A book is a mirror. It mirrors our society, our world. What we know, what we think, what we want or need, what we dream about, and what we have experienced are all displayed when books are written. The plot line in a book represents life's never-ending, always changing, twists and turns-and then how we deal with them. A book, written by real-life, physical people, captures this world's hopes and fears and dreams.
In John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, many characters mirror society but the two who stood out the most for me were Hazel and Van Houten. Hazel represents the hardships we must face in life and how bad things always seem to happen to the best of people. Kind, smart, and young, the thought of Hazel's death is far too early.
Van Houten, in my opinion, represents the darkness in people. He was once an incredibly intelligent man writing stories idolized by many people. Currently in the story, he a useless, self-absorbed, alcoholic who crushes the dreams of both Hazel and Augustus. Green leaves the audience to make their own decision about what happens to Van Houten: does he fall deeper and deeper into despair or does he rise above it and become a better person? This mirrors society because either Van Houten can change or stay the same: it's up to him.
Death is a reccurring theme in John Green's books. I think that dealing with loss is what makes people stronger and helps them learn; I think John Green would agree. John Green has said that he loves writing books for teenagers and young adults because he understands how they feel. To Green, it is not just crazy teenage hormones that make us do stupid things and make us angry all of the time: he understands teenagers deeper than that. He mirrors the feelings and experiences of teenagers and young adults in a perfect way.
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