Fiction

The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green is a novel based around two teenagers, one of whom has thyroid cancer (Hazel Grace) and the other osteosarcoma (Augustus Waters), and their journey upon falling in love while dealing with the realities of terminal cancer. It breaks the stereotype of most love stories with the adventure these two characters take in their battles with love and concern.  The novel introduces us to sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster, a strikingly witty yet sophisticated teenager who has been suffering from stage four thyroid cancer since the age of thirteen. She attends a cancer-based support group only at the request of her mother, and there she encounters the infamous romantic Augustus Waters, a seventeen-year-old ex-basketball player and former amputee Sharing a common interest for the book “.

Imperial Affliction” that leaves the two dissatisfied with the ending, the two embark on a literary journey when they go to Amsterdam in search for the ending. Although coming back empty-handed> amidst everything Hazel and Augustus discover their love for one another only for it to be short-lived, due to Augustus’ impending death. An undoubtedly beautifully written and heart-warming book, I was especially moved by the tragic yet humor-filled love story between the two main characters, Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. Despite the unavoidable fact that they were dying, the lovers spent short but sweet moments of infinities together for the sake of happiness.

One of the main challenges that they had to face was the constant fear of oblivion and the fact that the inevitable of dying would come “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,” Hazel Grace in The Fault in Our Stars One of my favorite quotes from this book would be that of Augustus Waters, “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.”

Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars (12) Augustus associates the killing thing which in this case is an unlit cigarette, with having power over his health hence he names it the “killing thing”, and so he puts the killing thing between his teeth, but doesn’t give it the power to control “kill him” or control him, by not lighting it. The book has really impacted me in terms of my view of life, as it has placed me in a mindset of questioning myself: “If died tomorrow, would 1 be remembered in years to come?” and “Would I make a mark on the world or would I just have been a “person“? Not only does this book make you question yourself but it also inspires you to alter the way you live and make changes for the best, just as Hazel and Augustus did as they took their cancer as a challenge to live their lives to the very fullest. The Fault in Our Stars is a beautiful, entertaining, tear-jerking and beyond-words written story that I would recommend to any passionate reader. It teaches us that life is too short for you to worry about things that you cannot change, so instead of doing so, you should live without any regrets and make your time worth it.

Once you get past the initial violent context of the movie, Fight Club, the viewer bears witness to an intriguing narrative about a man with Multiple Personality Disorder. Revolving around three central characters; a nameless narrator (Edward Norton), his alter ego Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and his girlfriend Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), Fight Club is a movie about an individual who is engrossed in everything around him he does not know where it ends and he begins.

He not seeks to redefine himself in Tylers image, but also everyone and everything in society. The narrator uses his imaginary friend, Tyler, and his following, Fight Club, as a means to escape everyday life and embark upon a journey of self discovery filled with mischief and mayhem. Using several key elements concerning the films plot line, like story time and narrative time, flashbacks, action time and suggestive language, the narrative is able to manipulate the storyline. Keeping the viewer in suspense as to not only the events of the narrative but also whether or not the narrator is actually the one telling the story.

The movie begins in a most ambiguous state with the narrator and Tyler Durden waiting what is to be the climax. Almost immediately, the narrator begins to speak, going into a flashback of the events that lead up to that particular moment. Here is where the division between story time and narrative time is established. Story time is the amount of time it takes the narrator to tell a story.

In the opening scene Tyler checks his watch saying, Three minutes, this is it. Ground zero Two and a half, think of all we have accomplished. (Fight Club) The movie then shifts into the flashback sequence looping all the way around to the eventual ending, three minutes later. Narrative time is everything in between encompassing the entirety of the story as told by the narrator, which is about two and a half years. It begins once the narrator starts speaking and does not end until the story has concluded. Told in the form of a flashback we see the events occur in a chronological order. We watch them unfold as the narrator remembers them happening which becomes exceedingly difficult to understand.

