Fault in Our Stars - Dialectical Journal

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Fault in Our Stars - Dialectical Journal

Estrella M. Owen
Organ Mountain High School
Honors English 9th
Sarah Hamilton
July 28th 2023
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Quote Page Response

1) “Sometimes, you read a 33 Similar to Hazel, I too find that some books are meant
book and it fills you with to be shared and some are meant to be kept private from
this weird evangelical zeal, the world’s prying eyes. I personally have novels that I
and you become convinced can connect to on almost a spiritual level, as Hazel does
that the shattered world will with An Imperial Affliction. Even with her unique
never be put back together connection to this book, she shares it with Augustus
unless and until all living Waters, a near-complete stranger to her at the time. The
things read the book. And connection that they both share with this novel is what
then there are books like An allows them to become closer, metaphorically,
Imperial Affliction, which spiritually, and quite literally. However, despite Hazel’s
you can’t tell people about, original insights regarding keeping AIA private, the fact
books so special and rare that she did end up sharing it may have been the slight
and yours that advertising "evangelical zeal" that she previously referred to. While
your affection feels like a it could have been that, Hazel’s willingness to share this
betrayal.” with Gus also may have been foreshadowing, showing
how even before they knew each other well, Hazel was
compelled to be around him.

2) “Throughout the book 49 In a real-world sense, while this may be somewhat


she refers to herself as the realistic, it is truly devastating. However, this doesn’t
side effect, which is just necessarily just apply to cancer; it could apply to many
totally correct. Cancer kids things in our world, like mental illnesses, for example.
are essentially side effects These cause a great deal of diversity in our world, and
of the relentless mutation while all aren’t necessarily bad, they do make life
that made the diversity of difficult for people. In Hazel’s instance, her cancer
life on earth possible.” causes her a great deal of pain and, in a way, allows her
to see the world in an intricate sense. She sees the world
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for how it is rather than what she wants it to be, and in


this sense, she is a "side effect" of life, meant for
something in her short time on this earth but for nothing
more than that. Hazel understands this and admires that
Anna (her book character) is able to understand this
brutal honesty in the same way.

3) “I told myself that 97 Throughout the entirety of the story, Hazel has Thyroid
imagining a met in my brain cancer, a terminal form of cancer that causes tumors in
or my shoulder would not the throat and lungs. Aware of this, she knew that she
affect the invisible reality didn’t have much time left to live and would die
going on inside of me, and relatively young. Hazel no longer wanted to waste the
that therefore all such little time she had worrying about "the invisible
thoughts were wasted realities" going on inside her because ultimately,
moments in a life composed whether there were more cancerous tumors or not, she
of a definitionally finite set was going to die. Her ideals were: Why waste life on
of such moments. I even moments that aren’t fulfilling and meaningful when you
tried to tell myself to live could be making moments that are? In some ways, I am
my best life today.” able to relate to this. There are so many moments in life
when people have strong hurtful emotions that, in the
end, they try to forget anyway, when they could be
making true moments that are meant to be cherished
and remembered.

4) “I had this pet dragon 120 Hazel's dragon represents multiple things in a
who cuddled up next to me metaphorical sense. This dragon, in actuality, is the
and cared enough about me BiPAP, which allows Hazel to breathe while she’s
to time his breaths to mine. I asleep. It’s a cold machine that has no emotional or
was thinking about that as I physical ability or way to form any spiritual attachment
sank into sleep.” to a human being. However, perceiving this machine in
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that sense can be frightening and would give the


impression that it was intended to harm Hazel, which is
why it is instead described in a positive light. "Cuddled"
and "cared" tell us that this machine is meant to help
Hazel and that she appreciates it for that. This dragon
could also represent Hazel’s longing for affection. Her
health issues prevent her from living normally; in fact,
she knows she will die sooner than the average person.
When she dies, she doesn’t want to leave the burden of
mourning on those who love her, so her affection is then
turned into fiction. This "dragon" is now the one who
deeply cares about her and keeps her alive.

5) “Even then it hurt. The 142 The author's metaphorical use of Hazel's pain, pulling
pain was always there, her into herself, not only represents the battle she was
pulling me inside myself, constantly fighting but, more importantly, how alone
demanding to be felt. It she felt in this battle. It is even mentioned that
always felt like I was everything else is an outside distraction from this pain,
waking up from the pain proving further that Hazel’s was a solo battle. "It always
when something in the felt like I was waking up from the pain...", Hazel shows
world outside of me how when she has these episodes of unceasing pain,
suddenly required my that’s all that’s there; she pulls herself into her own head
comment or attention.” where she can only hear her shallow, tired breathing,
and everything else just keeps moving, moving on
without her. With this pain, Hazel is trapped in a
moment within herself until someone or something
comes along to pull her out of it.

