Summary Of The Treachery Of Images By Hazel Grace Lancaster

This book is not the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster. This book is just that: a book telling the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster. This example illustrates the Treachery of Images, as explained by René Magritte (and Hazel on page 178). The theory states that an image of a thing is not that thing. It’s simply an image of that thing. Just like a book about a story is not the story itself, it’s a book about the story. Yeah, I had to Google that too. The Treachery of Images is a concept that comes up while Hazel and Gus are on vacation in Amsterdam. Perhaps I should go back a little and start from the beginning. Hazel Grace Lancaster is a seventeen-year-old cancer patient. Since depression is a “side effect of dying” her mother decides it wise to
‘It demands to be felt.’” (Green 63). I guess that’s the thing about loss too, it demands to be felt. I can connect with Hazel about losing someone you love so suddenly and that person being affable. Gus really reminds me of him; Greg that is. He was my cousin and he was 19 when he died. He would have turned 21 this year. Greg and Gus were similar in that they were everyone’s best friends. Both boys were naturally good at everything they did. Greg excelled on the Hockey team, Gus at basketball. Greg even had the same crooked grin as Gus. However, their battles were different. Gus’s battle was waged between him and his health. Greg’s was with addiction and mental illness. However, the most lamentable similarity is that they both were taken too soon. I got the call while I was on the bus. I was expecting my mother to ask me what I wanted for dinner or if I had any plans with friends after school, but instead all I heard was crying. No one knew that he was going to go, especially the way he did. He showed no signs of doing what he eventually did. The point here is that I connect with Hazel because we both lost someone close to us, someone we loved. I can connect to the pain she felt because I have felt similar