Thank you everyone for your notes on our forums discussing FIOS and the use of symbolism and imagery. There were  some great statements about characters' various interpretations, fears, and beliefs about mortality in FIOS and commentary about the metaphor of scrambled eggs and the categorizing of cancer patients.  

Our books are continually grappling with reoccurring themes of mortality, transformation, and acceptance--fitting into a certain community, culture, family, mindset, ideologies...etc. I'm always interested to see any of you taking a question as a prompt and running with it in a creative direction. As always keep drawing on textual support and adding your own insights in all of your forums, quiz responses, and formal paper assignments.

 

As usual I copied some thoughtful examples below from other semesters to broaden our conversation even further. In these samples pay attention to the use of quotes. Remember for your papers that you want quotes that don't merely summarize something that happened; in those summary cases you want to paraphrase not quote. With your quoted passages you want to find moments that really dig deeper with important themes or emotional moments that help use better understand a character. When trying to find a powerful quote look for moments of unraveling or recognition and moments of profound insight or desperation.

 

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What representations and symbolism of the culture of death/dying do you see? Explain their significance/meaning. How do they fit with or push back against those you have experienced in your own life and culture?

 

From Jacqueline:  (*I appreciate Jacqueline’s bravery in sharing her personal story.) 

Coincidentally, the main plot of “A Fault in our Stars” is running parallel with the current events in my life. Monday, I lost a family member to cancer. It’s uncomfortable to even write that sentence. It was difficult for me to read about Augustus’ being “…poisoned by an infected G-tube that kept him alive, but not alive enough” (245), as all I could imagine was my own family member’s G-tube. Although the woman in my life who has passed was older than Hazel, Hazel Grace opened my eyes to a new perspective of the tragedy.

People are not supposed to die. Whether we admit it or not, each of us, deep down, thinks, “the people in my life are not going to die.” Though we may recognize death as a natural part of the life cycle, we refuse to believe death will one day knock on our front door and take a piece of our heart away. Death is always that touchy subject that calls upon cliché phrases and quiet mourning. We do not celebrate grief in our culture, we’ve almost created a completely separate “grief culture” with grief counseling, breaking down the stages of grief and allowing people their space for bereavement.   

Death, in all shapes and forms is ugly. Green captures Hazel’s approaching death by often personifying cancer in his novel. When Hazel recalls a memory of hers in the ICU, she says she, “…couldn’t catch [her] breath, and [her] lungs were acting desperate, gasping, pulling [her] out of the bed trying to find a position that could get them air, and [she] was embarrassed by their desperation, disgusted that they wouldn’t just let go” (25). What happens to your physical body through cancer is hideous and painful and Green gives a demanding voice to the monster of cancer because, “’Pain demands to be felt’” (57).

One of the hardest parts of watching my family member die, was hearing about her process of realizing her fate. The hard wall of determination intertwined with frantic worry and desperation. Hazel also talks about the “side affects” of dying. With cancer, the process of death is so slowed, so painfully drawn out, we can’t help but to recognize the mental and emotional tides. Hazel tells us that despite her recognizing the ups and downs of her lung’s abilities, she, “…still… worried. [She] liked being a person. [She] wanted to keep at it. Worry was yet another side effect of dying” (65).

When people are diagnosed with cancer, their visions of the future seem to become much more limited and focused. Hazel calls herself, “’…a grenade…[she] just want[s] to stay away from people and read books and think and be with [her parents] because there’s nothing [she] can do about hurting [them]; [they’re] too invested’” (99). This perfect symbolism Green describes through his main character is so heartbreakingly real. Hazel, like my family member, is forced to accept their inevitable fate and watch as their loved ones suffer.

As I read this novel, I couldn’t stop thinking about the heroism we associate with those who die from cancer. Of course I envision my family member as a strong, beautiful woman—I would believe that had she not been diagnosed with cancer too. But then I must ask myself why I think this now that she is gone…is it because I truly admire her strength to fight cancer or is it because it is much easier to revere her in such light? Hazel fears that she too will be dubbed with a hero role, “…as if the only thing [she] ever d[id] was Have Cancer” (100). After a boy from Support Group passes, Lida tells Hazel, “He’d fought hard,” and Hazel thinks to herself, “…as if there were another way to fight” (129). I don’t believe there is another way to fight.  

