The Role of Fate in The Fault in Our Stars
In John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, fate plays a key role in shaping the characters’ lives as well as the plot of the story. The novel follows the life of Hazel Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old girl with terminal cancer. At a Support Group, she meets Augustus Waters, a seventeen-year-old cancer survivor whom she immediately falls in love with. The two quickly develop a strong relationship through their shared understanding of living with cancer and a fictional novel called “An Imperial Infliction,” by Peter Van Houten, which is about a young girl and her journey with cancer. Illness, brought on by fate, puts the characters of Hazel, Augustus, and Peter Van Houten into circumstances beyond their …show more content…
Hazel self-identifies by her illness; however, she did not choose to have it. Instead, cancer is something out of her control. At Support Group, when asked to introduce herself, Hazel says, “I’m Hazel, I’d say when they’d get to me. Sixteen. Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs” (Green, 5). Hazel states her illness directly after her name and age which shows how important it is as a part of her identity. The cancer in Hazel’s lungs that she describes, as well as the circumstances surrounding her illness, have been predetermined by fate. It is also fate that puts Augustus in a wheelchair and prevents him from living the life of a regular teenage boy. Augustus’ cancer returns after him being cancer-free for almost a year. Hazel, upon seeing him after surgery, immediately notices the physical changes he had gone through. “He met me at the door in his wheelchair, no longer the muscular, gorgeous boy who stared at me at Support Group, but still half smiling, still smoking his unlit cigarette, his blue eyes bright and alive” (234). While Augustus can control his attitude towards the situation as seen by his ability to stay smiling despite suffering, he had no control over the physical changes done to his body. Nobody chooses to be confined to a wheelchair, but Augustus’s bad luck and unfortunate destiny puts …show more content…
The characters’ circumstances are based largely on fate as seen through the affects of cancer on the lives of Hazel, Augustus, and Peter Van Houten. Through the unpredictability of Hazel’s cancer, Isaac’s sudden blindness, and Augustus’ death, it can be seen how fate has control over the characters’ illnesses. Lastly, fate is what drives Augustus and Hazel’s relationship. Fate is a powerful force that rules almost every aspect of life as is demonstrated by the main characters and events in The Fault in Our
In John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, fate plays a key role in shaping the characters’ lives as well as the plot of the story. The novel follows the life of Hazel Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old girl with terminal cancer. At a Support Group, she meets Augustus Waters, a seventeen-year-old cancer survivor whom she immediately falls in love with. The two quickly develop a strong relationship through their shared understanding of living with cancer and a fictional novel called “An Imperial Infliction,” by Peter Van Houten, which is about a young girl and her journey with cancer. Illness, brought on by fate, puts the characters of Hazel, Augustus, and Peter Van Houten into circumstances beyond their …show more content…
Hazel self-identifies by her illness; however, she did not choose to have it. Instead, cancer is something out of her control. At Support Group, when asked to introduce herself, Hazel says, “I’m Hazel, I’d say when they’d get to me. Sixteen. Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs” (Green, 5). Hazel states her illness directly after her name and age which shows how important it is as a part of her identity. The cancer in Hazel’s lungs that she describes, as well as the circumstances surrounding her illness, have been predetermined by fate. It is also fate that puts Augustus in a wheelchair and prevents him from living the life of a regular teenage boy. Augustus’ cancer returns after him being cancer-free for almost a year. Hazel, upon seeing him after surgery, immediately notices the physical changes he had gone through. “He met me at the door in his wheelchair, no longer the muscular, gorgeous boy who stared at me at Support Group, but still half smiling, still smoking his unlit cigarette, his blue eyes bright and alive” (234). While Augustus can control his attitude towards the situation as seen by his ability to stay smiling despite suffering, he had no control over the physical changes done to his body. Nobody chooses to be confined to a wheelchair, but Augustus’s bad luck and unfortunate destiny puts …show more content…
The characters’ circumstances are based largely on fate as seen through the affects of cancer on the lives of Hazel, Augustus, and Peter Van Houten. Through the unpredictability of Hazel’s cancer, Isaac’s sudden blindness, and Augustus’ death, it can be seen how fate has control over the characters’ illnesses. Lastly, fate is what drives Augustus and Hazel’s relationship. Fate is a powerful force that rules almost every aspect of life as is demonstrated by the main characters and events in The Fault in Our