Title book: ‘The fault in our stars’
Author: John Green
Summary
Hazel Grace has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has to drag an oxygen tank everywhere she goes. She attends a cancer support group, where she meets Augustus Waters, who has had bone cancer. He has only one leg. Augustus was a friend from Isaac. Isaac is a friend of Hazel, who she’s met by the support group. Gus and Hazel watch a movie together and had introduced their favourite books. Hazel wants to meet her favourite author of ‘An Imperial Affliction’, Peter van Houten and so does Gus after reading the book. Hazel gets to know Gus’ ex-girlfriend who died from cancer. Because Hazel had already been given up, she already used her wishes from the wish-foundation for an outing in an amusement park. But Augustus didn’t. He uses his wish to go to Amsterdam, where Peter van Houten lives. They have the time of their lives in Amsterdam, but the meeting with Peter van Houten wasn’t what they had expected. He is an alcoholic and makes inappropriate statements. They didn’t get the answers what happened with the characters at the end of the book. The last day of their trip Augustus tells Hazel that he has cancer again. When they are home Augustus is becoming more sick. Hazel suddenly sees that she has made a mistake by keeping her relatives at a distance. The roles have now turned around and Hazel would never have wanted Augustus to keep her at a distance just because it would hurt her if he died. During the last phase of his life, Hazel is often with him. Augustus has organised his own prefuneral. He wanted to hear what Hazel and Isaac were going to tell on his real funeral. He died 8 days after his prefuneral. His mother called Hazel at three thirty in the morning. Hazel’s heart broke when she heard it. Peter van Houten is suddenly at his funeral. For a moment it seems as if he is going to help her with answers, but then he will behave strangely again. During this contact, Hazel finds out that Van Houten has lost a daughter of cancer and that he probably has been tapped for that reason. After the death of Augustus, Hazel finds out that he was writing an end for the book. She searches everywhere but can’t find anything. In the end Augustus didn’t write the end, but asked van Houten to write it for Hazel, because he was to ill.
Title
In an e-mail to Augustus from Van Houten he quotes a quote of Shakespeare: ‘’The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.’’
Van Houten thinks that Shakespeare is wrong, and that the fault is in our stars. Hazel and Augustus could have lived their whole lives, but because a fault in their stars, the fate has determined that they get cancer. And then their lives are limited.
Characters
3. The main characters:
Hazel: Hazel Grace Lancaster is a girl, who has incurable cancer. She has no hope left and she doesn’t want people to help her. She doesn’t have many friends and her mother really wants that her daughter makes new friends at the support group. Hazel has sometimes an outbreak, wherein she tells that her father and mother do not love her and that they need to go on with their own lives because when Hazel dies there is nobody left and then her parents aren’t parents anymore. Hazel can also be very helpful and supportive and knows often the right words to say. She can also poet really good.
Augustus: Augustus Waters, is a boy, who beat cancer. He is afraid of oblivion. He is very kind and helpful, and always tries to cheer people up. He wants that he would be remembered when he died. He doesn’t talk much about his feelings. He really loves Hazel. He wants all the best for her. Even at the end of his live he keeps enjoying life.
4. I find Hazel a nice character. I could really sympathize with her. She has some concerns about how life would be and these are not separately considering her illness. When she meets Augustus she changed so much. And all her concerns became less because of Augustus is her life. She really loved him and she first couldn’t embrace the fact that he died, which makes sense. But later she could and only remembered all the things he did to her, and all the memories they made.
5. I didn’t like Peter van Houten. He was an crazy alcoholic and wasn’t sympathetic to Hazel and Augustus. He made some nasty remarks about their illnesses. He also doesn’t want to answer the questions. He doesn’t like that Hazel and Augustus came to the Netherlands, because according to him, it wasn’t an invitation but more a statement to be nice. He also didn’t respect the illnesses of Augustus and Hazel.
Time
6. It isn’t told exactly when the story took place. It is I think in the summer, because in Amsterdam it was sunny and they could sit on the terrace outside.
7. The time can be nowadays, because they use their phones and because they had a very luxurious hotel.
8. The time didn’t have a big role in the story, but using their phones was important, because many chats were also on the phone. The rest of book can be at every time.
Space
9. The story takes place in the Children’s hospital, Augustus’ home, Hazel’s home and in Amsterdam (on the terrace, in the hotel and at Peter van Houten’s).
10. The place was not really necessary. The only necessary place was Amsterdam and the hospital.
Fiction or reality
11. This story is fiction, but really realistic, because cancer I one of the main reasons why people die nowadays. All the feelings of Hazel are realistic and makes sense. All of the things that happens in this book is so real, such as the wish from Augustus and the Anne Frankhuis.
Final conclusion
All in all, I would recommend this to everybody. This book has a motive and has such a strong relationship between illness and death and love and sadness. I think every individual can learn something from this book. It did me really think about my life. I can’t think of something that I didn’t like about this book.