Once the viewer realizes that the narrator has Multiple Personality Disorder, it becomes clear as to why the narrative is difficult to understand. The narrator does not have total control over his own story, manipulated by an outside source. His bouts with insomnia where he is never really awake or really asleep, I cant sleep-have I been sleeping and his feelings of dejavu are all keeping the narrator from telling the entire story. Time as both personalities begin to blend so much that the narrator never really knows who he is. Therefore, he has little to no control over what he tells to the viewer. Tyler is able to keep control of the narrator by forcing him never to talk about him with other people. This manipulation is essential to keeping the movie in a state of perpetual unknowing for both the viewer and the narrator.

Tyler manipulates the narrative time so easily because not even the narrator knows that it is occurring. Immediately the movie goes into a continuous flashback sequence told from the point of view or narrators conscious mind. Influenced by his subconscious the narrator conveys the plot as instructed and hears only what he is told. Events are not rearranged like in As I Lay Dying or Beloved, rather details are excluded or changed based on the perspective of the narrator all in effort to keep the viewer from knowing the entire truth. When members of Project Mayhem kidnap the police commissioner to convince him not to pursue the prosecution of Fight Club, the narrator sees his alter ego leading the charge so that is what he conveys to the viewer. In actuality, he is the one who orchestrates everything but only his subconscious mind is aware of that.

Duration of sequences is also crucial to the manipulation of the narrative paying close attention to the amount of time Tyler spends alone with the narrator. The viewer discovers that these lengthened, while the narrators interactions with the world are exceedingly condensed. Very little time is actually spent devoted to the fight scenes. However, sequences like the narrators and Tyler first encounters at the airport and bar, the chemical burn and the car crash are all extended. Therefore, each time Tyler can manipulate the narrative to his desires. Each of the these instances the narrator is most directly being influenced by Tyler and it becomes important because each time it happens the narrator losses control a little more.

First, he gets the mild-mannered man to get into a fight by questioning his knowledge of himself, Cmon. How much can you really know about yourself if youve never been in a fight? (Fight Club) Later he convinces the narrator to let the car run wild in the rain at high speeds, Stop trying to control everything and just let go he tells him. (Fight Club) If the narrator believes it then so to does the viewer because he or she has no other choice.

Tyler convinces the narrator to trust and follow him through his actions but more importantly his words. Words can hurt, they can show concern and they can especially influence. Language

throughout the movie plays just as important a role as the actions of the characters. Tyler gains control of the narrator by talking to him in a certain manner. He does not get the narrator to hit him immediately he has to coerce him into it, making the narrator believe that he does not fully know himself. The same is true with the chemical burn and the car crash; Tyler starts by physically overpowering the narrator but eventually does not have to because the narrator gives in to Tylers words and thoughts. As the narrator begins to submit to Tylers will so to does the viewer.

Tylers words bring people to believe that their lives have brought them to a state of solidarity and confinement We are the all singing all dancing crap of the world (Fight Club). Using repetition, Tyler drowns out individuals thoughts for that of his own. The first rule of Fight Club is you dont talk about Fight Club, the second rule of Fight Club is you dont talk about Fight Club, these words echo throughout the entire movie (Fight Club).

The members are so devote to Tylers philosophy that even when they run into another member they will not even acknowledge them. As his followers in Project Mayhem are working throughout the Paper Street Soap Company he has a microphone blaring You are not special, you are not unique You are not special, you are not unique (Fight Club). Repeated these words so many times that everyone comes to believe them including the viewer. He or she finds themselves compelled to talk and act like Tyler, they want to believe in his philosophy.

If a cowboy has the reigns of a horse, he or she dictates its actions and movements in a sense he or she controls the horse. Tyler is everything the narrator is not but so greatly desires to be; handsome, smart, ambitious, and a leader. The narrator looks to Tyler as a role model. He trusts him, emulates him, and does what he says no matter what it is. Through the use of several tests; getting into his first fight, the chemical burn, the car crash and preventing him from acknowledging his existence, Tyler influences the narrator and eventually gains control of him. Seen in a conversation between the narrator and Marla, he mimics Tyler as he says; This conversation is over (Fight Club). Once he has control Tyler can and does change what the narrator reveals to the viewer. He effects what the viewer sees, hears, knows and comprehends, by doing this Tyler keeps his identity secret until the climax. By controlling the narrator, Tyler controls the narrative and thusly controls the audience.

