Quote 21
[…] his dad put an arm around me and kissed the side of my head and whispered, "I thank God for you every day, kid." (19.39)
Augustus's parents really do see Hazel as a source of solace in their time of need. And even though she doesn't believe in a God, she accepts their faith.
Quote 22
Augustus did not die after a lengthy battle with cancer. He died after a lengthy battle with human consciousness, a victim—as you will be—of the universe's need to make and unmake all that is possible. (21.24)
Hazel's responses to religious sentiment don't always go over well. Is her cynical take on the way of the world just a coping mechanism? Or is that just how she sees things?
Quote 23
I went on spouting bulls*** Encouragements as Gus's parents, arm in arm, hugged each other and nodded at every word. Funerals, I had decided, are for the living. (22.20)
Even if she doesn't believe a word of it, Hazel cannot deny Augustus's parents the comfort of their spirituality.
Quote 24
"I'm a grenade," I said again. "I just want to stay away from people and read books and think" (6.72)
Hazel's all about not hurting other people—even when it hurts here. She wants to be as passive as possible in order to not be responsible for any pain. Is this courageous? Or just silly?
Quote 25
People talk about the courage of cancer patients, and I do not deny that courage. I have been poked and stabbed and poisoned for years, and still I trod on. (7.4)
Hazel recognizes how tough it is to be a cancer kid. And that means she also knows how courageous she's been.
Quote 26
I did not ask what constituted a long time. I'd made that mistake before. (8.12)
Hazel manages to be brave even when doctors are openly talking in front of her about how little time she has left on this earth. That's brutal.
Quote 27
The way Hazel sees it, dying makes you less afraid of other things, because hey, what do you have to lose?
The way Hazel sees it, dying makes you less afraid of other things, because hey, what do you have to lose?
Quote 28
We walked in silence, Augustus a half step in front of me. I was too scared to ask if I had reason to be scared. (13.20)
Just because she's used to the whole cancer drill doesn't mean that Hazel doesn't have moments of weakness. We're pretty sure she knows what's coming in this scene.
Quote 29
Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of the people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them (13.29)
Is this courage? Why do we always try to protect the people we love when we'd never want them to hold it in for our sake?
Quote 30
According to the conventions of the genre, Augustus Waters kept his sense of humor til the end, did not for a moment waver in his courage, and his spirit soared like an indomitable eagle until the world itself could not contain his joyous soul. (18.27)
If this were a made-for-TV family drama, maybe Augustus would never feel pain or depression or hopelessness in the face of cancer. But he does. And that doesn't make him any less of a fighter.
Quote 31
I understood: No wasting good lungs on a hopeless case. (8.14)
Can your identity be controlled by those around you? Hazel's well-meaning doctors see her as a "hopeless case," so does that make her feel more like one?
Quote 32
[…] but then I heard a voice that was definitely a twisted version of his say, "BECAUSE IT IS MY LIFE, MOM. IT BELONGS TO ME." (10.19)
Augustus is not defined by his cancer, and he won't let it prevent him from doing the things he wants to do. He even passes over chemo drugs in order to go to Amsterdam and fulfill some wishes. Brave or stupid?
Quote 33
Augustus and I were together in the Improbable Creatures Club: us and duck-billed platypuses. (12.41)
Being an Improbable Creature requires having a pretty strong sense of self, don't you think?
Quote 34
According to Maslow, I was stuck on the second level of the pyramid, unable to feel secure in my health and therefore unable to reach for love and respect and art and whatever else, which is, of course, utter horses*** (13.23)
Sometimes philosophers totally don't have it right. Hazel can reach for love if she wants to, even with the cancer eating away at her insides.
Quote 35
"Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten […] and this will have been for naught […] And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does." (1.64)
This is part of Hazel's diatribe at Support Group that totally wins over Augustus. Because, you know, there's nothing sexier to a seventeen-year-old boy than a girl who can talk about how you're all going to die and be forgotten. Right?
Quote 36
Cancer kids are essentially side effects of the relentless mutation that makes the diversity of life on earth possible. (4.4)
Instead of thinking of herself as an individual, Hazel finds it more comforting to think of herself as part of a big scheme in the universe. How does this affect the way she thinks about her identity?
Quote 37
The only solution was to try to unmake the world, to make it black and silent and uninhabited again, to return to the moment before the Big Bang, in the beginning when there was the Word, and to live in that vacuous space alone with the Word. (7.3)
Hazel has very strange pain regulation methods. Do you think she thinks these big thoughts because she's contemplating her mortality? Or is she just a deep kid through and through?
Quote 38
I tried to tell myself that it could be worse, that the world was not a wish-granting factory, that I was living with cancer not dying of it, that I mustn't let it kill me before it kills me (8.41)
Hazel doesn't want to let cancer rule her life. And we have to say, once she meets Augustus, she does a pretty good job of letting go and making things happen.
Quote 39
"I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But Gus, my love, 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." (20.59)
Even though Hazel and Gus had a limited amount of time together, it was valuable enough to count as infinity. What a sweet and heartbreaking way to see it.
Quote 40
There are a number of ways to establish someone's approximate survival expectations without actually asking. (2.9)
Hazel is, unfortunately, used to the issues of mortality. It's not unusual for her to think about survival expectations or the probability of death. But that doesn't make it any easier.