Water is everywhere in literature.
It commonly symbolizes life, rejuvenation, replenishment or freedom. It is
frequently used in this manner by many authors; however, in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, water is used to
symbolize ideas such as struggling, suffering and ultimate death.
First off, the very disease that Hazel
is dying from includes unwanted fluid and water building up in her lungs, or as
she herself put it “my lungs sucked at being lungs” (Green 12). As the book
goes on, every time Hazel has a step forward in her life as a young adult, the
water in her lungs seems to encroach a step further. For example, once Augustus
Waters decides that he is going to use is wish to take Hazel and himself to see
Van Houten in Amsterdam, Hazel is told by her doctors that they would “keep
things the same only with more frequent fluid draining” (Green 117). No matter how exciting, pleasant, and
optimistic Hazel’s days are, they are often tinged with pain from the fluid.
The water that normally represents things like birth and freedom from pain is
the very thing that prevents Hazel from living her life independently of the
disease.
Outside of
her health, water also has a constant role in the scenery as Hazel and Augustus
Waters travel to Amsterdam, a city built on a canal system. Once again the omnipresent water seems to
infringe on what should be joyful and positive experiences for Hazel. During
their dinner at Oranjee, the characters are seated “at a narrow table inches
from the canal” (Green 162). I believe
this closeness in canal and characters symbolizes how Hazel can never and is
never far away from her disease, her oxygen tank, or her overprotective mother.
Most of Hazel’s life takes place on the thin edges around a big hole, just as
their table rests so closely to the canals. Another comparison can be seen when
Augustus and Hazel spend time discussing Van Houten and staring at the canals.
It is of note here that the water had evolved. The canal saw “so many of those
pale elm petals in the canals” that I could not help but see the petals as
invaders meant to harm the water (Green 172). This natural pollution can be
related to the amount of infection and medicine that exists within Hazels life.
Just like the water in the river, Hazel’s life contains many small problems and
side effects that may effect the overall picture but not deter from its overall
beauty.
Water undoubtedly symbolizes suffering and and death within Hazel’s life, as her “lungs that suck at being lungs” (25) constantly fill with water, impairing her ability to breathe. Although her water-filled lungs threaten her life, Hazel’s personality is mostly shaped from her cancer. Her disease has influenced her perceptions of the world. From viewing cancer and depression as a side-effect of dying to her obsession with a novel to her endless worrying about her parents, Hazel’s personality is dictated by the inevitability of her water-induced death. While water is most-likely going to kill her, it has also created her. Ironically enough, Augustus Waters, one of the most important people in Hazel’s world, is another form of water. Just like the water that floods her lungs but makes her who she is, Augustus’s death hurts Hazel, but he impacts her life in a significant way. Hazel describes her response to his death in terms of water, explaining, “ And here it was, the great and terrible ten, slamming me again and again as I lay still and alone in my bed staring at the ceiling, the waves tossing me against the rocks then pulling me out to sea so they could launch me again into the jagged face of the cliff, leaving me floating faceup on the water, undrowned” (263). His death, just like her cancer, is devastating, as demonstrated by her comparison to the death-related water. Although Gus’s death impacted her this way, Hazel comes to understand the importance of Gus, just like cancer, in her life, saying, “I couldn’t unlove Augustus Waters. And I didn’t want to” (214).
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