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The Fault in Our Stars

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on John Green's The Fault in Our Stars . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Fault in Our Stars: Introduction

The fault in our stars: plot summary, the fault in our stars: detailed summary & analysis, the fault in our stars: themes, the fault in our stars: quotes, the fault in our stars: characters, the fault in our stars: symbols, the fault in our stars: theme wheel, brief biography of john green.

Other Books Related to The Fault in Our Stars

• Full Title: The Fault in Our Stars
• When Written: 2002-2012
• Where Written: Indianapolis and Amsterdam
• When Published: 2012
• Literary Period: Postmodern
• Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Coming of Age
• Setting: Indianapolis, Indiana
• Climax: The meeting in Amsterdam with Van Houten
• Antagonist: Cancer
• Point of View: First Person narrative told from Hazel’s point of view

Extra Credit for The Fault in Our Stars

Dedication and Inspiration. Green’s novel is dedicated to Esther Earl. Esther was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 12 and died in 2010, shortly after her 16th birthday. Green has said that Esther was a major inspiration for the novel. Esther’s parents have since published a collection of Esther’s writings called, “This Star Won’t Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earle.”

The Silver Screen . The Fault in Our Stars is set to hit the big screen in the U.S. on June 6th, 2014. John Green spent time on set making video blogs that chronicle his artistic journey in making the film adaption of his novel. The film's trailer gained over 3 million views in less than 24 hours after it was released.

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Themes and Analysis

The fault in our stars, by john green.

“The Fault in Our Stars” portrays themes of love, death, and identity. It shows the struggles of people trying to discover themselves in a tragic world.

Main Themes

• Love and Friendship : Portrays the beautiful relationship between two people facing the horror of death.
• Pain and Suffering : Shows the reality of pain and suffering in a world where teenagers face the prospect of dying from cancer.
• Identity : Depicts how the primary characters try to discover themselves, and shows how their love made them realize their love for each other.
• Philosophical : The novel uses many intellectual arguments to quantify its characters' desire to discover themselves amid their looming death.
• Humorous : The story uses humor to ease the tension in the dreadfulness of the characters' fates.
• Realistic : The novel realistically portrays the brutal nature of death and shows its characters' health deterioration practically.
• An Imperial Affliction : It represents the realism of death and shows Hazel's obsessive, but understandable, fear of dying.
• Cigarettes : Represent the belief that something can only harm a person when they let it hurt them.
• Oxygen Tank : Symbolizes the blockade that stood between life and death for Hazel.

After her cancer spreads, and she is hooked to an oxygen tank, Hazel's doctor recommends she join a support group for teenagers facing the prospect of losing their lives to cancer. On reaching the group, she becomes friends with Isaac and eventually meets his friend Augustus.

Hazel and Augustus become friends and exchange their favorite novels. After reading “An Imperial Affliction,” Augustus tells her the story is incomplete, and she tells him how she always wanted an answer from its author, Peter Van Houten, who moved to Amsterdam. Augustus gets tickets to see Van Houten.

On reaching Amsterdam, Hazel discovers Van Houten is a drunk, and his assistant takes her and Augustus on a tour of Amsterdam. She confesses her love to Augustus and learns of his cancer returning. Augustus's health rapidly deteriorates, and he dies. Hazel later learns of his letter.

Continue down for complete analysis to The Fault in Our Stars

Article written by Joshua Ehiosun

C2 certified writer.

“The Fault in Our Stars”  uses relatable themes to tell Hazel and Augustus’s story. Though tragic, it dives into the complicated but romantic world of two people suffering from terminal diseases. The story’s focus on its characters’ weaknesses, struggles, and love made it popular among young adults.

“The Fault In Our Stars” portrays themes that show the trials of young adults in dire situations. The novel’s intricate use of themes of love, friendship, pain, and identity makes it a heart-wrenching story that tugs at the heart.

Love and Friendship

Love and friendship are the primary themes of  “The Fault in Our Stars.”  Throughout the novel, John Green shows how Hazel and Augustus express love for each other. The story focuses on the relationship between the primary characters and displays how it slowly progresses from friendship to a love that transcends the horror of death.

