Jacob Sutton

The Theme of Suffering in The fault in our Stars

              I just finished reading “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green.  It is a fantastic book and I would definitely recommend this book to any teenager.   In this book, suffering is a prominent part of the character’s lives. Hazel, Augustus, and Isaac all endure quite a bit of physical and emotional pain. The buildup of fluid in Hazel’s lungs deprives her of oxygen, leading to lots of intense pain that lands her in the emergency room.   On the other hand, Isaac has to contend with losing his remaining eye, which leaves him blind and leads his girlfriend to break up with him. Augustus physically deteriorates because of his cancer, and he suffers because he knows he’ll never accomplish any of the heroic things he wanted to do in his life. In the eyes of the novel’s characters, specifically Hazel and Augustus, all these types of pain are simply a part of living, a side effect of it as Hazel might put it.

              But the most significant type of pain in the novel is that caused by the death of a loved one, and it’s this variety that the novel suggests is the most necessary. Hazel worries a great deal about inflicting this kind of suffering on those around her when she dies.  It turns out she becomes the victim of this kind of pain when Augustus begins to weaken because of his cancer. What Hazel comes to understand is that this type of pain can’t be avoided since dying is certain and all people will experience it.  But as Hazel comes to recognize over the course of the book, it isn’t necessarily something someone should avoid.  At Augustus’s funeral, Hazel reads a speech about Augustus.  In her speech she says, “Without pain, we couldn’t know joy.” (Green, page 272).  Before he died, Augustus says happily that he left his “scar” on Hazel, meaning he hurt her but he also had an effect on her life that she’ll carry with her. That type of pain, the novel suggests, is necessary, and in fact it’s a part of joy.