In Fight Club, the narrative time takes up the majority of the plot line making it essential to the understanding of the story. However, in the case of this narration the viewer finds that the narrator has manipulated much of it although at no fault of his own. His subconscious controls him at times coercing him into saying and doing things he would not ordinarily do. This becomes important to the viewer because we believe what we se and hear on the screen in front of us.

John Green’s The Fault in Our Star is a novel about Hazel Grace Lancaster, a seventeen year old girl with thyroid cancer who carries a portable oxygen tank because the cancer has spread to her lungs. She goes to a support group at her mom’s request. At one of the meetings, she meets Augustus Waters, a seventeen year old boy who is now cancer but had to get his leg removed. They go to Amsterdam together to meet Hazel’s favorite author ,Hazel starts realizing that she really likes Augustus, but she knows that if she died she will hurt Augustus. In the middle of her struggle with Augustus in Amsterdam, Augustus tells Hazel that he had a body scan and reveals that his cancer has spread to his whole body.

She realized that she isn’t the grenade, he is; she also realizes that she loves him, Augustus dies eight days later due to the weakening of cancer. Some strengths of this book are that it’s really easy to understand and it really is a tearjerker. This book also have very great messages for the readers like , “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world,,,but you do have some say in who hurts you I like my choices”. This book is great for those who are into romance, drama novels, but it’s not your typical love story, This book really emphasizes how short life ist.

There aren’t many weaknesses for this book except for the fact that John Green includes unnecessary things like including Augustus’s friend, Isaac’s girlfriend into the story The story would still remain the same without her, This novel is appropriate for tenth graders. Both Augustus and Hazel are intelligeute teens so the vocabulary really expandst For example, “”My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations”(261). It teaches readers that life is too short and it also teaches readers to enjoy life while one still cant. Some weaknesses however, this might not be a good book for readers who have a close experience with cancer because it’s a little too much.

The message in this novel is life’s too short to be scared and doing the same daily things. The message is a really important life lesson, because people never know when it can be the last day of their life, so might as well do new and different things whenever they can. For example, Hazel‘s lungs filled up with fluids and a group of doctors said she wasn’t able to travel to Amsterdam because she was too weak, but a physician very familiar with her case said to go because she should live her life. If you are considering reading this book, be prepared to laugh, cry and to be speechless Overall, this book is a really great book, it is a really interesting love story.

Also, I recommend having a box of tissues when reading this novel, especially when Augustus says cute, things to Hazel like, “I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with your” Overall. The Fault in Our Stars is a wonderful book, that would have the reader reading it over and over again. The book has sad moment, delightful moment, dry humor , and it will leave reads speechless.

I tried to read into a few things on why people quit high school sports, and as I was reading I realized that I shouldn’t have to read into why they did. All that matters is why I did it and how I felt and acted about it. There were a couple of reasons though, that I could relate to. Quitting softball wasn’t a very hard thing for me to do, seeing as though I had wanted to for some time, but it wasn‘t easy either. Softball is a great sport and like my mom said to me, “you can’t dislike something that you’re good at.” I agreed with her. I knew that I liked softball; | just didn’t have a good experience with it. The things that helped that cause were my teammates, coaches, and my priorities The girls that I had for teammates were great people.

Outside of softball, we had a great time together, but as I said, that was outside. Inside there were a lot of things that went wrong. Some of us had different opinions about things and I wasn’t one of those people but heard too many dramatic things happening. What I had seen and experienced firsthand was the attitude on some of them. I will admit I had a little attitude here and there, but I still did what I was asked and sometimes it resulted in a positive outcome. When some of them didn’t get their way or a coach would point out something they needed to correct their attitude changed that instant from good to bad.

