Family Theme Analysis

The Fault in Our Stars not only explores the ways in which cancer affects those who are diagnosed, but also shows the ways in which their families and friends react to their diagnoses. The parents of the young people living with cancer react to the loss of their children in different ways. The reactions of Hazel’s parents shows the way in which a cancer diagnosis places parents in a difficult situation as they attempt to parent a teenage child. They want her to be a normal teenage, which is why they recommend she go to the cancer support group and meet other young people, but at the same time, they are protective and overbearing. As they urge her to mature into an adult, they continue to cling to her youth, the time in which she was healthy, as shown by their continued goading that she sleep with “Bluie”, her childhood teddy bear, and the celebration of her “half birthdays”. Augustus’ parents react differently, attempting to battle the cancer by staying positive. They plaster their house with platitudinous sayings that are a constant reminder for them to stay hopeful.

Both Hazel and Augustus find their parents annoying, but ultimately understand that their parents just love them and are coping with their situations to the best of their ability. Hazel, however, feels a great sense of guilt because of the way her condition affects her parents. She knows that her very existence causes her parents immense pain, stating that, “They might be glad to have me around, but I was the alpha and the omega of my parents' suffering”. She also feels immense guilt over her parent’s lack of money and the time they sacrifice to make sure she is safe and cared for. Hazel also fears that her death will tear the family apart. This fear is another factor in her obsession with the novel An Imperial Affliction. For Hazel, the novel’s characters come to represent her own experience. In An Imperial Affliction, the main character, a young girl named Anna dies because of her cancer. The novel ends suddenly with Anna’s death, which leads Hazel to seek out answers about what happens to Anna’s mother and her mother’s partner, the tulip man, after the novel’s end. She believes that gaining insight into Anna’s experience will allow her to know what will happen to her parents after she passes.

Hazel and Augustus go to Amsterdam to find out what happens to Anna’s parents after she dies, but their hopes are crushed after then the novel’s author, Peter Van Houten, drunkenly tells them that nothing exists after the novel ends. This answer becomes a great concern for Hazel, leading her to believe that after her own death, nothing, including her parents and family, will exist. This belief, however, is replaced by the end of the novel in several ways. First, Hazel experiences Augustus’ death, and watches his family come together and work through it. Secondly, she learns that Peter Van Houten had written An Imperial Affliction about his own daughter who had died of cancer, suggesting that even though the novel ends with Anna’s death, Van Houten has continued to exist, even though her death has pushed him over the edge into alcoholism and fierce resentment. Finally, Hazel learns that her mother is studying to become a cancer counselor for young people, which allows her to know that even after she dies, her mother will continue to love her through loving other children fated in the way she was, and that her parents will not falter in the way Peter Van Houten has.