On meeting Augustus, Hazel became attracted to him and shared her most prized possession. She introduces him to  “An Imperial Affliction, ” and the novel makes their relationship blossom. After they go to Amsterdam to meet Peter Van Houten, Hazel realizes she has fallen for Augustus. However, upon professing their love for each other, Augustus reveals his cancer is back and this destroys Hazel, who feels life is already torturing her.

Augustus revealing the news of his cancer to Hazel was a blow to most readers, as they must have felt that somehow, maybe, the characters would get to have a happy ending that revolved around them surviving. That was not the case, as a while after leaving Amsterdam, Augustus’s health deteriorates and he dies.

Apart from the love between Hazel and Augustus, “The Fault in Our Stars” Also shows the beauty of friendships. Before attending the support group, Hazel was in a world no one understood. However, meeting people, like Isaac and Augustus, who faced the same predicament brightened her world.

Pain and Suffering

Though “The Fault in Our Stars” showed moments of happiness and love, it focused more on the reality of pain and suffering. As a novel that narrates the struggle of living with cancer,  “The Fault in Our Stars ”  perfectly portrays the suffering associated with cancer.

The novel’s attention to the reality of cancer made it extremely relatable . Hazel realized she could not escape suffering. On meeting Peter Van Houten, she was forced to confront this reality as Van Houten said her ailment was nothing but an effect of evolution; this made her realize all the suffering from cancer was not special in the grand scheme of things. She eventually watched Augustus become a shadow of himself and when he died, she felt trapped in a cage of pain and suffering, one she knew would lead to her eventual demise.

In  “The Fault in Our Stars, ” Hazel and Augustus try navigating a life of pain and suffering while simultaneously discovering their feelings for each other. Augustus believed leaving a mark in life was crucial, but Hazel argued otherwise, stating that the legacy left behind by great people will turn into nothing but scars. “ The Fault in Our Stars”  shows how, like Hazel, Isaac, and Augustus, many young adults struggle to find their identity in a world of pain and emptiness.

Life and Death

Death is a primary theme in  “The Fault in Our Stars. ” Though Hazel tried showing strength amid suffering, she admitted that her death would bring undiluted pain to her parents and those around her. Seeing herself as a time grenade, she desperately tried to protect her family from the future impact of her death.

With her life getting shorter and shorter, Hazel tried to resist falling in love with Augustus because she feared that death would only hurt him more. However, he revealed he was dying from cancer; this made Hazel wish her life was different and normal. Eventually, Augustus died, and though she attended a support group to cope with loss, Hazel still admitted to Isaac that dying sucked, especially as a young adult.

Coming of Age

One thing “The Fault in Our Stars” expands on is maturity. The loss of innocence was a crucial turning point in Hazel and Augustus’s lives as they matured into adulthood. Though they knew they would never become full adults, they were slightly happier that they experienced a glimpse of what they could have had.