This also happened after a loss. The girls would get really irritated With a loss and then when we had team talk, they were too frustrated to listen to anything the coaches had to say unless it had to do with RBI beads. The negativity would start during a game and would be passed around to everyone, which would result in a loss, which then would make them too frustrated to listen, which actually hurt the team. I don‘t think that they saw that, and that brings me to my next point. Because of all that, we didn‘t improve much. Improvement to the coaches was a big deal. and it should have been to us but it wasn’t.

The title-“The Scarlet Ibis.” Let’s think symbolically here. Scarlet…red… blood, danger, death, evil. Doodle’s brother mentions the “knot of cruelty borne by love, much as blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction…” Blood. There’s the scarlet again. This story is red. From Doodle’s vermilion neck to the red leaves of the bleeding tree. Red, red, and more RED. When Doodle tries to crawl…what color does he turn? RED. What color is he at birth? That’s right. RED. What color is his coffin? Mahogany, a shade of red.

“Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket but perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible.” Cardinals are RED. “…beach locusts were singing in the myrtle trees.” Myrtle trees…crepe myrtles…crepe myrtles are reddish. And the fact that it’s a Scarlet Ibis (of South America, E. ruber, occasionally seen in the S United States) makes it even more significant. Scarlet Ibises are obviously rare, as is Doodle. Doodle is an amazingly creative and wonderful mind trapped in a small, insufficient body. He would be able to do great things–if he wasn’t hindered by his weakness.

Alright. So the theme of the story is…? Hmm. Maybe Doodle’s brother saw some of his own weaknesses in Doodle, so he tries to fix them…quite forcefully. But…no. Doodle’s brother isn’t crippled…even though there’s really no hardcore evidence in the story that says so. You can pretty much infer from his need for perfection that he hasn’t experienced something even remotely close. No, that’s wrong. What if….he has “failed” himself and/or his family in the past…and sees “fixing” Doodle as a way to reconcile? But, in a way, the brother is like the the storm that pushed the ibis from it’s natural surroundings. He pushed Doodle off of his natural course. In the end, they (the ibis and Doodle) both die from their “storm.” Yeah.

So I’ve thoroughly analyzed the narrator…but I haven’t gotten to the theme yet…have I? I guess the theme is pretty much the same as the moral, right? (Moral Mor”al, n. 2. The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narration, an occurence, an experience, etc.; the practical lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a maxim.) Yeah. So….I guess the theme of the story would have to be… Don’t try to fix your problems through fixing the problems of someone else. Or…maybe… Don’t try to force someone or something to be something they’re not supposed to be. If they’re meant to be that something, it will happen at it’s own pace. Be patient.

The setting of the story in which we most often find ourselves is Old Woman Swamp. “I dragged him across the burning cotton field to share with him the only beauty I knew, Old Woman Swamp. I pulled the go-cart through the sawtooth fern, down into the green dimness where the palmetto fronds whispered by the stream. I lifted him out and set him down in the soft rubber grass beside a tall pine. His eyes were round with wonder as he gazed about him, and his little hands began to stroke the rubber grass. Then he began to cry.” This description of Old Woman Swamp gives the reader the impression that the swamp is quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world.

I mean, if just looking at it can bring tears to your eyes, it must be special, right? I think that the swamp is also a character in this story because it is a beacon of hope for Doodle. He accomplishes so many things here: how to stand, how to walk, how to climb rope vines, how to box, how to swim, and how to row. Old Woman Swamp seems, to them, to be the epitome of perfection–for when they’re there, they feel free to be themselves (whether that means dancing around bedecked in flowers, or just being happy) and they don’t feel the need to impress. Old Woman Swamp is something they aspire to, I think. They practically idolize the place. It is part of them both. It has rubber grass…Doodle spent the entirety of his infancy on a rubber sheet. Coincidence? I think not. Doodle wants to live in Old Woman Swamp…forever. So…Baby-Rubber Sheet, and Life-Rubber Grass, just to clarify.

