Fates can become tangled, and stars can become crossed as life and death intermingle. This is the case in the novel The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Hazel and Augustus, the two main characters, are both teenagers diagnosed with terminal cancer. However this does not stop them from falling in love, even though they both know they will soon die. The characters’ identities before they both meet are constructed with their relationship with death. As the book develops they share their wisdom with each other on death, which changes the characters views on the diagnoses. Their identities shift from being based on matters of their cancer and death, to the parts of their life that they can control, or who they love. They reference the stars that
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Hazel is living a life of premature death before she meets Augustus. THe readers can see this in her daily routines described in the book. She only wants to sit in the house, watch television, and re-read her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. SHe only socializes in her support group for young cancer survivors in which she only sighs and nods. This demonstrates to the reader that her character identity revolves around her sickness and nothing else. In Hazel’s mind, she is simply the sick girl with an oxygen tank and no hope. Hazel meets Augustus in the support group, and he immediately is drawn to her. She is not just a cancer patient in his eyes, she is a beautiful girl. Hazel notices the attention she is getting from Augustus and sparks something that she had been missing, but refuses to let it get to her. Hazel views her diagnoses as a grenade: this is what her character identity centers around. She tells her parents, “I’m a grenade…I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing I can do about hurting you; you’re too invested,so please let me do that okay?... And I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade “ (Green 99). Hazel refuses to live her
Hazel is living a life of premature death before she meets Augustus. THe readers can see this in her daily routines described in the book. She only wants to sit in the house, watch television, and re-read her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. SHe only socializes in her support group for young cancer survivors in which she only sighs and nods. This demonstrates to the reader that her character identity revolves around her sickness and nothing else. In Hazel’s mind, she is simply the sick girl with an oxygen tank and no hope. Hazel meets Augustus in the support group, and he immediately is drawn to her. She is not just a cancer patient in his eyes, she is a beautiful girl. Hazel notices the attention she is getting from Augustus and sparks something that she had been missing, but refuses to let it get to her. Hazel views her diagnoses as a grenade: this is what her character identity centers around. She tells her parents, “I’m a grenade…I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing I can do about hurting you; you’re too invested,so please let me do that okay?... And I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade “ (Green 99). Hazel refuses to live her