 

 

From Kaylee:

Death/dying culture is conveyed very casually through the interactions among Hazel, Gus, and others from support group. There is a sort of unspoken understanding between Hazel and her fellow cancer victims that illustrates their acknowledgement of their unique culture. One of the first symbols of death/dying that is introduced is Hazel's oxygen tank. It is a symbol for the baggage she must carry and the fact that she can never escape her illness. Even as she tries to be a normal teenager, the tank must go everywhere with her. Many terminal illnesses such as cancer do not have blatant physical manifestations; simply looking at the afflicted person might not offer any inclination to their health. But Hazel's oxygen tank is a reminder, to her and to the world, of her cancer. Throughout the novel, certain phrases get capitalized as though they are universal experiences that every person with cancer shares.  "I didn't want to take the elevator because taking the elevator is a Last Days kind of activity at Support Group, so I took the stairs" (8). The elevator is a symbol of the end, the "Last Days," as one no longer has the energy to take the stairs. It is a symbol of succumbing to the easier option. It is a choice that most of the world would over look, but to another dying person, it shows the end is near. And Hazel's determination to take the stairs represents her desire to fight on and how she isn't ready to give up yet.  The treatment of those who are dying by those who aren't dying is another aspect of the culture of dying. "Cancer Perks are the little things cancer kids get that regular kids don't" (23). Hazel and Gus acknowledge the special treatment they receive because they are dying. The word "Perk" also insinuates it is one of the few positive aspects of dying. As well as "Cancer Perks," Hazel and Gus casually refer to a "Wish" (80), referring to a dream fulfilled by the Make a Wish Foundation, which is only granted to dying kids. The casual way they refer to it, with little explanation, symbolizes the stereotypical and "standard" experiences of dying kids. Hazel also talks about her "Cancer Miracle" (26) as though it is another universal experience among those with cancer. 

Hazel refers to her dying culture in some direct ways as well. "I woke up and soon got into one of those experimental trials that are famous in the Republic of Cancervania for Not Working" (25). Here, she provides a name for the culture of those with cancer, acknowledging they are a separate entity from the rest of the population. She could have omitted the "Republic of Cancervania" and conveyed the point that trials often don't have success. But the inclusion of the phrase emphasizes the significance of trials and their success/failure for those who are dying. The results of experimental trials, to a non-dying person, may be interesting, but ultimately not important. To someone who is dying, they become extremely important (in Hazel's case, her Miracle) as they could mean life.

This demonstrates the different values those who are dying gain. Hazel also acknowledges her departure from "normal" society when she talks about her friend Kaitlyn. "But three years removed from proper full-time schoolic exposure to my peers, I felt a certain unbridgeable distance between us" (45). Her illness means she's no longer a part of normal culture and she feels that distinction. Kaitlyn is a symbol of the normal culture that Hazel is estranged from, and their interactions paint a sort of awkwardness between the healthy and the dying. I have never had to interact intimately with someone who is dying, or rather knew they were dying, so my experiences with dying culture are limited, but the symbolism of Kaitlyn seems very accurate to me. I wouldn't really know what to say because I've never really had to face my own mortality. Whether or not you recognize it as a "culture" of sorts, you definitely feel the difference in presence.

 

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 There is a lot of symbolism and metaphor in FIOS.  Pick out some of themes and analyze their meaning and importance. ____(For ex: grenades, war, water, swing set, prosthetic leg, cigarette, heart of Jesus, Dutch Tulip Man, ghettoization of scrambled eggs, etc. etc.)


 

From Andrea:

There is so much symbolism in The Fault In Our Stars that it’s difficult to choose just a few to discuss.  The first and most obvious symbol is the oxygen tank.  It represents the weight of carrying the work and worry of dealing with cancer.  Throughout the book, people offer to carry Hazel’s tank. You can almost hear her mother’s wish to take this burden from her daughter when she says, “Do you want me to carry it in for you” (8)?  But very rarely does Hazel turn it over to someone else even though she refers to it as the “ball-and chaining” (20).  She wants to be strong enough to go through the journey.  