6) “Some infinities are 189 While in the immediate place from which this quote
bigger than other infinities” was taken from the book it had no further meaning than
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it simply being said to Hazel as well as Augustus, it was


almost seen as an annoyance at the time. However, later
on in the story, its meaning deepens, and these words
become almost the basis on which Hazel and Augustus
live. In this first context, it could be seen as
foreshadowing by the reader, showing how these
"infinities" are the lives and meaningful moments of
Gus and Hazel. In this context, its new meaning is that
some moments are bigger than others, bigger as in
lasting longer. The infinity shared between Gus and
Hazel was cut short, but it will forever impact them,
even into death. Another crucial use of these words was
in Hazel’s speech for Gus’ pre-funeral. These words are
like an infinity in themselves; the power in which they
hold and the memories and moments that come along
with them will always hold true to our protagonists in
their own little infinities.

7) “‘Sometimes it seems the 223 This quote really resonates with me; it’s something that
universe wants to be I agree with and find fascinating. It brings a universal
noticed.’ “ That’s what I perspective to this book, showing that it’s not just
believe. I believe the what’s on the pages; it’s what’s beneath the pages,
universe wants to be beneath each and every word. It makes all the lessons
noticed. I think the universe and themes of this title seem larger than life; even in the
is improbably biased context of the story, this quote is like its own theme for
towards consciousness, that Hazel. She learns that there’s so much to life and that
rewards intelligence in part, she’s not just a side effect; there’s a path for her, and
because the universe enjoys every decision she makes carves the path further. The
its elegance being observed. universe could almost be seen as its own character—the
And who am I, living in the supreme power of the story, the author in this instance.
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middle of history, to tell the As an author throws bumps and twists at their
universe that it– or my characters to make the story more interesting, the
observation of it– is universe does the same to us. Without problems and
temporary?”” mistakes, our world wouldn’t be as unique and
interesting as it is today.

8) “ It's hard as hell to hold 238 This reveals a lot about Hazel’s character. It shows her
onto your dignity when the direct thought process through everyday things, but
rising sun is too bright in shows that she thinks about them differently. I think that
your losing eyes, and that’s her words could have a multitude of meanings, but I
what I was thinking about as think at that moment, to her, they meant she was
we hunted for bad guys embarrassed. She was embarrassed to want to be close
through the ruins of a city with Gus, because in the end it would just hurt more for
that didn’t exist.” them both. “Hold onto… dignity”, implies that there
was something for her to be self-conscious about, while
“the rising sun” could be the representation of what she
longs for. Hazel always has these deep and intricate
thoughts that fill her head, but continues to act normal
through them, going through the motions of the day
while a full narrative of thoughts flows through her
mind. This shows her humbleness as a person, she
doesn’t always feel the need to share these incredible
thoughts with the world, she is content to keep them to
herself, and while this action may seem like greed to
some, I see it as self restraint because she understands
the fact that many voices need to be heard and leaves
that space in conversation to be filled by others.

9) ““Where is my chance to 245 The emotion in this statement said by Gus is what
be somebody’s Peter Van brings this to life. We feel his pain for just a moment,
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Houten?” he hit the steering we don’t see his normal smiling, bright face, you see the
wheel weakly, the car dark side of a character you thought you knew. The
honking as he cried. He feelings in each of the words, “weakly”, “cried”, “hate”,
leaned his head back, “disgust”, have such negative connotations that you
looking up. “I hate myself I wouldn’t normally hear when a person is talking about
hate myself I hate myself I themself. It pushes the reader to have this undying
hate this I hate this I disgust sympathy for the character, to want to help and fix
myself I hate it I hate it I whatever could be wrong. “Where is my chance…?”
hate it just let me ******* This reveals Augustus’ inner conflict. Based on context
die.”” previously in the novel, we learn that Gus believes that
we all have a reason to live, a goal and responsibility to
live up to, and if we don’t, what really was the point of
our existence. When Augustus realized he couldn’t do a
single thing for himself, that is what he thought. When
we question the fragility of our life, or ask if we
should’ve existed in the first place, we crash and break
down because it’s not a thought we wish to have. It’s a
thought that cuts deep, but almost feels necessary,
which is what causes us to hurt.

10)“I was mad at the 266 Hazel’s predicament when Augustus died was not only
universe. Even so it the fact that he died but the pain that came along with it.
infuriated me: You get all Many mourned Augustus Waters, there was even a
these friends when you website where people could write their notes of grief to
don’t need friends him. Hazel read through the hundreds that he received
anymore.” and couldn’t understand why so many people cared now
that he was dead, rather than when he was alive.
Although Hazel was not alone in missing Gus, she was
so alone in knowing him. There were few that truly
knew him as a person, as a friend, as a partner, yet so
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many people acted as if they did. Hazel’s fury could be


described as frustration, that all these people who quite
possibly never met him, didn’t deserve to say that they
missed him, that without him their lives would be
forever changed because they’re just lying. Hazel’s life,
however, would be forever changed without him and
none of them could possibly understand what that felt
like for her.