Analysis of Key Moments

• Hazel’s doctor and mother advised her to attend a support group; this was to help Hazel cope with the idea of dying young.
• On joining the support group, Hazel meets Augustus, a seventeen-year-old boy who had his right leg removed due to Osteosarcoma. Before meeting him, she met his friend, Isaac.
• Hazel and Augustus become friends. They exchange their favorite novels. Hazel gives him  “An Imperial Affliction,” and she collects “ The Prince of Dawn . ” Unknown to them, the exchange will lead to a wild adventure.
• Augustus is frustrated by “ An Imperial Affliction’s”  ending but learns from Hazel that Peter Van Houten, its author, has moved to Amsterdam.
• Isaac, Augustus’s friend, gets dumped by his girlfriend, Monica. She dumped him because she could not handle the situation Isaac was about to go through, as he was about to lose his eye in surgery.
• Augustus reveals to Hazel that he has tracked Peter Van Houten’s assistant, Lidewiji Vliegenthart, and has begun an exchange of emails with Van Houten. Unknown to him, he was not chatting with Van Houten.
• Hazel and Augustus start exchanging emails with Van Houten, and finally, they get invited to Amsterdam. Augustus uses his genie wish to get tickets for Hazel, himself, and her mother to see Van Houten.
• Hazel meets Van Houten but discovers he is a mean alcoholic. He refuses to answer her question, and she storms out of his house. Before she left, Van Houten told Hazel that her cancer was a part of nature, and she was just unfortunate.
• Van Houten’s assistant takes Hazel and Augustus to Anne Frank’s house.
• Hazel and Augustus kiss for the first time and lose their virginity to each other. They confessed their love for each other.
• Augustus reveals that his cancer has returned and spread throughout his body; this breaks Hazel, who thought her life was already getting slightly better.
• On returning home, Augustus’s health deteriorates, and he dies. He does not die instantly, instead, he loses himself over the course of time and Hazel’s final interaction with him is them playing games.
• Van Houten tries to apologize to Hazel at Augustus’s funeral, but she rejects his apology. She did so because it was pointless, and she could not get over her lover’s death.
• Van Houten’s assistant tells Hazel of the letters Augustus had sent to Van Houten, and on reading one, she discovers he wrote an obituary for her. The novel ends with her recounting that Augustus was the best thing she knew.

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language

“The Fault in Our Stars” employs a sad tone and uses the first-person perspective to tell a story of love, desire, and death.

“The Fault in Our Stars ” is a first-person perspective novel that uses the main character, Haze, as its narrator. It is written in the past tense and the story unfolds from a personal perspective, enabling the reader to peer into Hazel’s mind. The story is realistic because it does not gloss over the brutal nature of death.

Also, though the events in “The Fault in Our Stars” are tragic, the story uses lots of humor to lighten the atmosphere and make readers feel more at ease; this eventually tapers off towards the end with Augustus’s death.

“The Fault in Our Stars” employs a sad, philosophical, and vibrant tone that switches when Hazel falls in love with Augustus. Throughout the story, the characters introduce many philosophical arguments for the nature of life, love, and pain, and they discuss the prospects of death. Even though a humorous atmosphere is employed, one cannot ignore the characters’ dread towards the end.

Figurative Language

“The Fault in Our Stars” uses similes, metaphors, personifications, and allusions to create a delicately interesting word structure. Metaphors like Augustus’s use of cigarettes created an ironic portrayal of the story’s narrative. 

Analysis of Symbols

“The Fault in Our Stars” uses symbols that portray its characters’ mortality.

An Imperial Affliction

The book  “An Imperial Affliction” has many metaphorical reflections on Hazel’s life in “The Fault in Our Stars.” She admitted it was like her Bible because it was one of the few novels that understood what dying felt like. It represents the realism of death and shows Hazel’s obsessive, but understandable fear of dying.

Hazel becomes addicted to the fate of the story’s characters After reading the book numerously; this leads to her traveling to Amsterdam in search of answers. However, after reaching the city, she was hit by reality as she discovered that Van Houten had no suitable answer to her questions.

In “The Fault in Our Stars” Augustus keeps a cigarette pack. When asked about why he had a cigarette placed in his mouth, he stated that it was a representation of trying to prove that one had power over a force of evil. The cigarette symbolizes the belief that something can only harm a person when they let it hurt them.

Oxygen Tank

Throughout “The Fault in Our Stars,” Hazel always uses an oxygen tank. The tank represents the blockade that stood between life and death for Hazel.

“The Fault in Our Stars,” in my opinion, is a beautiful tragic story of the love between two teenagers thrown into a world of death. As the primary characters, Hazel and Augustus, navigate a world of cancer, they discover their mortality rests in the way of their love; this realization is heart-shattering as it forces one to realize that reality always gets in the way of happy-ever-afters.

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About Joshua Ehiosun

Joshua is an undying lover of literary works. With a keen sense of humor and passion for coining vague ideas into state-of-the-art worded content, he ensures he puts everything he's got into making his work stand out. With his expertise in writing, Joshua works to scrutinize pieces of literature.

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