Novel analysis - The Fault in Our Stars

L.I- To read a novel and critically analyse, and evaluate aspects of it.

Title:       The Fault in Our Stars  

Author:  John Green

Genre:   Fiction (based on a real person)

Pages:  313

Hazel Grace is a 16 year old girl who has cancer. She has had cancer for the past three years. All this time she has to carry an oxygen tank around everywhere she goes. She decides to join a support group at their church with kids the same age as her who also, have cancer. She meets some friends there and sets off to find her favourite author in Amsterdam with her new, one legged boyfriend Augustus Waters. They fall deeply in love and promise to stay together until death does them part, but unfortunately, that’s what happens. Luckily, romantic, poetic, and metaphorical Augustus Waters left her clues to find a love letter, just before he died.     

I think that the moral of the story is basically, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, and what does, makes your closest friends and family stronger. In this story there are a few quotes and metaphorical things that create an emotion and a theme for the reader, like “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”  and  “Are you serious?! You’re smoking while you have cancer?! Are you trying to kill yourself?!” exclaims Hazel, shocked. “It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.” replies Augustus.   Also “I wanted to know that he would be okay if I died. I wanted to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people I loved.”  Like this, there are many, many other metaphorical and emotional quotes that build up the picture and feelings, just like a musician accenting different parts of a melody to create emotion.

This story takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters live. Until they leave to Amsterdam to meet their favourite author. In Amsterdam they go to the Anne Frank house for a tour, to Oranjee (a famous restaurant) and obviously meet Peter Van Houten ,their favourite author, at the author’s house. Even though author turns out to be a horrible person the trip isn’t a complete waste of time as they share their first kiss at the top of the Anne Frank house.

Hazel Grace is a very smart, and funny girl. She has a very likeable personality.She more of a listener rather than a talker and all she wants is for her parents to be happy, which is hard when all they ever have time for is her, because if she suddenly has a lung problem once again they must be as close to her as possible. Her lung problems have happened too often for her parents to be able to stay too far away. She isn’t very active as she only has one and a half working lungs so she gets breathless easily. Hazel has short hair, once again, because of cancer, and a thin tube running from her nose to her oxygen tank that never leaves her side. She is quite romantic but not quite as romantic as her boyfriend Augustus. Unfortunately she is very self-doubtful. She is humorous, but in a smart way. She thinks very logically, and metaphorically, and understands that she is going to die sooner than others. She isn’t the type of person who believes in miracles, but she isn’t depressed. She is funny, but her jokes are never mean, to anyone, or anything. She is the type of person you would want to have a lasting friendship with, as she never gets boring, and she’s the kind of person you don’t meet everyday, but you would like to.

This book was very detailed, but not in a boring, everlasting way. There were parts of the story where there was an unsolved mystery and the author, John Green (a genius), left little suspicious clues to follow and to predict what happens, but the really great thing about the language in the story is how metaphorical it is. I guess you could say that the story is like a dark hallway with many open doors, but you never know where you are going until you’re there. There are many unexpected twists in the story and they keep the reader captivated.

Overall the novel is amazing. The author, John Green, has once again completed a masterpiece. This story has been a huge success with people of all ages, although the main audience was teen girls. I love the language used in this novel and how everything about it has been thought out perfectly. If I could go back in time and read this book again, I would.  All the characters personalities and stories fit together perfectly like a puzzle and if one piece was different the puzzle would be incomplete. This story makes you think differently about life and everything on Earth. I found this novel faultless and inspirational, and I am not the first to think that.

By Oksana

L.I. To use the model of  ‘The Old Alley’ to write descriptively about a place

The Abandoned Cemetery

The wind moans mysteriously,

Suspicious sounds surround the cemetery,

Unpredictable shadows move,

Even though there is no sunlight available.

The fog is entwined with thin leafless bush skeletons,

Myriads of graves,

Decayed and cracked,

Gifts from mourning loved ones,

Given to the deceased,

Loses its colour beneath the arctic showers.

What was once a grave surrounded by tears, sympathy and love,

Is now just like another rose in the prodigious bouquet,

Loved,

But forgotten.

All the gifts that were once a sign of remembrance,

Are now part of the thousands left before.

A brick wall containing a metal plate covered with encrusted names of those,

Who gave their lives for ours in the war,

Has now been disrespectfully covered by unfading graffiti.

The only living thing here is the mould creeping up the the graves,

Devouring their debris.

As I examine this,

I think of all the people who have suffered.

The ones now living here,

Or crying somewhere else.

Amongst all of these commemorative tombstones,

I feel like I’m inside a photo album,

Waiting to be looked at,

Remembered,

Just like the rest of the spirits here,

Resting in the cemetery.

By Oksana

Me

A boisterous soul
A quirky personality
With many faulty errors
A musical heart
With an academic mind
Included in me is a bookworm nature
Muscles built up with motivation
Free of charge to share
My positivity is hard to crack
Kind of like my bones

The Fog

A cold moist ghost settles on the hills.
Every tree, building and person is an eerie sight in the ghost's presence. 
The ghost blocks out the sun, and haunts the town ceaselessly. 
The misty presence of the ghost stays still until the sun overpowers him. 
The ghost rises into the sky, declaring to come back tomorrow. 
The morning fog has disappeared. 
But not for long, as he will return. 
Soon...

