The Fault in Our Stars
Side Effects Of The Evolutionary Process and Failed Experiments in Mutation
John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars is not a very ambitious book. It only seeks to explore the meaning of life and death. Throughout the book, Green presents contrasting views about the meaning of life (and death). On one hand, Green explores various human emotions involving the idea of wanting to keep alive someone whose death is inevitable; but Green also presents the perspective that emotions are just a side effect of evolution.
The more sentimental belief that leads to emotional feelings of pity and sadness toward cancer-ridden teenagers and the deceased is presented throughout the book. 17 year-old Hazel Lancaster’s mother will do anything to keep her terminally ill daughter alive. At one point, while she is in the ICU, Hazel overhears her mom say something that signifies a change in her mother’s view towards Hazel:
Mom sobbed something into Dad’s chest that I wish I hadn’t heard, and that I hope she never finds out that I did hear. She said, ‘I won’t be a mom anymore.’ It gutted me pretty badly. (117). Hazel’s mom’s emotions are so invested in her that she stops being a mom and tries to be a friend. Similarly, Augustus, a guy Hazel meets in a support group who ultimately becomes her boyfriend, often expresses how important it is to him to leave a mark before dying. In a letter that he wrote near the time of his death, he is still thinking about this:
Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That’s what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease.
(310). Wanting to leave a legacy shows a concern about self-image after one’s own life has ended. The concept of one’s legacy is also dealt with in the book’s discussion of funerals. Everyone acts like they knew the deceased and sums up all of the good a person did in
John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars is not a very ambitious book. It only seeks to explore the meaning of life and death. Throughout the book, Green presents contrasting views about the meaning of life (and death). On one hand, Green explores various human emotions involving the idea of wanting to keep alive someone whose death is inevitable; but Green also presents the perspective that emotions are just a side effect of evolution.
The more sentimental belief that leads to emotional feelings of pity and sadness toward cancer-ridden teenagers and the deceased is presented throughout the book. 17 year-old Hazel Lancaster’s mother will do anything to keep her terminally ill daughter alive. At one point, while she is in the ICU, Hazel overhears her mom say something that signifies a change in her mother’s view towards Hazel:
Mom sobbed something into Dad’s chest that I wish I hadn’t heard, and that I hope she never finds out that I did hear. She said, ‘I won’t be a mom anymore.’ It gutted me pretty badly. (117). Hazel’s mom’s emotions are so invested in her that she stops being a mom and tries to be a friend. Similarly, Augustus, a guy Hazel meets in a support group who ultimately becomes her boyfriend, often expresses how important it is to him to leave a mark before dying. In a letter that he wrote near the time of his death, he is still thinking about this:
Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That’s what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease.
(310). Wanting to leave a legacy shows a concern about self-image after one’s own life has ended. The concept of one’s legacy is also dealt with in the book’s discussion of funerals. Everyone acts like they knew the deceased and sums up all of the good a person did in