Is Cancer the Enemy?
When you think of cancer, the words terminal sickness and death probably enter your mind. However, although cancer is a terminal sickness, it can change a person’s life and perspective. In the book, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the protagonist is suffering from lung cancer. In a mental and emotional journey, she learns what true love is. Love is the thing that keeps her alive even during the hard times and helps her to live a normal life. With love, she is able to face a life without Augustus, with love, she is able to live her life to the fullest, and with love, she is able to stop worrying about being a grenade and being able to take down the walls to let in the people who deeply care about her.
Hazel is a cancer kid who is a grenade. Namely, she wants to love and be loved, but she does not want to affect many people when she explodes, or dies. Therefore, she builds walls around her castle and does not allow anyone inside. That is, until she meets Augustus Waters, who taught her that even though she has cancer, she can still live like a normal kid, she can still watch the popular TV shows and movies, and she can still hang out with friends and go shopping. She does not have to stay at home, depressed, and wishing that she would die just because she has cancer. Cancer is not the enemy who wishes to blow up our lives, it is an ally who wants to shape our lives, shape who we are, and shape our perspective on life in return for a life that has been lived to the fullest. Augustus, or Gus, shows Hazel that building barriers will not help her to live her life, in fact, letting people into the castle and allowing them love you is the thing that will keep you going, especially in the hard times. Augustus sa...
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...ed. She tries to find it, and after many days, gets an email from the author’s assistant who has it. The ending ends with Augustus asking whether or not Hazel is happy with the choices that she’s made. She says yes. Yes because she now has made the choice to let people close to her heart and can survive the next couple of months, maybe even years without Augustus.
Hazel was a girl who tried her best to live a life even though she wasn’t normal. She still watched the popular TV shows, she still had a boyfriend, and she still went shopping and all the other things that girls do. Also, she tore down the walls of her heart and allwed Augustus to get inside, she made the choice to get close to people, and began to stop worrying about when and if she will explode. Those were Hazel’s choices, the choices she made with the help of Augustus, the love of her cancerous life.
By her account, some of the fun in going to the movies is throwing popcorn, making noises, and leading the other children in disruptions. They all knew from past times how much noise they can make, how far they can push the theater personal before they get into trouble, and they enjoy seeing the personal angry. On this Easter Sunday in question the theater was advertising a film called Gorilla, My Love, but the theater is actually showing a religious picture, King of Kings, and an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Hazel agitates the children in the crowd in order to cause loud protest, and marches into the manager's office to demand her money back. When the manager refuses to speak or even return her money, she steals a book of matches and lights a fire in the lobby. Somehow, Hazel is so fierce in her explanation, and her voice is so strong and confident, that she seems tough and likeable at the same time. Hazel has been raised to speak her mind, and she does. She avoids a whipping from her father by explaining that the adults had made a promise—that they would show Gorilla, My Love—and broke it. Hazel's rebellion, in her eyes, was a blow for the value of keeping one's word. Knowing she was raised to stand for ...
Although illness narratives are not novel or new, their prevalence in modern popular literature could be attributed to how these stories can be relatable, empowering, and thought-provoking. Susan Grubar is the writer for the blog “Living with Cancer”, in The New York Times, that communicates her experience with ovarian cancer (2012). In our LIBS 7001 class, Shirley Chuck, Navdeep Dha, Brynn Tomie, and I (2016) discussed various narrative elements of her more recent blog post, “Living with Cancer: A Farewell to Legs” (2016). Although the elements of narration and description (Gracias, 2016) were easily identified by all group members, the most interesting topics revolved around symbolism as well as the overall impression or mood of the post.
...or George and Augustus cares for Hazel. George cares for Lennie and Hazel cares for Augustus.
...family that she grew up in was such a negative environment. It is very possible that she will grow up to be an art teacher. One might think this because she looked up to her art teacher so much and admired her; Ellen’s mind is full of creativity and ideas. When Ellen’s school found out that her dad was abusive to her they put her up at her art teacher’s house. Ellen says “I came a long way to get here but when you think about it really hard you will see that old Starletta came even farther… And all this time I thought I had the hardest row to hoe” Like Ellen did, it is important for everyone to look back into their life and see what they have learned. Doing so cannot change ones past but only add to their future. Ellen will always carry the horrors of her childhood with her but by using all of her assets that she gained throughout the book her future can be enriched.
When was the last time you felt certain of your impending future? For cancer survivor, Hazel, the answer is never. In The Fault in Our Stars, sixteen year old Hazel lives with cancer and attends a support group where she meets Augustus, another young cancer survivor who changes her outlook on the world forever. He takes Hazel on an adventure of love, friendship, and pain, and together they yearn to have authority over their uncontrollable fates. Isaac, a blind teenager, and Hazel’s mom also play significant roles in her life. Similarly, in Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie strengthen their friendship through love and suffering, and they learn that humans have some control over their end destination. At the ranch they work at, Lennie and George have to choose how they want their lives to turn out, which directly impacts the choices they will make regarding the future. While John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men both establish motifs of friendship, games, and hands, they convey different universal ideas about humanity. In particular, Green suggests that humans cannot always manipulate every situation, while Steinbeck focuses on the ideas that men often have a choice in their destinies.
