Final Reading Response: The Fault In Our Stars

     "Without pain we couldn't know joy."(Green 272) This is a quote that Hazel says in The Fault in Our Stars when she learns a lesson from Augustus when he dies.The book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is about two teenagers, Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster who fall in love despite the fact that she has cancer and his cancer is in remission. They met in a support group for people dealing with cancer, Augustus having had his leg amputated, but supposedly "cancer free" and Hazel who has to breathe with the support of an oxygen tank since the cancer in her lungs has caused them to fill with fluid. They are both friends with Isaac another support group member who is now "cancer free" but blind due to his second eye having to be removed. All three of these teenagers are coming of age, but with cancer as an extra obstacle they have to overcome in their lives.
     Hazel and Augustus are star-crossed lovers, their love is fated to end tragically due to Augustus's death from cancer. When Augustus dies Hazel learns that pain is necessary which Augustus teaches her throughout the book. One example of this is where Augustus says "That's the thing about pain,'...'it demands to be felt."(Green 63) Another example of this is where Hazel reads the letter Augustus wrote to the author of  "An Imperial Affliction" and he says "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you."(Green 313).
     By the time Augustus accepts his impending death he learns to overcome his fear of oblivion. He admits he has this fear where he says "I fear oblivion,' he said without a moment's pause ' I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark." (Green 12) Hazel teaches him to overcome this fear when she explains how to ignore it. she says "There will come a time ,' I said,' when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species did anything...And it inevitability of human oblivion worries you I encourage you to ignore it. God knows thats what everyone else does."(Green 13) Throughout the story Hazel teaches Augustus this lesson  and he learns that he doesn't have to affect many people to be noticed before he dies, he only has to affect one person, Hazel.
     In conclusion, Augustus, Hazel and Issac along with other young cancer survivors in The Fault in Our Stars have to deal with many obstacles and learn many lessons when coming of age, including the physical and emotional challenges of having to live with cancer.