment and their bodies are buried in each other’s graves.

Aureliano determines that Melquíade’s prophecies are written in Sanskrit and that they
will be deciphered when they are one hundred years old. Santa Sofia de la Piedad, all
but forgotten, walks away from the house without another word and, soon after,
Fernanda del Carpio dies. José Arcadio returns and finds the gold Úrsula had hidden
under her bed, squandering it on parties with the youth of the town, who eventually
drown him and steal his gold.

Amaranta Úrsula returns from Brussels with her husband Gaston on a leash. Aureliano
pines after Amaranta Úrsula, but he tries to distract himself by befriending an old
Catalonian bookseller and some young men who meet to talk about their studies at the
shop. At a brothel, Aureliano meets the ancient Pilar Ternera who gives him advice.
Aureliano admits his love to Amaranta Úrsula and they become lovers while Gaston is
on a business trip—Amaranta Úrsula tells him never to return.

The Catalonian bookseller and Aureliano’s friends all leave Macondo. The Buendía

house has been destroyed by a swarm of red ants. Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula bear
a child (which they name Aureliano) who, in line with Úrsula’s fears all those years ago,
is born with the tail of pig. Amaranta Úrsula dies soon after giving birth. Aureliano, in his
grief, forgets about the baby and finds it being devoured by ants. He finally deciphers
Melquíades’ prophecies, a history of the Buendía family. As he reads, a hurricane
destroys Macondo.

Retrieved from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Plot
Summary | LitCharts
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green
Plot Overview

Hazel Grace Lancaster is a seventeen-year-old living with cancer. At the request of her
mother, who believes she is depressed, Hazel attends a cancer support group in the
basement of a church. Hazel does not like the support group, but goes to make her
mother happy. One day upon arriving at the support group, however, Hazel is delighted
to see a handsome new boy in attendance. During the discussion, the attendees
introduce themselves, and Hazel learns the boy’s name is Augustus Waters. Augustus
has lost one of his legs to a form of cancer called osteosarcoma, but his cancer is now
in remission. He is there to support his friend, Isaac who has lost an eye to a rare form
of eye cancer and now must get the other eye removed.

After the meeting, August approaches Hazel and tells her she looks like Natalie
Portman from V for Vendetta. Hazel does not believe him because she carries an
oxygen tank and her cancer treatment has made her cheeks red and puffy, but they
continue to flirt. Augustus asks her to come over to his house to watch the movie with
him. Hazel agrees and after arriving at Augustus’ house, he introduces her to his
parents. Their house is loaded with sayings embroidered on different objects. While
hanging out, Hazel tells Augustus that she has thyroid cancer that has spread to her
lungs, but she has been spared some time through a cutting edge treatment that has
not been effective with many other people. Before leaving, Hazel tells him about a book
she is obsessed with called An Imperial Affliction. She tells that the novel is about a
young girl with cancer. She loves the book because of its honesty regarding the realities
of dying. The novel ends midsentence, which Hazel thinks is genius, as it portrays the
realities of death. She tells Augustus about her desire to contact the novels
author, Peter Van Houten, to find out what happens after the book ends. Augustus
agrees to read An Imperial Affliction if Hazel will read his favorite book The Price of
Dawn. Hazel tells Augustus they can talk again after she has finished The Price of
Dawn.

After reading, The Price of Dawn, which is particularly violent, but somehow enjoyable,
Hazel calls Augustus. He is consoling Isaac who was recently dumped by his
girlfriend, Monica. Hazel visits and watches them play video games until Isaac suddenly
breaks down and begins punching pillows. Eventually, Augustus tells him to break his
basketball trophies. After Hazel leaves, she does not talk to Augustus for a week. When
Augustus finally calls, they discuss An Imperial Affliction, and Augustus nonchalantly
says that he has contacted Van Houten through his assistant, Lidewij Vliegenthart.
Hazel cannot believe he was able to contact the reclusive author. Augustus shares their
conversation and tells Hazel his email address. Hazel begins developing a list of
questions to ask Van Houten, mostly dealing with the novel's sudden ending. She
desperately wants to know what happens to the main character’s family after she dies,
as she believes it will provide some insight unto what will happen to her own family after
she dies.

