This has a huge effect on her relationships and is a serious obstacle for her throughout most of the story. I love Shaline Woodley I think she is an amazing actress and will eventually win osacar very soon! She is a sixteen years old and suffers from a terminal Stage IV thyroid cancer. Again, this is a difficult one to pin down. October 3, 2016. But Hazel herself opens the book with... Augustus "Gus" Waters. The story⦠Our relationships continue, even if we do not. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. This is handled pretty well (apart from Hazel’s deeply pretentious insistence that she’s “a grenade”) but due to the fact that this is really the only non-romantic decision she makes, I’m going to have to give it a half-point. The cancer has affected her lungs due to which she has to carry an oxygen-tank as an obligation. Hazel Grace Lancaster Character Analysis in The Fault in Our Stars | SparkNotes. With that in mind, I’m giving her a half-point. This change is apparent in the fact that she uses the stairs at Support Group at the beginning of the novel and opts for the elevator near the novels end, as her physical condition deteriorates. Aside from that, she doesn’t have very many other weaknesses acknowledged by the rest of the characters: her tendency to make spiteful comments is frequently passed off as ‘quirky’ and has absolutely no effect on her actions, and her self-centredness is rarely addressed by the rest of the cast (even when she ignores other people’s distress to pursue her own ends). Did she come up with them on her own? What Hazel means by saying “I do” is that she will remember and love Augustus for as long as she lives, and in that sense she has learned that death is not the ubiquitous finality she had once considered it to be. The more nuanced aspect of Hazel’s journey revolves around her spiritual and philosophical understanding of death. ( Log Out / The reality is that Hazel doesn’t actually do anything to stop this statement applying to her, too. She does not choose to go to the cancer survivors’ support group where she meets Augustus; her mum makes her go because she’s worried about her. Hazel Grace Lancaster. Hazel's parents, for one, think their daughter is just too passive. She keeps most people at a distance, knowing her death will ultimately hurt them, until she falls in love with Augustus. Hazel is the narrator and protagonist of the novel, a 16-year-old girl with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Hazel Grace Lancaster. To begin with, letâs talk about Hazel. The novelâs narrator and protagonist, Hazel is a 16-year-old girl living with a terminal form of thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Because of her cancer she is forced to carry an oxygen tank. It is immediately obvious that Hazel isn't the typical teenage girl from Indianapolis. But does this mean that The Fault in Our Stars is not worth reading? Hazel is exhibiting informed character traits. I couldn’t help but question some of the claims she made in other articles as well. Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life? https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/rupert-grint-ron-hermione-divorce/. After her death, a book of her writings was published, This Star Won’t Go Out. Hazel is described as having a pageboy haircut with dark brown hair and green eyes, she describes herself as having 'chipmunk cheeks' from steroidal treatment. How does she relate to stereotypes about gender? Hazel’s relationship with her mother is much more realistic. For those of you that donât know, Hazel Grace Lancaster is the main character of John Greenâs wildly successful novel, The Fault in Our Stars. This really detracts from the emotional weight of the book’s subject, and its strongest moments are when this façade is dropped and we get a sense of the real emotional connections between the characters. Hi Jo, She has no goals of her own and all the important plot developments are handled by other characters and presented for her approval: she has no impact on it. Character Playlist: Hazel Grace Lancaster. She doesn't want to get to close to anyone so that when she dies no one will be hurt. Hazel knows her weakness and her limitations and doesnât expect to leave a huge mark on the world. As for Hazel herself, she has been praised as a breath of fresh air in YA fiction, a relatable and realistic character, and a role model for young girls everywhere. Instead of actually showing us her personality through her thoughts and actions, other characters (and sometimes, Hazel herself) simply tell the reader what she is like, and regardless of anything she says or does, people will always see her as the version of herself that is told to the other characters – and, by extension, to the reader. At the beginning of the novel, Hazel obsesses over the impact her death will have on those around her. Hazel Grace Lancaster. Hazel Grace Lancaster. She finds in Gus someone she can relate to and who helps her live outside of herself. This is something I learned from the series I hate the most out of anything I’ve ever read: Twilight (and its doppelganger, Fifty Shades of Grey. Kept alive by an experimental drug, Hazel is unsure how long she has left to live and struggles to be defined by more than her fight against cancer and her survival. For the most part, they don’t have much impact on her character – apart from her lack of agency, which I touched on earlier – and the narrative does its best to steer clear of the most common stereotypes surrounding disability and illness. In addition to being a selfless and loving character, Hazel is also a very confident girl. And so we come to the first character to fail my test. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I don’t think so. Then she meets Augustus Waters. She’s always snarky, glib, irreverent and completely focussed on herself (even going so far as to physically assault her favourite author, Peter Van Houten, when he will not answer her questions about his book). Hazel only has a few significant relationships with female characters: her mother and her best friend, Kaitlyn. She also usually wears converse shoes, which she quotes to wear when she dresses u⦠In fact, she strives to leave a small mark (see the note above about âgrenade.â) Hazel shares BIG IDEAS Hazel has premature wisdom. She’s finished high school early and is taking college classes (despite being pulled out of school at age thirteen and almost dying), but never says why she’s doing it, or works toward any qualifications. Her mind rarely succumbs to futility. Hazel Grace Lancaster is the narrator and also the central character of the novel, The Fault in Our Stars. John Green based Hazel on Esther Grace Earl, one of his young fans who had a long battle with thyroid cancer and was an avid nerdfighter who did youtube videos and blog posts. Instead, she cherishes and feels extremely grateful for the time they do have together. Due to Hazel’s inherent passivity, not a lot of decisions actually get made in the whole book, let alone the ones which aren’t influenced by Augustus. Hazel carries herself in a different manor then any other girl her age. Hazel finished high school early and has already begun pursuing a college education. Going in a slightly different vein today by creating a playlist for Hazel Grace from The Fault in Our Stars! In the beginning, Hazel doesnât want to get close to Augustus, because she was afraid he is going to be shattered when she dies. Is there any evidence that Green’s books sold more copies than female YA authors like Suzanne Collins (whose Hunger Games series we can agree are very successful in sales with a female protagonist and isn’t based on horrible ideas about romance like Twilight or 50SG)? Really hate that John Green has been credited with reviving the YA genre when his books aren’t all that different to what came before him. Does she develop over the course of the story? To be quite frank, you could replace Hazel with a lampshade and it would have no effect on the details of the plot. Through her relationship with Augustus, however, Hazel's perspective changes. Essay Example on The Fault In Our Stars Character Analysis . Take CharacTour's quiz to get recommendations for thousands of characters, movies, TV shows, books, and games that are high matches for YOUR unique personality. Although Hazel has many flaws, many people describe her beautiful. Augustus has the view of that everyone matters using metaphor to explain it. She fears getting close to anyone because she knows that her death, which isn't far off, will hurt anyone close to her. Just look at Stephen Sutton, who raised £4 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust after being diagnosed with incurable cancer. One of Hazel’s biggest weaknesses is the need to push people away to stop them from getting hurt. Since then, she’s been given a drug that cleared up the worst of her symptoms, but there’s no cure; she relies on support machines to breathe properly and spends most of her life under some kind of supervision (either medical or parental). The final words of the novel indicate the extent to which Hazel grows spiritually throughout her journey. While she may be exhibiting one hell of an informed personality, her narration and internal thoughts are pretty consistent. Though this outlook on life is dramatically different from Augustus’s, over the course of the novel the teens are able to learn a lot from one another. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Hazel doesn’t really interact with stereotypes about gender much, which is actually quite refreshing. Hazel has no siblings and is the daughter to Mr. Lancaster and Mrs. Lancaster friend of Isaac and girlfriend of Augustus Waters. For this reason, Hazel must carry an oxygen tank (which she calls Philip) and nasal canulas wherever she goes. Physically speaking, we witness Hazel grow weaker. Her actions have absolutely no effect on the major plot points: they happen completely independent of her influence and are simply presented to her as a fait accompli. ( Log Out / They’re basically the same books). She’s supposed to be very intelligent, particularly in regards to literature, but she frequently misuses literary terms – in particular, the word hamartia (which means a fatal personality flaw that leads to a character’s downfall – Hazel and Augustus use it to describe their cancer), as well as an assortment of medical terms that she claims to be familiar with. I wonder if it’s because he’s a guy whereas most previous YA authors (Suzanne Collins, Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth) were women? She is a teenage girl that has lung cancer, and is terminally ill. She likes to read and her favorite book is An Imperial Affliction. As far as her beliefs go she’s a little more independent: she doesn’t believe in an afterlife and spends a lot of her time philosophising, but most of her core beliefs are gleaned from An Imperial Affliction or interactions with the characters around her. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Augustus Waters. Hazel Grace, as Augustus Waters likes to call her, has stage four thyroid cancer with metastasis forming on her lungs. She does not set up a meeting with Peter Van Houten, the author of her favourite book; it is arranged for her, and all she has to do is show up. She desperately wants to mitigate the harm caused by her existence on Earth. Change ), Strong Female Characters: Hazel Grace Lancaster, http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/john-green-young-adult-publishing-overshadows-women-criticism/, https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/rupert-grint-ron-hermione-divorce/, Simply the Worst: My Top Ten Least Favourite Tropes and Clichés, My Beloved Monster: Which Supernatural Creature Should You Date. Also for me, this author has written some rather nonsensical articles that I had the misfortune to read on dailydot. This does a real disservice to living cancer patients by drastically overshadowing their agency and personality as people, rather than patients. But for the most part, Hazel spends her story being, rather than doing: she is a fundamentally passive character. This really leaves me able to talk about one decision she makes: the decision to try and distance herself from her friends and family for fear of hurting them when she eventually dies. Dominant Si: Hazel loves to revisit things that have given her joy in the past. She is aged seventeen, has no siblings and is the daughter to Mr. Lancaster and Mrs. Lancaster, friend of Isaac and girlfriend to Augustus Waters. Hazel’s illness often restricts her physical mobility and affects her appearance, which means that I’m also going to take a quick look at some of the stereotypes surrounding women with illnesses or disabilities and see how they affect her character. The more I hear about TFIOS, the more sure I am that this book is an irritating pile of pretentiousness. It can be argued that Hazel’s passivity is a result of her illness, and the depression that stems from it, but there is very little evidence for this in the text. Hazel Lancaster's popularity ranking on CharacTour is #123 out of 5,600+ characters. The main character and narrator of The Fault in Our Stars. She is sixteen years old and is dying from lungs that donât function properly. While Hazel has a consistent internal voice, isn’t dominated by gender stereotypes and has a crucial weakness that she struggles against for most of the book, her credibility as a character is seriously undercut by her lack of agency and impact. Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not? Hazel Grace Lancaster is the main character in The Fault In Our Stars. They're afraid that she's not seizing life by the horns, that she's depressed, and that she shouldn't just want to watch America's Next Top Model in solitude all the time. Once, when Hazel was near dying, she overheard her mother saying if Hazel dies she won't be a mother anymore, and that thought has stayed with Hazel. She is 16 years old. For someone who is so quick to dispense her opinions, her opinions and decisions have very little impact on the plot. Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed? Obviously, this is seriously going to limit the amount of control she can have over her own life, as she is physically unable to do some of the things that a healthy person would be able to do. It’s established in the first few pages that she has a very serious form of thyroid cancer that almost killed her a few years before the story starts. ⢠Hazel Grace Lancasterâs Pre-cancer best friend (Hazel now describes their relationship as "awkward" since Kaitlyn would feel "self-conscious" while talking to her- Green 47) ⢠Considered popular in her school ⢠Claimed to have met Augustus ⢠Has a boyfriend (Derek) Characteristics: Bubbly personality This is particularly relevant because of the stereotypes surrounding illness and disability, which often minimise the agency of handicapped people when this simply isn’t true. Does the character shape her own destiny? 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