Another symbol of the exhaustion of going through cancer treatments is presented by Augustus when he wonders “if hurdlers ever thought, you know, This would go faster if we just got rid of the hurdles” (31).  This is a great symbol of the race towards death that both Hazel and Augustus are running.  The hurdles are the various treatments, appointments, pain, support groups, and illnesses that each must go through as they move towards their inevitable deaths.  Cancer patients become weary of the struggle and question the value of the fight but continue on for the ones they love.

Of course, the most prevailing and continuing symbol is that of the grenade.  Hazel first presents this symbol in reference to Caroline Mathers who “had been a bomb and when she blew up everyone around her was left with embedded shrapnel” (98).  She then relates herself to a grenade when she tells her mother “I’m like a grenade, Mom.  I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, … there’s nothing I can do about hurting you; you’re too invested…I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade” (99).  She worries about her friends and especially Augustus. “I wanted to know that he would be okay if I died.  I wanted to not be a grenade” (172).

Hazel was especially worried about her parents.  “There is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen and that’s having a kid who bites it from cancer” (8).  This is obvious throughout the book and is symbolized by Hazel’s obsession with what happens to Anna’s mom and the Dutch Tulip guy.  I think she is actually worried about what will happen to her parents after her death. “Do you think you guys will stay together if I die?… I just don’t want to ruin your life or anything…. I don’t want you to become like a miserable unemployed alcoholic or whatever.  My mom smiled.  ‘Your father isn’t Peter Van Houten, Hazel’ ” (299).  It also explains her joy when she discovers her mother is taking classes.

Hazel comes to realize “only now that I loved a grenade did I understand the foolishness of trying to save others from my own impending fragmentation:  I couldn’t unlove Augustus Waters.  And I didn’t want to” (214).  Hazel’s dad puts it perfectly when he states, after Augustus dies, “But it was a sure a privilege to love him, huh? … Gives you an idea how I feel about you” (278). 

 

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Why does Hazel get so upset about the "ghettoization of scrambled eggs"?  What do you think she is really talking about? 

 

From Karlee:

Hazel, a character of stubborn honesty and humor, defines the “ghettoization of scrambled eggs” to an uncompromising fault. Having woken up at five thirty in the morning to an ecstatic mother, Hazel finds it in her strength to “…stomach down some eggs,” (137) before their flight to Amsterdam. Here lies the beginning of Hazel’s rant about breakfast, and quite possibly, her own opinions about dehumanization, “I mean seriously: How did scrambled eggs get stuck with breakfast exclusivity? You can put bacon on a sandwich without anyone freaking out. But the moment your sandwich has an egg, boom, it’s a breakfast sandwich” (137). I think society, in the view of author John Green through the character Hazel Grace, believes cancer patients and survivors alike, to assume the image of heroism by excessively portraying gratefulness, integrity, and bravery through the entirety of their existence with cancer. Cancer patients are essentially living out the heroism society craves by becoming increasingly more symbolic than human, thus being already dead through the eyes of society. Scrambled eggs, therefore, are cancer patients submitting to the purpose of being only a breakfast food rather than, say; bacon, or non-cancer humans, who can be either a breakfast food or anything it’s added to: sandwich, pasta, soup, and etcetera.

As I read through John Green’s quote in our Note’s section, I found the purpose for writing this fictional novel compelling and true, “I wanted to show that people in dying often become weaker and more human, but that this humanness is what is actually heroic, not grand gestures of sacrificial suffering”. Cancer patients are not just scrambled eggs expected and assumed to serve only one purpose. They are, rather, everything they ever want to be and more than some will ever be. They are not born to be heroes: they are born to be humans. John Green is more of a hero in my eyes to understand this than any cancer patient probably ever wants to be. Augustus Waters understood this too when he asked Hazel the question, “So what’s your story? (32)” weeks before Hazel’s rant about scrambled eggs. Explaining further her humanness, “No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, weird fetishes, etcetera. (32)” Maybe this question was the moment Hazel stopped seeing herself as a cancer patient and finally as just herself: Hazel Grace Lancaster.

