Our Stars Themes

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green has a multitude of running themes throughout the novel. In my opinion, even though this is a fictional book, the themes, especially those pertaining to the way the universe works, are relatable and weigh on my people’s minds. For example, one theme is the fear of oblivion. I believe this is a theme in many people’s lives, not just in this book.
The most prevalent theme, in my opinion, is the insensitivity of the universe. This theme is supported by the characters and the event that occur with in the book. Overall, the predominant theme in the Fault in Our Stars is the insensitivity of the universe, because of the unceasing occurrence of bad things happening to good people, the strictly objective nature
of the universe, and the different ways the characters deal with this reality.

One piece of evidence supporting this theme is bad things happen to good people. First the main character Hazel, she is in my opinion a good person. As we all know, the idea of good and bad is subjective, but Hazel doesn’t purposely cause harm to the peoples she cares about. She is aware of the suffering she unintentionally causes and tries to minimize the casualties of this unavoidable pain, and to me this meet the requirements of being a good person. Yet, even though she is a good person, she is dying of stubborn cancer that refuses to be cured. In addition to this, her first, and probably last, love dies after only a short time of dating. Another good character affected by the insensitivity of the universe, was Isaac. Isaac already only had one working eye, a result from a previous attack from cancer, and was forced to lose his other eye in order to survive. During this already awful situation forced upon him, his girlfriend breaks up with him days before the operation, and doesn’t visit him after the operation. Although the universe doesn’t control his girlfriend’s selfish decisions, to me it was the fact that this going-to-be-blind, cancerous teenager was given a girlfriend who was so selfish and cold hearted, that represents the indifference of the universe. Lastly, Augustus, like the others, suffered from cancer and died because of it, as Hazel phrased it so eloquently.“ the cancer, which was made of him [Augustus], finally stopped his heart, which was also made of him.” In addition the tragedy of such a young death, the cancer made it impossible for Augustus to achieve his one and only true wish which was to be remembered and live as a hero. This complete lack of empathy is what causes us to conclude that the universe has to be insensitive, because if the universe was capable of care for anything, it would care for these characters.

Another reason the universe is perceived as insensitive is because the universe is a strictly objective place. It begins when Augustus was young, before any of the cancer, and he had a dream of living on a cloud. His science teacher Mr. Martinez ruins this dream with nothing more than facts, it would be too cold, the wind blows to fast, and the altitude is too high to survive. Similarly, the science of cancer is objective, for example the likelihood of cells mutating is based on DNA and one’s environment. The universe doesn’t care who gets cancer, it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are, or what your plans for the future are. The universe is an extremely unromantic place, there is very little wonder when things are explained for what they truly are. Hazels explains this with her seemingly dark speech about oblivion, but she is taking a fairly objective viewpoint, she explains that everyone is going to die, one day there won’t be humans on Earth, and there is nothing to stop this from happening so there is no use in fearing it. Although the universe is personified throughout the book, Hazel understands that the universe is not a person. It doesn’t care or feel or understand. The universe follows a list of permanent rules and functions without thought. Other characters, like Augustus and Isaac, don’t accept this hopeless view of reality and maintain wishes for a happy and positive future. Isaac states “I don’t believe that everybody gets to keep their eyes or not get sick or whatever, but everybody should have true love, and it should last at least as long as your life does,” (pg. 75) it is kind of odd how someone who has been handed such tragic struggles, still hopes for positive things from the cold universe. Furthermore, the chances of Augustus, even if his life didn’t come to a short end, ending up in future history books was slim, and even if he was he wouldn’t be remembered forever. Simply put, the universe is large and unfeeling place, many times we do not end up doing as we once wanted to and things happen in which we have no control over. All we can do is hope that sometimes the good things happen.

Lastly, the insensitivity of the universe is expressed by how the characters deal with that reality.
All of the characters, and most people, don’t like the feelings of unimportance the universe imposes on it’s inhabitants. Peter Van Houten let’s this reality turn him into a cold and depressed man, he says, “What a slut time is. She screws everyone.” (pg. 112)Yet, Peter also understands that humans are not perfect either, and as a human he takes responsibility for some of the failures in the universe, he writes, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ but in our selves.” (pg. 111) Similarly, Augustus takes ownership of the choices he, and other humans, have made, and avoids always blaming it on the universe and it’s insensitive ways, by telling Peter, “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you.” (pg. 313)Augustus understands that he has some say in his life, but he also understands that the universe is not one to fight with, “we’re as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we’re not likely to do either.”(pg. 311). Additionally, Hazel, who is usually objective, feels the same resentment towards the universe as the other characters, “I thought of my dad telling me that the universe wants to be noticed but what we want is to be noticed by the universe, to have the universe give a shit what happens to us- not the collective idea of sentient life but each of us individuals.” (pg. 281). Even though Hazel understands that the universe is insensitive and she is just one in seven billion people, who live on just one of the 100 billion planets in the Milky way, which is one of 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and even if the universe was capable of conscious thought, it wouldn’t have the ability to care about one little human, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting it. There are positive ways to look at this of course. As Augustus pointed out while playing a video game, “All salvation is
temporary. I bought them a minute. Maybe that's the minute that buys them an hour, which is the hour that buys them a year. No one's gonna buy them forever, Hazel Grace, but my life bought them a minute. And that's not nothing.” (pg. 59). He believes, as I do, that even though action may not affect the universe as a whole, it affect people, and that matters. People can have immense effect on the world around them. It starts with changing people, who all go on to change the community. Soon enough that community is changing the state, which changes the country, and before you even know it, one good or bad action has changed the world. Overall, the characters struggle with this idea of being insignificant in the universe in different ways, whether negative like Peter and Hazel, or dream-like as Augustus did.
In conclusion, the primary theme of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was the insensitivity of the universe, and it was supported by the occurrence of bad things happening to favorable people, the objectivity of the universe, and the way in which the characters dealt with the universe. The theme is supported by the mere idea of children suffering from cancer, when have had little time to do anything wrong at all, making them good by default. Also, it was supported by the explainable and scientific laws that make up everything without thinking of a person’s character or whether or not they “deserve” what they are given. Lastly, insensitivity of the universe is shown by how the characters feel about the hand they were dealt in life and how they use that to influence their view of the universe. In the end, John Green captured the struggle between humans and an impersonal universe throughout this novel. He put what we all have been thinking into words and then gave us hope by showing that even these characters
These characters, although fictional, struggled with the same conflict we
And to sum this bitch up, John Green took a conflict that has been the