Two boys from a different time and place are forced to live in a new time and place, will they survive? In the memoir “Barrio Boy”, Ernesto Galarza, the author, tells you about a part of his childhood. He had to go to The United States of America because of World War 2. In “Schooled” a novel by Gordan Korman. A boy named Capricorn Anderson (Cap) has to leave his hippie commune and go to public school. He has to leave due to his grandmother having an injury. Both boys have to survive in their new environment and their new school.

After Cap’s first day at Claverage Middle School his goal was to go back to Garland and Rain. Cap saw violence at school and did not want to be around that. Cap was getting pranked but he didn’t know that that was happening. He was made the 8th grade president, which is a bad thing at that school, but he was the best at it. Somebody put a dead bird in his locker, but instead of freaking out, he buried it and showed Naomi, one of the bullies, how sensitive he was, and she wished her crush, the most popular kid, and the biggest bully, would be more like Cap.

At the foster home he was put into, his sister didn’t like him, but Cap was still nice to her. Her father showed her a bangle then left town without giving it to her, and Cap bought her a $300 bangle engraved with “All you need is love”. Cap wanted to go back to Garland but him and Rain decided to go back to public school and live in the city.

Ernesto wanted to learn English and be a good American, he didn’t know if the Principle was a friend or a foe, He became friends with the other immigrants, and started to learn English. After a while, he learned how to say “butterfly” instead of how he used to say it, “booterflee”. He realized that the principal was a friend, not a foe. His speech teacher, Miss Ryan, made

Ernesto love school. He graduated with honors and he felt accomplished to be a Mexican- American.

To accomplish their mission, Cap and Ernesto overcame their difficulties and succeeded

in their mission. Ernesto and Cap were successful and learned that you can be yourself and fit it.

They were true to themselves throughout the whole time and overcame their troubles. The theme for “Barrio Boy” and “Schooled” are that you can be true to yourself and still fit in. Both boys accomplished their mission to survive in their new environment and new school.

I had a cousin who passed away two weeks ago in a car accident. My cousin Amr was kind, generous and everyone loved him. After the funeral, in the next morning of his death, I entered his room and examined it; every little bit reminded me about his character.

Amr’s room is on the second floor of my aunt house. I climb the stairs and stood at the door of his room, I felt my breath slow and the air was heavy. I was about to go back but I called up my courage and held the doorknob and opened it. The first thing I saw was a small room crowded with furniture that gave an impression about Amr.

The white walls were empty except a big photo of Amr whose a young man in the prime of his life, and his smile reflects his eagerness to life. Then I noticed the dark blue carpet on the floor. In a glimpse, I saw beside it his thrown clothes and I thought how many times his mom told him to pick it up but he didn’t. After that I saw a big white wooden, three-door closet. One of the doors was open and one of his clothes that he used to wear; when he went out to meet his friends was about to fall down from the closet and his fragrance was still in it.

In the most distant right corner, there was a small glass cabinet that has many car samples that he liked to collect such as Ferrari and BMW. Beside the cabinet was the desk that he used to sit on and study. On the top of the desk were his disarranged books and a big piece of paper which has a design, for a project he was going to submit at the end of that week.

I wondered how many times he sat here and planned for his future; how many times he stayed late at night to study on this desk. I started to scrutinize the room and the smell of his usual perfume in the air attracted me to look at his dressing table. There I noticed his silver and leather watches, hair brush, perfume bottles and one of them were lying down .It was obvious that Amr knocked it over in his hurry to leave home in the last morning he was here.

In the opposite side of the dressing table was his big white wooden bed with unarranged blue cotton cover. I can see the print of the side of his face on his pillow from the last morning he was here. In the left of the bedside a night table over it there was a glass of water half filled, and a novel “THE NOTE BOOK” marked the page he reached. At the left of the novel there was a picture for him with his family. Then I felt the breeze touching my face, while looking to that bed wondering if it missed Amr or asked where did he go. So I turned toward the window above the bed; it was opened and the wind came in and moving the blue fluffy curtains. The sun entered the room and gave it a happy energetic touch.

This white unarranged room with all these furniture has been the same from the last morning Amr left it full of life in the opposite of him because he had left this life.