 

From Autumn:

Hazel gets upset about the ghettoization of scrambled eggs because she does not understand why they are strictly a breakfast food, and as silly as it may be, she even admits to feeling bad for them. “I want to have scrambled eggs for dinner without this ridiculous construction that a scrambled egg-inclusive meal is breakfast even when it occurs at dinnertime.” (138). Hazel points out to her father that it is not the same to simply have eggs for dinner unless it would get rid of the conception that it is still having breakfast just at a different time of the day. I believe that Hazel is really talking about herself and those who have cancer who are segregated into their own subset and never allowed out. Meaning that after a person is diagnosed with cancer they are nothing more than that cancer from there on out, it becomes who they are and changes the way everyone will ever treat them again. It wouldn’t matter even if they were cured of their cancer they would forever go on being remembered as nothing more than someone who got over cancer, rather than who they actually were. She compares this to the scrambled eggs that even though they are a food just like all the other foods they are stuck as always being thought of as a breakfast food as she is always thought of as being stuck as a person with cancer. When she talks with Augustus about it she mentions a keen point, “You’re arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that’s a lie, and you know it.” (145). Augustus tells Hazel that the scrambled eggs are special because they have their own category and Hazel comes back with this statement about the impossibility of that. What Hazel says here is most important because it can clearly be tied in with her having cancer and people looking at her as if she is so special simply because of that. Hazel obviously disagrees that because someone has cancer that they are suddenly better than everyone else or that their own personal category makes them anymore important.

  

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What representations and sybolism of the culture of death/dying do you see? Explain their significance/meaning. How do they fit with or push back against those you have experienced in your own life and culture?

  

From Stevie:

The book, The Fault in Our stars, is practically centered around death. It's a novel about cancer, and half of the people in it are diagnosed with cancer or have had it in the past. Death is something that we cannot avoid; it's going to happen to everyone one day. Hazel seems to accept that fact, and lives her life (with the help of Gus) even though she knows she is dying. At first, she never did much because she was dying and accepted that fact. "Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant time to thinking about death" (3). Hazel realizes she is going to die, so she accepts it but doesn't live her life to the fullest. Once she meets Gus, she realizes what she's been missing and starts living her life. He gives her hope and doesn't make her think about dying.

Gus, on the other hand, has been cancer free and is living life to the fullest. Not looking at death; mostly ignoring it. "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend" (11), Gus says while talking about how he feels now that he is cancer free. THere are many symbols that often represent death throughout the book. For example, when Gus puts a cigarette in his mouth while talking to Hazel. He says, "It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing" (20). I think this is a brilliant symbol of death brought about it in the book, and it also shows how Gus deals with his emotions as the story continues. He finds himself putting a cigarette in between his lips when he gets anxious, sad, and even angry or frustrated. It becomes a symbol to him, that he won't let it kill him. He is not letting anyone or anything get the power to kill him. He is in total control, and that makes him feel better about his situation.

I enjoy this book because it doesn't look at death as a negative thing. Of course, it is sad and overwhelming, but it gives you a sense of peace that they are in a better place. It makes you realize that death is inevitable and one day it is going to happen. "The world is not a wish granting factory" (214), Gus said this when he found out that cancer had spread throughout his body. He makes the realization that this is how it is going to be, and still continues to try to be happy with the rest of his life.

Now my experiences with death are quite different, and because of my experiences I don't look at death negatively. I see it as something that is going to happen to all of us one day, so why fear it? My best friend in high school chose to take her own life, and that is the main reason I look at death so differently from what I used to. I think that if you are truly not happy with your life and you think that dying is the only thing that can resolve your depression, then so be it. Not that I'm promoting suicide, but I believe that my friend thought she was going to be in peace and I have to respect that. It definitely made me look at death differently and see how things can change instantly. I also saw first hand how death can change someone; usually in a negative way, and that is why I choose to look at death positively. It is the end of someone's suffering, and I look at that as happiness. I have experienced other deaths through tragedies and illnesses and they have all changed my perspective on dying. The Fault in Our Stars has a certain connection with the theme of death to my life. I try to look at it the same way Gus did, and try to accept it just like Hazel did.

