Chapter 1: Characters in The Fault in Our Stars

     The book is told in a first person account of a character with the name Hazel. Being the main character and narrator of the story, she is obviously a round, dynamic character. Every element of the story revolves around her; when a moment occurs that would differ the viewpoint or emotion of a character, she is involved. As early as the first chapter, she has already changed, in that she was strongly opposed to attending the Cancer Group Meetings at the church, but is happy to find Augustus, a guest of Isaac, at a meeting. Most of the action between characters is present when Hazel is too: Hazel talking with her mom, being with Augustus, monologue at the meeting and more. Hazel is the protagonist of the book: she is well-developed (round) and undergoes changes because of the plot (dynamic).

     Other Characters such as hazel's Mom and Augustus are introduced as rather flat characters. The interaction with these characters in the story takes place when the characters are with Hazel. Hazel's mom is mentioned in the story when she is talking with Hazel, and driving her to group. She has not yet been mentioned with other characters, which means she is not fully developed (or flat). Gus (Augustus), is also present when Hazel is also. He is more devloped in the story than Hazel's Mom, but not yet fully developed, so not yet a round character. So far, he has been mentioned at the meeting, driving Hazel to his house from the meeting, and when he introduces Hazel to his home and his parents. Obviously, there are other characters in the book, but they are not yet mentioned enough by the auther to be classified by how developed they are, nor their emotions.

     In order for the reader to visualize what is happening in the story, the author also needs to give the characters physical and personality traits. Hazel is portrayed in the book as a sarcastic girl, with rather rude monologue, and looks like an average girl (only, one who drags an oxygen tank around). Gus, as described by Hazel, is the perfect hunk who is sweet and charming (but also as bad a driver aas they come due to his bad leg). Isaac, a character mentioned only twice so far in the book, is a thin teen boy with long hair that covers his glass eye, he's kind of shy and doesn't talk much at the meetings, but has no problem showing a little PDA outside of the church. Not every character in the story has to be developed, but to enhance the story and help the reader visualize, the author must give each character traits (and John Green has done a great job of doing so).

    

The Fault in Our Stars

     As you can tell from the title of this post, this week I have begun reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. You're probably also thinking, "What in the heck is a boy doing reading this book?" Well, I probably should've known from all the girls reading this book that it was going to be on the girly side, but I already bought it from iBooks, and I'm going to have to read it. To be honest, though, for the style that the book is written in and how girly it is, the book isn't too bad.

     I am only on page 32 of the book, nine of which don't even count, so I haven't learned much of anything about the plot or anything yet. One of the few things I have learned is that the narrator of the book is a sixteen-year-old girl named Hazel, who has cancer. From what I can tell, the story takes place in modern society; there are cars and TV and major treatments for cancer, but that's all I know. Hazel is depressed from her cancer, so her doctor says to attend some cancer support group that meets in a cross-shaped basement of a church. The importance of the cross-shaped layout of the meeting place is that the members circle around where Jesus' cross would be, so they are all in his heart.

     She hates going to the meetings, and would rather watch "America's Next Top Model" (again, a girly thing, I think?) with her mom. Her luck turns, to a point, when Augustus goes to the meeting to support his pal, Isaac. Hazel describes Gus as, and I swallow my pride as I say this, a total hunk and that he's so perfect and what not. The last part of what I've read so far just describes how bad of a driver Gus is on the way to his house, Hazel as his passenger, and the setting of his house.

I'll update more as I read into the book...



Looking for a picture of the book cover, I was also interested to find that there is a movie based on the book, and that there have been short "sneak peaks" of some scenes leaking out.

Here is the trailer of the movie!

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