A few days after sending her email to Van Houten, he replies telling her that he can only
answer her questions in person. His reply saddens Hazel, as she thinks she will never
be able to make it to Amsterdam where Van Houten lives. Shortly after hearing from
Van Houten, Augustus invites Hazel to join him for a picnic. As they venture out into the
park and take a seat before a giant skeleton sculpture, Hazel begins to realize the picnic
is strangely Dutch-themed, including the presence of the statue, which was created by a
Dutch artist. During the picnic, August reveals that he wants to use his “wish”, a gift from
the “Genie Foundation” (comparable to the Make a Wish Foundation), to take Hazel to
Amsterdam. Hazel is ecstatic to hear this, but when Augustus reaches out to touch her
face, she pulls away. She reveals that she is afraid to get close to people because she
feels like a grenade—that her death will harm everyone close to her.

As Hazel contemplates what to do with Augustus’ offer, she grows ill and is forced to go
to the hospital. She ends up in the ICU for a few days. She later learns that Augustus
stayed in the hospital the whole time; even though she would not let him in the room for
fear he would see her in such a state. After Augustus shows her another letter from Van
Houten, Hazel becomes determined to go to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, Hazel’s parents
and the team of doctors who care for her determine she is not able to travel such a long
distance. Eventually, however, her favorite doctor, Dr. Maria, convinces her parents to
let her go.

Augustus, Hazel, and Hazel’s mother, Mrs. Lancaster, fly to Amsterdam. After checking
into their hotel, Hazel learns that Lidewij has made a reservation for Augustus and her
at a fancy restaurant called Oranjee. During dinner, they talk about life and death and
Augustus shares that he fears he will die without having done anything extraordinary.
Hazel is offended by the idea that only extraordinary lives are meaningful. Augustus
then tells Hazel about his ex-girlfriend who died of cancer. He laments the fact that
people idealize kids who die of cancer, and explains that his ex’s personality changed
due to her brain cancer, making her progressively more vicious toward Augustus until
she died.
The next day they visit Van Houten. Hazel is elated to finally get the answers she has
been waiting for about the end of An Imperial Affliction. Her dreams are shattered,
however, after they find out that Van Houten is a miserable, mean spirited alcoholic. He
claims he cannot give Hazel the answers she seeks, and rants about his nihilistic views
of life and death. Eventually he insults Hazel, telling her she is dependent upon pity and
that she, as a cancer survivor, is a side effect of evolution. Hazel slaps a glass of scotch
out of Van Houten’s hand and leaves with Augustus. Lidewij accompanies them out,
feeling sorry for the way Van Houten acted. Together, they visit the Anne Frank house.
In the attic space of the Anne Frank house, August and Hazel kiss, and to Hazel’s
surprise the other visitors applaud the young couple. After leaving the Ann Frank house,
they head back to the hotel. In Augustus’ hotel room, Hazel tells Augustus that she
loves him and they make love. The next day, Augustus confesses to Hazel that his
cancer has returned and has spread throughout his body.

Upon returning to the United States, Augustus’ condition continues to worsen. Hazel
watches as Augustus changes from a confident, humorous, beautiful young man to a
vulnerable, frightened, and decimated shell of his former self. Despite his condition,
Hazel continues to love him, and begins calling him Gus instead of Augustus, as his
parents do. Through the process of Augustus’ decline, Hazel realizes that Augustus has
become the grenade she feared she would be. In the final days before his passing,
Augustus arranges a pre-funeral in the church basement where they met. Isaac and
Hazel attend, and both deliver eulogies for Augustus. Hazel uses a line from An
Imperial Affliction, which states that there are infinite numbers between zero and one,
and an even larger infinity between zero and two. She follows this thought by stating
that she is grateful for each little infinity she was able to spend with Augustus.