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Why was Caroline Mathers included? Why was she portrayed the way she was?

 

From Arian:

I loved that the author included Caroline in the book. It added to the realness/rawness of what dying is and who people are. Our society places a holiness around those dying and those who take care of them. Caroline helped to show that no matter who we are, or whether people like us or know us when we are healthy and alive, in the end there is such a stigma to wronging the deceased that we literally take it in a 180 degree direction and glorify them as a good person. Augustus references what he knew when she was healthy and when she was sick, “cancer kids are not statistically more likely to be awesome or compassionate or perseverant or whatever. Caroline was always moody and miserable” (173-174). The 180 is evidenced when Hazel goes to Caroline’s tribute page and sees all of the good things said about her, “I went back to Caroline Mather’s tribute pages, reading about how heroic her fight was, and how much she was missed “(100).

This applies to those who take care of the patients as well nurses and doctors. Our society acts as if these are such noble professions, saying things like, “I could never do your job, you must have a good heart” or “you must really care about people”. Hazel and Isaac point out the irritation they feel towards one nurse on page 75, “”Qualities of a good nurse: Go [ . . . ] 1. Doesn’t pun on your disability [ . . . ] 2. Get’s blood on the first try [ . . . ] Seriously that is huge. I mean is this my freaking arm or a dartboard? 3. No condescending voice””.

The reality is, we are all human, and we all have imperfection in our souls. Dying young from a terminal illness does not mean you weren’t cruel or a brat when you were living, just like working as a nurse or doctor does not mean you like people any more than the next guy. The question then surfaces why do we glorify those with terminal illnesses or those who take care of them? My theory is this glorification is based on fear. We glorify and “do not speak ill of the dead” due to the fact that we are afraid of eternal damnation. Or that others will speak cruelly of us when we end up with disease or pass away. When someone is sick do we feel that we will deflate their balloon of hope if we call them out on who we think they really are? As stated by Van Houten, “Like all sick children, you say you don’t want pity, but your very existence depends upon it” (192). And concerning health care workers, are we afraid they are just like us, so when we get sick they may judge us when we are at our worst.

This being said is there really any harm in allowing something as scary as disease or death and the industry that caters to it to stay hidden behind its veil of holiness? Probably not but it does allow us to remain in question of the unknown and what death really means to us as individuals. We can avoid pondering these hardships until they stare us in the face but then we cover them up so others do not need to share in the ugliness and raw realities that lie behind the cloak of death and the dying. So in closing I’d like to quote Hazel’s dad, “I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed” (223). Elegance in the form of darkness and light.

 

From Kathryn:

The reference to Caroline Mathers, Augustus’s ex-girlfriend, is significant to the story and the characters in The Fault in our Stars for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, Hazel and Gus are teenagers, and the mention of the ex-girlfriend does bring up some essentially teenage feelings. Hazel remarks, “My healthy self looked very little like her healthy self” (96). When she begins to examine her hesitations for dating Gus and immediately has the predictable “angsty-youth” reaction of searching for Caroline on the internet.

Ultimately however, although Hazel’s normal youth-based tendencies are important to this novel in a way that is refreshing in a book about a girl with cancer, the references to Caroline Mathers go much deeper than Hazel’s curiosity of Gus’s ex-girlfriend. Caroline, to Hazel, represents what she may become to Gus as a girlfriend and what she may become to those closest to her if her cancer is to take her life. She looks at the things written on Caroline’s support page and sees a comment about Caroline. When she think about the comment later and it’s reference to the way everyone was affected by Caroline’s battle she remembers the word, “Wounded, like Caroline Mathers had been a bomb and when she blew up everyone around her was left with embedded shrapnel” (98). Hazel thinks about Gus’s ex girlfriend because she is extremely concerned about how her death will impact those she loves most. She says to her mom, “I’m like. Like. I’m like a grenade, Mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?” (99)