Hazel is a fiery little girl. She is strong-willed and openly opinionated, and believes that “when you got something on your mind, speak up and let the chips fall where they may” (Bambara 297). Although she is still very young, she has principles of what she believes to be wrong and right. She believes that her Hunca Bubba is not who he used to be since he has fallen in love and become engaged. Hazel feels betrayed by Hunca Bubba because when she was a little girl, he promised he would marry her. He is no longer Hazel’s Hunca Bubba; now, he is Jefferson Winston Vale. Hazel is befuddled with the entire situation. She is heartbroken that he seems to undermine the importance of his promise, by saying, “I was just teasin’” (298). He seems to be completely unaware that by breaking this promise, he has distorted Hazel’s entire outlook on trustworthiness. Hazel expresses her concrete belief that people should follow through with what they say, when she is commenting on the incident at the movie theater, “ I mean even gangsters in the movies say My word is my bond. So don’t nobody get away with nothing far as...
... emotional and mental growth from what happened to her through her artwork. Like Melinda had said in the book, she had gone through different phases in her art pictures from ones with dead, leafless trees to trees with cubism and beautiful leaves and branches. This shows her growth and recovery from what happened that night at the party. In the end, as this relates to Melinda, life is like a tree. You start off a little seed and then become a sprout. You learn from your mistakes and life lessons and begin to grow into a tall, strong, and mighty tree wear no one can harm or stop you from being yourself.
People with cancer often begin to define themselves based on their experience with their illness, this self-definition through one’s cancer is one that the characters fear in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. The novel shows how the characters strive to discover their identities, but despite that are still identified by their illness. The novel also makes the argument that young people with cancer are not any more virtuous or different than other kids rather, they are just normal kids living with an illness. Augustus wants to be remembered and also be more than just a boy who battled cancer, but despite his efforts is still identified by his illness.
Cancer limits her chances at being a normal teenage girl with a normal life. As reluctant as she was to go to support group, she meets other teenagers going through the same stuff. Hazel gets to experience the flirting, adventure, and excitement of teenage life. She allows herself to be immature and careless. Gus’s death reminds her how unfair the world is but she doesn't regret her choices. In her eulogy at the funeral, Hazel says “I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” (Green 260). This quote shows she doesn't regret becoming close to him; even with the unfortunate fallout she’s thankful for the time and experiences. Hazel matures because of her relationship. She got the chance at “normal” and love. Caring for someone with cancer helped her mature.
Cancer is a deadly disease that has some very serious effects on a person both physically and mentally. Cancer can result in a simple surgery that may take only a couple days, or a life-long struggle that leaves someone so fatigued and tired that it makes them want to give up. It will put fear in anyone's eyes and will devastate even the strongest of people, but cancer can bring out the courageousness in a person to fight this disease and not give up. It can be a fatal disease but it can also bring out the strength in someone which is an amazing thing. Cancer has many serious effects on a person's body and their mental health and others, but can also inspire a person to dig deep and fight this disease with all their heart.
“Just take my hand, together we can do it, I’m gonna love you through it.” (I’m Gonna Love You Through It- Martina McBride). Breast cancer is an awful disease that will change your life in a single moment. ”Everything in my life was turned upside-down. I really had a wonderful life; A husband, three children. And breast cancer came along and just smashed my world” (Janelle’s Journey). Breast cancer is an aggressive war that takes a great amount of fighting to survive. “You go from being perfectly healthy, to feeling like, ‘okay, I’m dying’. It started a whirlwind of things that I never anticipated having to go through.” (Bonnie’s Story- Beyond The Shock). Did you know that the youngest person ever to have been diagnosed with breast cancer
She was an ignorant person but yet a caring one who showed feelings of emotion for George. It also shows the true failure of equality the Government was trying to enforce. There is not all that much but a penalty and a throbbing fear holding George back from agreeing with Hazel. In conclusion there are several possibilities as to why Hazel's decision was made but one thing is for sure, the government has failed in their triumphant purge to create one impossible goal,
...ir relationship Augustus shows Hazel how to live each day to its fullest. Another theme would be the courage within the characters. Hazel and Augustus are cancer patients and they are definitely tougher people because of it. The way they approach their close deaths takes a large amount of courage in itself.
A reader might easily conclude that the most prominent social issue presented in The Bluest Eye is that of racism, but more important issues lie beneath the surface. Pecola experiences damage from her abusive and negligent parents. The reader is told that even Pecola's mother thought she was ugly from the time of birth. Pecola's negativity may have initially been caused by her family's failure to provide her with identity, love, security, and socialization, ail which are essential for any child's development (Samuels 13). Pecola's parents are able only to give her a childhood of limited possibilities. She struggles to find herself in infertile soil, leading to the analysis of a life of sterility (13). Like the marigolds planted that year, Pecola never grew.
Michael Lancaster, Hazel's father: Michael Lancaster is incredibly emotionally invested in Hazel's survival, though he must continue working to support the family and so appears less in the novel and knows less about Hazel's illness and treatment. Hazel's father cries often, leading to more guilt on Hazel's part that she is going to leave her family devastated when she dies.