Eight days after the pre-funeral, Augustus dies. Augustus’ mother contacts Hazel late
one night to tell her the news, and her parents stay by her side that night. His funeral
happens a few days later in the same church where the support group is held. Hazel is
frustrated when the pastor's talk about Augustus uses cancer clichés, saying how brave
he was and what an inspiration he was to everyone. Just then she is startled by a voice
that whispers the pastors message is a bunch of “horse crap”. She realizes it is Van
Houten sitting behind her. The funeral continues and Hazel reads her eulogy, which is
different than the one she read at his pre-funeral. She begins with a quote that hangs in
Augustus’ house: “Without pain, we couldn't know joy.”

After the funeral, Van Houten asks Hazel and her parents for a ride. He explains that
Augustus stayed in contact with him, and that he demanded Van Houten make up for
ruining their trip. He attempts to reveal the fate of Anna’s mother, but Hazel is
uninterested—she has her answers to what happens after death, as she is living
through it with Augustus’ passing. A few days after the funeral, Hazel finds out from
Isaac that Augustus was writing a sequel to An Imperial Affliction for her. As Hazel
attempts to go to Augustus’ house to find the writing, Van Houten, who is sitting in the
back seat of the car, once again startles her. He claims he wants to apologize, and tell
Hazel she reminds him of his daughter, Anna, who died of cancer when she was eight.
Hazel tells Van Houten to get sober and continue writing.

Eventually, Hazel finds out that Augustus had torn the written pages out of his notebook
and mailed them to Van Houten so he could use them to compose a eulogy about
Hazel. Van Houten sends the pages back to Hazel. The novel concludes with Augustus’
words. Hazel reads the letter, which states that getting hurt is inevitable, but we have a
choice in who we allow to hurt us. His letter concludes by stating that he was happy with
his choice, and he hopes Hazel likes her choice too. In the final line of the story, Hazel
says she does.

Retrieved from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Plot Summary | LitCharts
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

PLOT OVERVIEW

Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy
Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but
Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison
to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has
come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together.
Eventually, Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the
Radley Place. The house is owned by Mr. Nathan Radley, whose brother, Arthur
(nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without venturing outside.

Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts
apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the
following summer, and he, Scout, and Jem begin to act out the story of Boo Radley.
Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another
person’s perspective before making judgments. But, on Dill’s last night in Maycomb for
the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley property, where Nathan Radley shoots at
them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds
them mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more
presents in the tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Nathan Radley eventually
plugs the knothole with cement. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out in another
neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a blanket on Scout’s shoulders as
she watches the blaze. Convinced that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended
pants and the presents.

To the consternation of Maycomb’s racist white community, Atticus agrees to defend a

black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman.
Because of Atticus’s decision, Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse from other
children, even when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch’s
Landing. Calpurnia, the Finches’ black cook, takes them to the local black church,
where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the children.
Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, comes to live with the Finches the next summer. Dill, who is
supposed to live with his “new father” in another town, runs away and comes to
Maycomb. Tom Robinson’s trial begins, and when the accused man is placed in the
local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the
trial. Jem and Scout, who have sneaked out of the house, soon join him. Scout
recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into
dispersing the mob.

At the trial itself, the children sit in the “colored balcony” with the town’s black citizens.
Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob,
are lying: in fact, Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught by her father, and
then accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides impressive
evidence that the marks on Mayella’s face are from wounds that her father inflicted;
upon discovering her with Tom, he called her a whore and beat her. Yet, despite the
significant evidence pointing to Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts him. The
innocent Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot to death. In the aftermath of
the trial, Jem’s faith in justice is badly shaken, and he lapses into despondency and
doubt.

Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have made a fool out of
him, and he vows revenge. He menaces Tom Robinson’s widow, tries to break into the
judge’s house, and finally attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween
party. Boo Radley intervenes, however, saving the children and stabbing Ewell fatally
during the struggle. Boo carries the wounded Jem back to Atticus’s house, where the
sheriff, in order to protect Boo, insists that Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his
own knife. After sitting with Scout for a while, Boo disappears once more into the Radley
house.

Later, Scout feels as though she can finally imagine what life is like for Boo. He has
become a human being to her at last. With this realization, Scout embraces her father’s
advice to practice sympathy and understanding and demonstrates that her experiences
with hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness.

Retrieved from To Kill a Mockingbird: Plot Overview | SparkNotes