Chapter 1 Summary Hazel Grace Lancaster starts her story by telling us that her mother thinks she's depressed. Hazel doesn't deny that she's a little fixated on death. She considers just about everything, including her cancer, a side effect of dying. Her mother and doctor agreed she should attend a weekly cancer support group. The leader of the support group is a cancer survivor named Patrick who constantly talks about the fact that they meet in the heart of Jesus since the group meets in the basement of a cross-shaped church, directly at the spot where Jesus’ heart would be. Despite his surviving cancer, Hazel views his life as dreary. In the meeting, Hazel introduces herself.
She is sixteen and originally had thyroid cancer, though it's spread to her lungs, too. Hazel equates the sharing part of group to a circle jerk of support where everyone talks about how they're winning the fight. Indian struggle for independence by bipin chandra pdf editor pdf. The only part of support group she likes is a guy named Isaac who lost an eye to cancer and may lose his remaining eye as well. They both sigh derisively at people's stories. After a few weeks, Hazel attends a meeting where she's surprised by the presence of a new and beautiful boy who stares directly at her.
His name is Augustus Waters, and he's attending the meeting to support Isaac, who discovered he will soon lose his second eye to cancer. Augustus is a survivor of osterosarcoma, and when asked what he fears, he says “oblivion.” Hazel, who rarely speaks, says to the group that eventually everyone will be dead, and everything humanity has built will have been for naught. In her narration she explains she learned this from her favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. When the meeting wraps up Isaac introduces Augustus and Hazel. Augustus says Hazel reminds him of Natalie Portman in “V for Vendetta.” The two flirt, mock the meeting's location in the “literal” heart of Jesus, and watch Isaac make out with his girlfriend, Monica.
The Fault in Our Stars is a very popular title; chances are your library will probably offer it. If not, there’s a link on the Overdrive/Libby site that allows you to ask your library to purchase it. And download in the epub format, it works better that the pdf one!
Placing a cigarette between his lips, Augustus invites Hazel to his place, to watch “V For Vendetta.” Hazel is disgusted by the cigarette but reconsiders when Augustus explains that he never lights it. Rather, he enjoys the metaphorical resonance of putting something that kills between his teeth and denying it the power to kill him. Analysis Functionally speaking, the first few chapters of the novel are dense with a variety of introductions pertaining to characters, background, setting, and tone. First and foremost, we meet Hazel Grace Lancaster, the novel’s chief protagonist and narrator, and become acquainted with the skeptical way she views the world. Cancer has rendered Hazel perhaps more jaded and philosophical than her non-cancer ridden peers. Already on the first page of the narrative Hazel let’s on about her theory of side effects, namely that almost everything conceivable can be viewed as a side effect of dying.
She also attacks the convention of portraying kids with cancer as heroic victims, making no qualms about the fact that she sees these conventions as empty cliches. Right away this information tells us that Hazel isn't an unrealistic romantic, and that of all things, she perhaps appreciates honesty most. She suggests that honesty is precisely the reason she loves An Imperial Affliction, the book she considers her personal bible. The author, she says, is the only person who understands what it's really like to be dying, which implies that the book is the only one she's found that accurately portrays that experience. Hazel's jadedness forms the basis for her friendships in this chapter. She and Isaac communicate through their groans at the sentimentality and unrelenting optimism of the support group.