Throughout the book, Green allows the reader to take on many different points of view on life and death through thoughts and conversations Hazel has by herself, with her mother and father, and with Isaac, Augustus, Augustus's parents, and Peter Van Houten.
![the book in the fault in our stars the book in the fault in our stars](https://sbt.blob.core.windows.net/storyboards/bridget-baudinet/the-fault-in-our-stars-theme-exploration--fate.png)
In comparison to situations in which the characters feel like they can act out - by smashing trophies, by egging a car, by yelling at their parents - there is nothing one can aggress against in cancer besides one's own body.īecause the book is about youths with a terminal illness, the meaning of life and death is very important to the characters. As Hazel explores, one of the major things that causes the feeling of lack of agency is the fact that cancer is not the antagonist of the book or of the people in the book's lives because it is only made out of the characters themselves.
![the book in the fault in our stars the book in the fault in our stars](https://childrensbooksdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Jazzy-The-Fault-in-Our-Stars-1-compressed-scaled.jpg)
Hazel, Augustus, Isaac, and even Anna from An Imperial Affliction struggle with their inability to make decisions for themselves, travel, and experience life in ways that a normal adolescent or even adult with an illness could, demonstrating the specific cross-sectionalism and compounding of the two traits. This comes from the meeting of two situations that lack agency - illness and childhood.
![the book in the fault in our stars the book in the fault in our stars](http://www.wrbh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Books2.jpg)
Lack of agency is possibly the most important theme for understanding The Fault in Our Stars.