Term 2 Week 3
Wow, Term 1 went by faster than expected. Though I have, so far made a lot of progress. I am in Extension Writing, Extension Art, I have joined the Junior Band and learnt how to play the flute. In Tech Arts we have just completed our Food Class rotation and our next rotation is Art Class. We will have a Science Fair at the end of this term where my project is about seeds that have been in an international space station, and if they grow differently. So far the seeds have just germinated and the space seeds are a few millimeters higher than the seeds that have been on Earth. Luckily my grandmother is a science teacher who has provided me with the right equipment to continue this experiment such as the seeds and special photosynthesis lamps. The seeds are for a flower called Impatiens Balsamina. I will update this blog with more information about the process when the flowers have germinated more.  

The Sun

Shyly, she hides her flawless, glowing face from all the people staring at her beauty. Everyone euphorically basks in her presence. Her beauty is blinding, but not only is her appearance lovely but other qualities are too. She is silent, but so noticeable that even blind people become happy in her presence. She quietly peeks out from behind the clouds and beams at her admiring audience. Everybody grins back at her, bathing in her pool of warmth.    

L.I- To read a novel and critically analyse, and evaluate aspects of it.

Title    -   Twilight

Author -  Stephenie Meyer

Pages     -  498

Genre  -  Romantic Drama

Isabella Swan is a normal girl who moved from Phoenix where her Mum and her mother’s boyfriend live, to Forks with her Dad. She starts going to high school in Forks and everyone likes her, but in Biology class the only seat left is next a marvellously beautiful guy. But he is cringing away from her. After class as she walks past the office she hears him yelling at the office lady to change his biology class time to be away from her. Later, she finds out that he is a vampire, but at first he thought that he was in love with the unique scent of her blood, but he is in love with her aswell, and she is so in love that she would give her soul to him, which may as well be the price.

To never give up on what you believe in or what you love. Bella loved her vampire boyfriend even though he and his family have hurt her many times. Physically, and emotionally. But all of that can be overlooked. Because they love her so much and she loves them. She is everything to them, and the only reason they hurt her is while trying to save her from the dangers of being in love with a vampire. “I would rather die than stay away from you, I’m an idiot!” Bella tells Edward “You are an idiot, and so, the lion fell in love with the lamb,” he said, “What a stupid lamb,” said Bella, “What a masochistic lion,” said Edward.

Bella is usually in Forks as she lives there, but when she finds out that Edward is a vampire she is in Seattle. Somehow he saves her from a drunk murderer at the right place. At the right time. He followed her apparently marvellous blood scent. They continued living in wet, green Forks until a vampire comes for a visit. He found her scent amazing. He promised not to touch her, but he was tracking her. They flew back to Phoenix to hide away in a hotel. Eventually the vampire found them and told Bella to meet him in a ballet studio not far from her mother’s house. She had to go alone, no vampire friends, otherwise he would hurt her mother. After brutally attacking her, Bella’s  vampire friends found them, and saved her life.

Isabella Swan is a very ordinary girl. She isn’t easy to compromise with, argue against, influence and scare. Although she isn’t very afraid of many things, she is very nauseous around blood. Which is ironic because her boyfriend is a blood sucking vampire. She is quite likable but also very stubborn. “I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don’t exist, not irritating me to death.” “So you are trying to irritate me to death? Since Tyler’s van didn’t do the job?”  These are some sarcastic quotes that really show the stubborn side of Bella. At this time she was speaking to Edward. She is also very observant. If she wasn’t, she would have never found out that Edward was a vampire and obviously never had fallen in love like she did. Also she wouldn’t be facing such danger.

There are three things that I was absolutely positive about. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him, and I didnt know how dominant that part might be, that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

There was a lot of description of every characters personalities, but it wasn’t just said in plain sentences, it was inferred. Not only were their characteristics inferred, but also some of the emotion the person was feeling was shown by what they said and how they acted. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to die. Or, at the very least, not to throw up. Suddenly the sidewalk disappeared from beneath me. My eyes flew open in shock. Edward had scooped me up in his arms, as easily as if I weighed ten pounds instead of a hundred and ten. I typically don’t enjoy a story when the author describes the scenery and emotion in very detailed form, straightforward and for a long time just describing the scene. I like to investigate in what the text is trying to tell me. That’s why I enjoyed this book. Another great thing about what the author has done with the text, is she dropped in hints for what is going to happen next. It was like I had a suspicion of the next big moment before the characters got a clue and that built up my anticipation.

I think that all the love, emotion and danger kept the reader captivated so that they couldn’t place the book down. All the different scenes are really effective and interesting. The difference in the people’s emotion and curiosity in each other created a mystifying scene in my mind. All the sentences were used and not a single one wasted. Each sentence helped build up the scene and emotion needed.

Overall the story is amazing and can’t be perfected any more than it is. It has a great story line. All the characters and their personalities were amazing and put exactly the way they should have been because the whole story would change completely if one of the characters had a different personality or a different view of things. Stephenie Meyer (the author of the twilight series)  has been very clever with the way that she set out the story and that is why she was later called a bestselling author and a popular favourite with many people from all ages. Personally I could not find any errors in this book. Great book.

By Oksana