Hazel Grace Slothcaster

In the novel, The Fault in Our Stars, the protagonist is Hazel Grace Lancaster, who is a cancerous teenage girl with a pessimistic mind and an avid love of books. I think that if Hazel was an animal that she would be best portrayed by a sloth. A sloth is slow and disconnected and it prefers to be alone. Hazel is alike in this way for the simple fact that she isn’t like her classmates due to her illness. When her disease grew severe, she dropped out of school and even the only friends that she managed to make in her couple years of high school seemed to fall out of touch.  Even when she meets with her friend, Hazel is shown to be disconnected and uncaring. She also isn’t the only one who notices her differences. Augustus notices it as well, but instead in a new light. "Goddamn," Augustus said quietly. "Aren't you something else." (1.66). In the eyes of Augustus, she truly is unique and like the sloth, Hazel is an odd character with a sort of charisma about her that you can’t help but love. As the reader, I’d have to agree with Augustus in this situation.

Hazel is guarded and defensive, but seemingly passive and uncaring. However, I hardly believe that to be true. A sloth could be seen as slow and relaxed but if they weren’t fighters, how could they still be strategic survivors?  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. (1.28) This quote doesn’t exactly prove the fact that she’s strong but it disproves the fact that she won’t fight for her life due to her physical capability. In fact, she is fighting for her life. She’s doing it for her parents. And that makes her stronger than ever. Before Augustus started attending the support center in the “literal heart of Jesus,” Hazel hadn’t spoken in the group, or even had the remote interest in doing so. This also is a good example of the wall that Hazel Grace has put up around people she isn’t fond of. Like any animal, sloths are very careful when choosing their company. They’ll hide from anyone who could potential bring them harm.

There are many animals that could be related to Hazel. However, in my eyes, the protagonist can be seen as sluggish and tiresome. She has a greater purpose to society, though she chooses to stay relaxed and undercover as if her existence would be harmful instead of helpful. Hazel isn’t living to live. She’s living because she has to and because it’d help everyone but her. In the animal kingdom, living is work. Animals don’t have paying jobs and wealth; they work the same job of survival and aim to only do just that. Hazel has her GED and attends college classes but probably doesn’t even plan to live long enough to do anything with those abilities. Just like a sloth, she’s just trying to figure out what to do to keep herself breathing.

An Imperial Irony

The book, The Fault in Our Stars, could’ve had a much better, more conclusive ending. While I’m not, in any way, degrading Mr. John Green’s writing, there are ways that could’ve better summed up things. In the novel, Green’s main character, Hazel Grace, is obsessed with a book called An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. Hazel drones on and on about how the novel ends mid-sentence and how she wishes she could somehow figure out a way to know what happens to the other characters written in Van Houten’s book. I can’t help but wonder the same thing about The Fault in Our Stars. Yes, I understand that Augustus Waters, Hazel’s cancerous boyfriend, dies and Hazel is okay with it and that was supposed to be the ending. However, there was no more on the two families and the youth group and Issac. I’m aware that a book has to end at some point but this was just not how. Ending a novel with a letter written to Van Houten from Augustus about Hazel Grace wasn’t a conclusion to anything but the fact that Augustus did indeed love her.

At the end of the novel, Lidewij sends Hazel Grace the letter that Augustus writes to Peter via email. Peter specifically explains to his assistant that he has nothing else to add, but I completely disagree. The letter itself was mediocre, but ends with “I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.” (Green, 313). Hazel then girls the monologue of a response: “I do, Augustus. I do” And then that’s it. The book comes to a close and as a reader, I feel as though there should be more—there needs to be more. I wouldn’t even mind if the narrator went into a five paragraph explanation of why she felt she made good choices, but her simple response to this simple letter wasn’t enough to my curious and insatiable mind.

The book was great but the ending was incomplete. On page 282 of The Fault in Our Stars, Isaac’s last lines are spoken. Isaac was a good friend of Augustus’ and, in my opinion, proved to play an important role in the storyline itself. However, John Green chose not to give insight on how he felt post-death of his best friend. Was he sad? Of course he was, but it was not clearly expressed. He says, “Gus really loved you, you know” (Green, 281), which is something completely irrelevant to his own feelings. The fact is that  Isaac has known Augustus longer than Hazel and despite whatever relationship the two cancerous teens shared, Isaac shouldn’t be used as the character that makes the protagonist feel better. He has feelings, too, and it is clear that John Green fails to admit that through his writing. This all brings me back to my main point of there not being any clarification of the other characters and their future. He barely even discusses the future of Hazel Grace. I find it to be very hypocritical of Green to complain about a loose ending when he, himself, fails to tie up the ends of his own novel.