So far, as a reader you may have spotted similarities between An Imperial Affliction and The Fault in our Star. Mention them briefly and say whether you also find differences.
-In both stories, the main character is a girl with cancer.
-Both are made up stories.
-AIA finishes midsentence, and TFIOS doesn't.
-Even when TFIOS finishes midsentece, we don't know what happens after Hazel reads Augustus's letter.
-Both Anna's and Hazel's mom take a lot of care for them.
Does something make you think John Green will finish his novel midsentence? Do you agree with Hazel when she says that “finishing your novel midsentence violates the contract between writer and reader”? Justify your opinion.
When I first read it, I didn't thought John Green would finish his novel midsentece, because it would be very obvious and because he is aware of the contract between writer and reader, and I didn't believe he would violate it.
I agree with her until a certain point, because everything the author does has a purpose, just like AIA, that finishes midsentence because Anna dies. Still, it is very unfair for the other characters, but that always happens even when a book doesn't finish midsentence.
I agree with Hazel in the fact that there is a contract, where the reader has to read the book with attention and knowing that everything that there is on it has a purpose, but I believe that the only thing the writer has to do is to make her/his best effort to make the best book she/he can do.
“...I almost felt like he was there in my room with me, but in a way it was better, like I was not in my room and he was not in his...” (p.21) Explain in your own words what Hazel meant. Have you ever experienced a feeling like this?
Hazel meant that while they talked, she would feel absorbed by the conversation she had with Augustus. Is what happens when you are reading a book, and you get all excited and you don't feel you are there in your bed or your sofa reading the book. Instead, you feel you are inside the world of the book, witnessing all the events. Also, any conversation Hazel had with Augustus, wouldbe their conversation, and since they were so attached to each other, talking would be something very special for them, so, they would need a special place.
I have experienced this feeling while reading books I really like and while talking to very special friends.
In this chapter we read about Hazel’s first signs of worry about her cancer. Cite them here.
"My shoulder hurt. I worried the cancer had spread from my lungs. I imagined the tumor metastasizing into my own bones, boring holes into my skeleton, a slithering eel of insidious intent."
"I kept thinking about my shoulder, which hurt, and also I still had the headache, but maybe only because I’d been thinking about a girl who’d died of brain cancer"
"For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why something a stranger had written on the Internet to a different (and deceased) stranger was bothering me so much and making me worry that there was something inside my brain—which really did hurt, although I knew from years of experience that pain is a blunt and nonspecific diagnostic instrument"
As said before, John Green loves playing with symbols, and he’s chosen Augustus to let us know about them. Analyze Augustus’s idea of taking Hazel to the Funky Bones Art Park.
Augustus takes Hazel to the Funky Bones Art Park, because the creator was dutch, but what is more important about it, is the meaning the park has for Gus. He said:
"First, the bones are just far enough apart that if you’re a kid you cannot resist the urge to jump between them. Like, you just have to jump from ribcage to skull. Which means that second, the sculpture essentially forces children to play on bones. The symbolic resonanaces are endless, Hazel Grace”
The children are playing with bones, which although it might seem a little morbid, it reassures the idea that life goes on, and that although the dead ones aren't with us anymore, they always leave us something, they always leave their mark. Augustus wants to leave his mark in the world, while Hazel doesn't want to, but the Funky Bones should help Hazel understand that no matter what, we always leave a mark, but that doens't mean it is bad.
Also, Augustus says he feels like one of the children (in another part of the book), and though he isn't jumping in the bones, it can symbolize that he is "playing" with death, such as he does with his metaphorical cigarette.
While in the park, in a moment the following thought crossed Hazel’s mind: “...It all felt so Romantic, but not romantic....” (p.26. Chapter 6) What do you think she meant?
She meant that the situation was romantic, because Augustus took the time to prepare everything, but it felt not romantic because of that, because it was all prepared - it wasn't natural. Fr example, sometimes we can see in movies romantic scenes that we would like that happened in our lives, but if someone copied a romantic scene and prepared everything, it wouldn't be romantic because it was all prepared and because it wouldn't be something totally yours, as it from the movie.
While revealing her interest in Augustus to Kaitlyn, Hazel thought to herself: “I realized while listening to Kaitlyn that I didn’t have a premonition of hurting him; I had a post monition...”What would she try to avoid?
She would try to avoid that Augustus got too involved in her life, because that would mean that there would come a time when she would hurt him, and she didn't want that. She sees herself as a grenade, and like she knows she is going to explode at some time, she wants to avoid hurting Gus when that time comes.
Even though in the first chapters Hazel doesn’t open herself that much, the more we read, the more we get to know about her deepest fears... What made her look for Caroline Mathers? What was her reaction?
She knew that she had been Augustus's girlfriend and that because of her disease she had hurted him. She looks for her because she wanted to figure out why she had felt uncomfortable when Augustus had touched her. She knew she liked him, but didn't know what caused that feeling of unconfortableness.
When she finally looked for Caroline, she reinforced her belief that she would harm others with her death, and due to that, she begins to associate love with pain, making her to hesitate about engaging in a relationship with Augustus.
After looking for Caroline, she "explodes" at dinner when she is eating with her parents, because she started to feel pain in her head and shoulder, and because she tried to ignore it in a try of calming down.
From now onwards the story gets really intense. Choose fragments you want to share and comment on them.
Example:
“I’m like a grenade, at some point I’m going to blow up and I’d like to minimize the casualties, ok?; ....as the only thing I’ve ever done was to have cancer...” Hazel thought.
Two fragments which I think are the most intense and the ones which I would like to comment are the Example (I actually think it is one of the most intense moments of the book) and this one:
“I have to go.”
“Hazel, I love you, and you know I’d do anything for you, but we don’t—we don’t have the money for international travel, and the expense of getting equipment over there—love, it’s just not—”
“Yeah,...Don’t worry about it.” But she looked worried.
I'm interested in commenting this two fragments because it shows how hard it is for Hazel's parents to have
a child with cancer. Although they did everything they could so Hazel could be not so sick, there would always be things that they wouldn't be able to give her, as shown in second fragment, when her mom gets a little worried because they can't afford a trip like that one, something that her daughter desires so much. Then Hazel tries to make her mom feel less worried. I also wanted to comment this fragment, because it is something that I believe might happen to many parents.
To fragment of the example I would like to add this part:
My dad tilted his head a little to the side, like a scolded puppy.
“I’m a grenade,... you’re too invested, ...And I can’t be a regular teenager, because I’m a grenade.”
“Hazel,” Dad said, and then choked up. He cried a lot, my dad.
There isn't too much to say, because I believe the fragment talks by itself, but I can say that this part is very important in the book, because it shows how it feels for Hazel to have cancer, and it shows more of the struggle and feelings of the parents.
Tell us about the feelings you experienced while reading this chapter.
I don't remember my feelings when I first read the book, but I remember that when Hazel is eating with her parents and says that she is grenade, it impacted me a little. It impacted me because of the situation in the book, which was really intense, and because it left me thinking.
Hazel is a grenade, but I think we all are. Everything we do impacts other people lives, and even if we struggle to not do it - like Hazel - , there will come a time when we'll have to get involved in their lives, and when they will have to get involved in ours.