Throughout the book, Hazel displays bravery in the face of her own death, but what she cannot face is the sadness of those she may leave behind. Caroline is significant because she is a real example of what can happen to the people left behind after someone they love dies of cancer. Caroline is even more symbolic when we realize that she was not much more than a symbolic figure in Gus’s life. Her cancer was so extreme that Gus was never able to determine if something came from her or her brain tumor. Because of this, she is a symbol of Hazel’s biggest fear. She says, “I wanted to know that he would be okay if I died. I wanted to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people I loved. Just, like, what happened” (172). Hazel wants to be more to Gus than just something that happened in his life. Caroline Mathers symbolizes how a person can become a figure or representation of something else. Hazel wants to separate her life and her love from her disease.

From Alayna:

“Caroline, I believe is included as an example of the darker side of  cancer that we don't always see with Gus and Hazel. The story between Hazel and Gus is very romantic and so is the aspect of death portrayed ithe book. Caroline shatters the illusion that death is somehow romantic and that people who are dying or dead are beautiful and soulful because she is the exact opposite. Gus describes her as having no filter between her brain and her mouth and as the "asshole tumor" got worse she got worse. This contrasts directly with the description of Hazel's near death experience because while Hazel was very sick the way she describes it is almost spiritual. Caroline is very much a foil to Hazel.”

 

 

From Meri: 

“My issue is that there seems to be a blanket assumption that suggests every sick person is an innocent and moral individual who such a tragedy has befallen. Had this not happened, they would have been an otherwise outstanding individual that treats everyone with grace. Whether we do this because there is no etiquette for acknowledging a sick person’s past misdeeds, we worry about being cruel or that it is bad karma, or some other reason, this is not true. There are bad and mean healthy people in the world and there are bad and mean sick people in the world. A diagnosis does not pardon anyone’s past misdeeds. We do not say or acknowledge this though because it is considered horrible. That is why I think Caroline Mathers was included, to illustrate that there is a diversity among the sick as well. We tend to label someone by their diagnosis but in that we seem to forget that they are individuals, as well. They are capable of being kind, gracious and sweet. But they are just as capable of being mean, cruel and disdainful. I think Greene was introducing the reality of the sick and the dying, which I feel makes his book all the more compelling. By steeping his novel in actuality he makes it more real.”

 

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Now let's look at some other standout responses:

 

Hannah has some important notes about Hazel coming to terms not only with the loss she will inflict on others, and also the loss she will feel herself:

“The last reason I want to mention is that I think her story, and the reality that Gus is going to die help her understand the love that everyone close to her has for her. When Gus finally tells Hazel that he is dying she thinks, "...and only now that I loved a grenade did I understand the foolishness of trying to save others from my own impending fragmentation: I couldn't unlove Augustus Waters. And I didn't want to." (214) 

I think she is realizing for the first time that shes not this burden on those around her. August loved Caroline at her worst, he couldn't help it. Hazel loves Augustus and she can't help it, she doesn't want to back out now that things are going to get really really hard (as if they weren't hard enough already). She understands that this is why Gus couldn't just let her go and wanted to love her anyways and why her family stuck so close by her. Even if she pushed everyone away is wasn't going to lessen their pain when she died, just like nothing was going to lessen her pain when Augustus died. Like their favorite author said, "Pain demands to be felt."(57) Augustus felt it when Caroline died, she would feel it when Augustus died, her family would feel it when she died, and there was nothing she could do about that. And that wasn't okay, but that's the way it was going to be no matter what she did.”

 

 

Second responses are important too and as they are worth just as many points as your first post they should be just as fully fleshed out and analytical. Here is an example of Jessica’s thoughtful second response post:

 “Hi Meri, I love the point you made in your post, “My issue is that there seems to be a blanket assumption that suggests every sick person is an innocent and moral individual who such a tragedy has befallen”. I have also thought about this issue, even before this book. I do believe that it is important to be sympathetic toward sick people, but, I also don’t believe that they should all be viewed as innocent, pleasant people because not all of them are. I like when Gus says, “I mean, to be honest, she was a bitch. But you can’t say that, because she had this tumor, and also she’s, I mean, she’s dead” (174).

