The Fault in Our Stars

The Literary EssayExemplar

The Themes

• Isolation• IdentityStatement one: Isolation isn’t always a bad thingStatement two:

It takes a while to figure out one’s identity

The Question

Q: How does isolation help shape one’s identity?

The Answer aka The Thesis

A: Identity is only revealed through isolation.

Okay... Let’s look at the HOW

• How is the thesis true?

1. One is forced to self-reflect when they are isolated as all an individual is left with when isolated are their thoughts.

Okay... Let’s look at the HOW

2. It is only through isolation that one can transcend.

Transcend: 1. To pass beyond the limits of: emotions that transcend

understanding.2. To be greater than, as in intensity or power; surpass: love that

transcends infatuation.3. To exist above and independent of (material experience or the

universe)N.B. Number three is the definition we are working with here.

Okay... Let’s look at the HOW

3. Isolation helps individuals identify who they are, uniquely so, separate from the masses.

Sweet... Let’s write out the intro.

• What does the introduction need?– The author’s name– The title of the novel– The themes– The question– The “warm up”– The thesis statement (which goes at the END of

the introductory paragraph)– At lease 8 sentences to qualify as a paragraph

Get it!The themes of isolation and identity are prevalent in John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars. Hazel and Augustus, Green’s teenage protagonists, are thrust into isolation by their respective illnesses; Hazel is isolated by her lung cancer, and Augustus is isolated by his osteosarcoma. As a result, they wrestle with separating their illness from their identity, in other words, part of their coming of age is figuring out who they are, distinctively, without their illness. Can isolation help to shape one’s identity? For Hazel and Augustus, the isolating characteristics of cancer prompts self-reflection and a more realistic observation of the world around them. As they come to notice the world around them, they also come to understand their place in the world. As a result of understanding their place in the world, their identity is fortified. Through the characters of Hazel and Augustus, John Green demonstrates that it is only through isolation that once can come to terms with their identity.

Point Proof Explanation

Controlling Idea #1• One is forced to self-reflect when they are

isolated as all an individual is left with when isolated are their thoughts.

Controlling Idea #1 Con’t

POINT:Hazel spends a lot of time in bed alone reading books and thinking about death. As such, she is very much aware of herself and her ideas as it relates to man and the world.

Controlling Idea #1 Con’t

• PROOF: At Support Group, when asked about oblivion,

Hazel says, “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... If the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does” (Green 12-13).

Controlling Idea #1 Con’t

• EXPLANATION: It is clear that because of Hazel’s time spent alone

reading, she had time to self- reflect. Through her self-reflection, she has considered life and death and has decided that there will come a time when no one is remembered. She believes that death is not something to fear as it is the natural course of life. Part of Hazel’s identity is coming to terms with death and dying and as such, she does not live in fear. She lives with the very real truth that death is inevitable.

Point Proof Explanation

Controlling Idea #2• It is only through isolation that one can

transcend

Controlling Idea #2 Con’t

POINT: Augustus transcends to a new level of

understanding during his existentially fraught free throws.

Controlling Idea #2 Con’t

PROOF: Augustus explains to Hazel that one day he

was “shooting free throws – just standing at the foul line... All at once [he] couldn’t figure out why [he] was methodically tossing a spherical object through a toroidal object. It seemed like the stupidest thing [he]could possibly be doing” (30).

Controlling Idea #2 Con’t

EXPLANATION: Augustus, standing alone at the free throw line,

comes to the understanding that what he was doing had no meaning. He realizes that he does not want to be, nor should he be, defined by his ability to play basketball – a realization that he could not have come to had he not been alone. If Augustus was not isolated, he could not have self-reflected and come to this understanding.

Point Proof Explanation

Controlling Idea #3

Isolation helps individuals identify who they are, uniquely so, separate from the masses.

Controlling Idea #3 Con’t

POINT:

Of Hazel, Augustus says that she knows who she is. He says that she is not like other animals who live to claim things as their own.

Controlling Idea #3 Con’t

PROOF: In his letter to Van Houten, Augustus writes,

“Hazel is different. She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. Hazel knows the truth... People will say that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely... It’s triumphant” (312).

Controlling Idea #3 Con’t

EXPLANATION:Though Hazel lives surrounded by individuals who feel that their identity is tied to the amount of things they can stake a claim to, she herself understands not only who she is, but her place in the world. She recognizes that her identity, her responsibility, is to tread lightly and notice and admire the universe in all its splendor.

The Conclusion

- Restate your thesis- Summarize your arguments- Leave the reader off with a thought

concerning your themes/ bring it to a broader context: text to world