The book The Fault In Our Stars by John Green is a fantastic book. That can not be debated. The book is funny, smart, sarcastic, and makes light of dark situations. The book is about cancer. It is told from the point of a sixteen year old terminally ill girl who has accepted her fate. The story itself has an interesting concept and uses literary elements I havent seen before. It's not overly hard in terms of vocabulary or characterization, but it makes you think on a whole other level. It makes you think about mortality. This leads to a certain debate between readers. Does John Green have the right to write a story about cancer? I will present both sides to you in my opinion and tell you what I think.
Why he can write this story: The arguement for this side is simple. He is the writer. He is the person creating the book, therefore can write whatever he wants. The book may reflect his views on the disease, and though not everyone may agree with his views, they are his views for a reason. You also have to take into account that the narrater of the story is 16 and probably has a different idea of this disease than others. She is the one going through the painful process and has gone through many different stages of grief and pain to finally come to acceptance. Her circumsatnce is very usual and different from most people. John Green has also done volunteer work in children's hospitals and drew on alot of ideas for the story from there, so it can not be said that he has no expeirence with cancer or sickness first hand. In the end though, it comes down to his perspective. Everyone's perspective is different.
Why he can't write this story: Some of the bluntness and sarcasm in the book about cancer can be taken the wrong way by those affect by the disease. The characters attitudes and references to their condition could be seen as offensive by some. People who have commented on the book on Goodreads.com have had no problem stating that this is a great 4-5 star book. Many have criticized Mr. Green for making a story that has an issue so personal to them and trying to convey the feelings to other readers who have not experienced this pain. And a few readers who haven't experienced this situation in their lifetime hated the book for making them laugh about a situation such as cancer. They loved the book and reading it but hated their reactions to it.
How I fall: I believe that John Green had ever right to write this book. He has stated that when working at the hospital he got the idea to write a book about a child with cancer. He didn't want to make this child a huge poster child for cancer or a hero, but rather a normal child learning dealing with growing up and then having cancer thrown onto them. This book exemplifies this idea perfectly and is a very enjoyable story to read. Being a teenager, I am not offended by the book at all because if I was in the same situation as the characters, I feel like I would have a lot of the same feelings. I can understand why others may be offended though. At the end of the day I believe that as a writer, John Green can write whatever he wants. This argument is all about the perspective of the person reading it. What side of this debate would you take and why? Why do you think perspective is so important?
I completely agree with you. I had never thought about the fact that it might offend some people when I read it over the summer. I think that John Green had every right to write the book, and if other people don't agree, they don't have to read it. I think the book really touches on the fact that not everyone's life is the perfect, happy story.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting evaluations on whats right and whats wrong. I will take consideration while reading this book when I get my hands on a copy. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteok. just typed a reallllllly long comment and then it dleted it. .. ... ....
ReplyDeleteanyways, here is my case in point:
I agree with you.
John Green has the right to do whatever he wants and is entitled to his own opinions in his books.
I don't think he is trying to upset people, even those affected, so I think things should just be peachy and people should move on.
goodbye.
This is interesting! I never really thought about this when I was reading the book. I think John Green definitely has the right to write about cancer. It would be the same if another writer wanted to write about any other hard subject in the world. The experience the writer rights about is GOING to be different from what someone else experiences. Not everyone in the world with cancer is going to have the same experience as Hazel Grace.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel that if the book didn't laugh at cancer sometimes, it wouldn't be true to Hazel Grace's character. Even if she were healthy, she would still be the same sarcastic girl. She naturally pokes fun at things in the world. It's just who she is. Since she has cancer, that's just what she happens to poke fun at.
Thanks for making me think about this issue!
I like how you agreed that cancer is a touchy subject, but that John Green has every right to write about it, especially the way that he did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that he had every right to choose what he wanted to write about. I also have heard a lot of buzz about this book and now I really want to read it.
ReplyDeleteI like how you gave many personal opinions. really made the post interesting!
ReplyDeleteI think a person can write about a subject like cancer when he himself has not experienced it because it ends up being, a human being, reacting to something that happened to them. Sure, he might not know what its like to be close to death, or get all the medical specifics right, but he can still share insight on how he thinks people view hardships and portray an aspect of one girl's personality. Maybe if he included something in the back of the book about him not knowing exactly what it was like to go through cancer and the book was just his thoughts, maybe that would help people not get offended.
ReplyDelete