As a society we get weird when it comes to dying. If someone is an unpleasant person, typically being sick isn’t going to change that. Them being dead doesn’t change who they were before they passed away either. We get all uncomfortable, secretive and we don’t like to bring up the person who has passed in conversation, or talk about death in general. We seem to sugarcoat everything, and show sympathy even if we didn’t like the person, or really know them. We see this in the beginning of the book when Hazel searches Caroline on the internet after Gus mentioned her briefly for the first time. She saw many people posting sympathetic comments to her.

With that said, in our society, it would be rude to not acknowledge that someone has passed. Death has just become such a touchy topic. I also agree with you in saying that Greene added Caroline in the book to show diversity in the sick, and not everyone who is sick is a good person. Even though they are dealing with something so hard and awful, that alone, doesn’t make them a good person.”


 

Let’s look at Tara’s informed commentary below about the culture or representation of death/dying:

“While throughout the book there is the fear of imposing death there is a greater fear of dying and leaving grief on their loved ones. Its one of the things that Hazel struggles with the most in the book, she wants her family to be able to move on after her death. There is a great deal of suffering that these people go through in battling with cancer but they tend to think of it as something that is "inevitable."

Even though it is sad to think about leaving your loved ones grieving over you at the end you release its kind of a mix between bad and good. At the end knowing that people care about you enough to mourn you when your gone says that you left your mark on this world. "The pain you cause others when you die is a mark that you mattered." I think this is the most meaningful message throughout this book. I feel it holds a deeper meaning than even death itself. 

When your dying the things that go through your mind is the people you have met along the way and who will be the ones to miss you when your gone. I have some knowledge of this myself when i went through it with my best friend. She has cancer and i was there for her through some of her deepest darkest points. At the beginning she didn't even want to tell anyone because she didn't want to be treated differently. In the end she realized that she needed the people who love her close to her for support.  

This book kind of hits home for me because it reminds me of what my friend has went through and what she will go through until she hopefully goes into remission. Its one of the reasons i know that the fear of what will happen once your gone is one of the most important meanings of this book because i have watched my friend go through it herself. 

"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and i know that love is just a shout to the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that were all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and i know the sun will swallow the only earth well ever have, and i am in love with you." (153)

This is what Augustus said to Hazel and i think that what he is saying is that love is like dying. You cant decide when you want to die just like you cant decide who or when you fall in love, but it happens and it changes you. This is my favorite quote in this book because death is always around the corner, some sooner than later, but it doesn't mean you should stop living or loving. It means you should make the most of that love while you can. “

 

Let’s look at Amanda’s post highlighting such an important message about Hazel’s hierarchy of needs. I love that Amanda is looking at how Hazel feels she is deemed as “less than human” by being stuck on the second level of Maslow’s hierarchy. Conversely at other times Hazel talks about how ill people are treated as martyrs or sainted figures. So the ill among us are either less than human or more than human following these analogies. This concept of treatment, marginalization, misrepresentation, and perception would make for a provocative essay for Paper # 2.

“Hazel uses the grenade as a representation of the hurt that would be caused by her death.  She also used the grenade as a reason that Gus should avoid falling in love with her.  Later in the book I find it interesting that Hazel references Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in reference to love. She said, according to Maslow, “I was stuck on the second level of the pyramid, unable to feel secure in my health and therefore unable to reach for love and respect and art and whatever else…” (212).   She also said, “Maslow’s pyramid seemed to imply that I was less human than other people…” (213).

Hazel and Gus’ story proves this idea to be extremely untrue.  While both of them are battling cancer and possibly death, meaning that they couldn’t possibly be secure in their health, they both felt love for each other.  While they lacked security on the hierarchy of needs they still had social needs.  Having cancer and dying doesn’t mean that all of your other needs do not need to be met or that you don’t yearn for them to be met.  Hazel believing that she could prevent from hurting Gus came full circle when she analyzed the idea of this hierarchy.  Not only can one prevent from loving, but you can also feel many of these needs even when you are dying.


Last modified: Saturday, 19 October 2019, 8:34 AM