11) “Writing does not 266 While this quote was originally said by a half antagonist
reconstruct, it buries” of this story, Peter Van Houtan’s words are mainly
correct in this sense. When someone is alive, they may
live with you, or you may physically see them everyday,
however when you are apart you have a clear memory
of them, that memory is real and alive. However when
someone is gone, and it’s impossible for you to see
them, and speak to them again, they are still alive in
your memory. You still know that they are a real person
who lived a real life. However when people start writing
about that life, they seem unreal, or fictitious. Writing
butties the fact that this person was real, and had
thoughts and feelings of their own. When Hazel
repeated these words, she realized the truth behind
them. Looking through all of these things that people
once knew about Augustus, it made him seem further
away from her than ever.

12) “Pain is like fabric: the 284 This quote made a lot of sense to me, I was able to
stronger it is, the more it’s understand it very well. It’s certainly a sad thing to
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worth” think about, but it’s the way our society is shaped.
When you see someone or something in pain, your brain
immediately has some sort of pity for it, it encapsulates
your attention, increasing it’s worth to you as a person.
But there are many levels of respect and worth a person
can have for someone. For example, take a person with
a paper cut, and a person with a broken arm. The pain of
having a broken arm is much stronger than the pain of
having a paper cut. We are automatically going to be
more sympathetic towards someone with a broken arm
because they had to experience more pain, this
“increases” this person's “worth”. In Hazel's case her
worth would be considered high based on this scenario.
Based on the fact that Hazel has Thyroid cancer and this
is an extremely painful experience, many people show
sympathy towards her and her family. What makes this
a somewhat increase in “worth” is that people don’t
show sympathy for no reason, and will show it to those
that they think deserve it.

13) “You don’t get to 313 This is another quote I feel I can resonate with.
choose if you get hurt in this Everyone in this world gets hurt. It’s impossible to
world, old man, but you do never get hurt, every once in a while you may scrape
have some say in who hurts your knee, or trip and bump your head. These things are
you. I like my choices” bound to happen, it’s unavoidable really. However,
some types of hurt are avoidable, like words. Words can
hurt just as much as being punched in the face, if you let
them. I think that Gus’s words tell us that there are
many people in this world that may try to hurt us, and
bring us down with their words, but if we simply ignore
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them, or know truthfully that their words have no true


meaning, they can’t hurt us. While it might seem
interesting that Augustus would say such things to Van
Houtan, I find it understandable. It’s almost saying to
him that his words didn’t hurt Hazel nor Gus, simply
because they chose not to believe him. The choices that
we make can give us a lot of power and control over our
lives. To truly live life to its fullest, we need control
over our emotions and actions.

14) “Maslow’s pyramid 213 Maslow’s pyramid is a concept that I find incredibly
seemed to imply I was less interesting. It takes the different levels of wellness that a
human than other people, person has and puts them on a scale of importance. In
and most people seemed to Hazel’s case, she would never be able to go past the
agree with him. But not second level, as she would never feel truly secure in her
Augustus.” health. This seemed to imply she was “less human”
because, according to the pyramid, she would never get
to experience the things a normal person would. I think
this could possibly be one of the reasons Hazel dislikes
when people pity her, because it just makes her feel
further and further from the higher levels of the
pyramid. I think that it could be very discouraging to
her, society essentially telling her she isn’t “human”
enough to have a sense of belonging, any
accomplishments, or to be self aware in any way at all.
However this doesn’t stop Hazel, similar to the previous
quote, Hazel doesn’t allow this to hurt her. I think that
Hazel is the most self-aware person in the entire book,
defying all that the pyramid stands for. Something else I
found interesting about this quote was that its theme
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was man versus society. Hazel and Augustus defied the


standard way of thinking, showing that although people
may face hardships, and have things that make them
different, it does not make them less human or
insignificant.

15) “Sometimes people 60 Although on just the surface this quote may mention
don’t understand the “Love” a significant amount, this is a quote about
promises they’re making betrayal. Isaac’s feelings are truly shown how betrayed
when they make them,” I he feels, how Love has deceived him. The promise
said. Isaac shot me a look. between himself and Monica, was what he thought
“Right, of course. But you could be his always, even when things got difficult for
keep the promise anyway. him. When Monica left him because he was blind, she
That’s what love is. Love is broke that bond they shared, that promise. While Hazel
keeping the promise does try to defend the fact that Monica didn’t know the
anyway. Don’t you believe “promise” she was making at the time, it doesn’t justify
in true love?” what she did, or the pain she caused Isaac. “But you
keep the promise anyways” is what Issac believes love
is, and I agree, I think that this would be a reasonable
description of what true love may be, and it shows the
betrayal, the emotion, of how a broken promise can
affect someone.

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