The Fault in Our Stars

A literary text or work of art that is referenced in, or woven into, a work of literature is called an intertext. Make an argument about the significance of one of the novel’s intertexts, either fictional (An Imperial Affliction, The Price of Dawn) or real (T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Shakespeare’s “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments,” The Diary of Anne Frank, Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light,” etc.) Use your analysis to show why literature is so important in a novel about kids with cancer. 

The Fault in Our Stars was adapted into a Hollywood film in 2014, directed by Josh Boone. Choose one or two changes that the film version makes to the book (such as added or deleted scenes, different dialogue, or a different sequence of events) and make an argument about the effect of these changes on the story, character arcs, or message of the work—not about whether the changes are good or bad.

Water imagery runs throughout the novel, from its epigraph to its final paragraph, from Augustus’s name, to the canals in the city of Amsterdam, to the water in the lungs that threatens Hazel’s life. What does water mean in The Fault in Our Stars, and why does Green return to it so often? 

Hazel gives two very different eulogies for Augustus, one at the “prefuneral” before his death and one at his actual funeral. Compare the two and discuss what the differences show about Hazel and how Augustus’s death has (or hasn’t) changed her. 

Two fictional characters receive particular attention in the novel: Anna, the cancer-stricken protagonist of An Imperial Affliction, and Staff Sergeant Max Mayhem, the seemingly invincible hero of The Price of Dawn and its sequels. Compare these two characters and the types of literature they represent. Is one more or less heroic than the other, and if so, why?

Is there a God, or a divine figure, in The Fault in Our Stars? If so, who or what is it, and if not, what takes its place?

Throughout the novel, Hazel, Augustus, and Isaac all make sarcastic and critical comments about how cancer kids are usually portrayed in stories and regarded by adults. As cancer patients, they have a unique perspective, but their criticism often follows generational lines. Is their alienation specific to cancer kids, or is it a form of what all teenagers experience when confronting the adult world? 

Augustus is fond of symbols and metaphors, and he looks for them everywhere. Choose one and explain its significance, not just to his life, but to the larger themes of the book as a whole.