Lit Analysis #1

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

Exposition: The story is told by Hazel Grace who is a 17 year old girl living with stage four lung cancer.  We are told about Hazel's routine which includes watching reality tv, taking classes at the local community college, and attending a weekly support group which she dreads going to.  Hazel meets Augustus Waters at support group one night who is there supporting his friend, Isaac, who is going blind soon.  It is revealed that Augustus also had cancer, osteosarcoma, which cost him most of one of his legs.  We also learn about Hazel's favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, which is about a girl with cancer that Hazel relates to.
Rising Action: Hazel and Augustus begin to spend a lot of time together and on the phone where they bond over An Imperial Affliction, which Augustus falls in love with when Hazel lends him a copy and being cancer kids.  Hazel starts to see her life as more than her illness and becomes happier as they get closer.  Hazel and Augustus discuss possible endings for An Imperial Affliction often because the author published the book unfinished and then disappeared from society.  Augustus manages to track down the author, Peter Van Houten, through his assistant.  The two begin corresponding and Van Houten agrees to tell them what happens to all the characters after if they come out to Amsterdam to visit him.
Climax: In order to travel all the way to Amsterdam Augustus uses his cancer wish to take Hazel, Hazel's mother, and himself.  Hazel gets very sick before they leave, but decides to risk it and travel anyway.  When they meet Van Houten they are disappointed to find out that he is an irritable old drunk who calls them "failed experiments of mutation".  He continues to berate Augustus and Hazel and refuses to answer any of their questions about the book.  His comments are too much for Lidewiji, his assistant, to handle so she quits and storms out.  Augustus and Hazel use this tragic event to become closer, close enough for Augustus to reveal that his cancer has come back all over his body and that he doesn't have much longer to live.
Falling Action: Hazel spends Augustus's last days with him as he slowly slips from the boy she first met to a corpse.  Augustus has Isaac and Hazel prepare eulogies to read to him at his pre-funeral, he passes away shortly after.
Resolution: Van Houten shows up at Augustus's funeral which shocks Hazel and he reveals that he had been corresponding with Augustus before he died.  Hazel finds out that An Imperial Affliction was written about Van Houten's daughter who passed away from cancer years ago.  Later Hazel finds out that Augustus was writing an ending for her that he mailed to Van Houten and he mailed to Hazel.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

A theme I found to be quite prominent was finding who you are and doing what makes you happy.  Throughout the book Hazel begins to live a life outside of her illness and enjoy the moments that she does have because life can end so quickly.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

I found the tone of the novel to be sincere and honest, the author wrote the story and the characters realistically without sugarcoating anything.
-"There will come a time 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 ever did anything.  There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you.  Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught.  Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it's millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever.  There was a time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be a time after.  And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it.  God knows that's what everyone else does."
-"Sick children inevitably become arrested: You are fated to live out your days as the child you were when diagnosed, the adults, we pity this, so we pay for your treatments, for your oxygen machines.  We give you food and water though you are likely to live long enough."
-"He looked up at me.  It was horrible.  I could hardly look at him.  The Augustus Waters of the crooked smiles and unsmoked cigarettes was gone, replaced by this desperate humiliated creature sitting there beneath me."

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.

Symbolism
-Calling the meeting spot for the support group "The Literal Heart of Jesus" which was mocked throughout the novel, but is proven to have been a place that brought people together.
Allusions
-There are allusions to Julius Caesar when they quote him and multiple allusions to An Imperial Affliction.
Irony
-Hazel was sick the entire book leading us to believe that she would die in the end and leave Augustus to be heartbroken, but he was the one to die first.
Foreshadowing
-Augustus is in pain and has trouble closing the elevator door when they're in Amsterdam which hints at the cancer that he reveals has returned.
Flashback
-Hazel remembers back to when her dad would toss her up in the air and catch her when she was young, remembering back to that frightening moment of not knowing if her dad would catch her.
Narrative
-We are able to see how great the effect Augustus had on Hazel because the story is being told through her eyes.
Personification
-The characters discuss cancer as if it was it was a character itself.
Pathos
-The tragedy experienced in the book tugs at the heart strings of the readers.
Epiphanies
-When Hazel meets Van Houten she realizes that things don't always live up to your expectations, but you have to be okay with that and do what you can to make the situation better.
Billdungsroman
-Hazel develops her character throughout the novel and becomes more than just her disease.