The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

In the book, The Fault in Our Stars, I like the character Hazel.  Hazel has thyroid cancer with mets in her lungs, and she has to have an oxygen tank in order to breathe.  She was first diagnosed with cancer when she was thirteen years old.  Her parents had pulled her from school, and she hasn't been in school for 3 years.  Hazel is depressed, (according to Hazel, "depression is a side effect of dying", not of cancer) so she goes to a cancer support group weekly.  There, she meets a new friend named Augustus Waters.

She has to endure the many struggles of cancer.  The reason why I like Hazel is because she is so brave and tough.  She has gone through many different cancer treatments and has pulled through them all.  Hazel says, "But when telling Augustus Waters, I painted the rosiest possible picture, embellishing the miraculousness of the miracle."  This is what she says after telling Augustus Waters about her cancer "miracle".  This shows that Hazel is grateful for her "miracle", and she is happy to be alive after all that she has been through.  This is also why I like this character.

One scene that I liked in the book was when Augustus told the Support Group that he feared oblivion. The leader of the group said, "Would, uh, would anyone like to speak to that?" Hazel spoke up and made a deep little speech saying "...if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it."  Augustus was wowed by what she had said.  I like how Hazel decided to speak her mind and she was very straightforward about it.  Another scene in the book that I liked was when Augustus pulled out a cigarette and put it into his mouth.  Hazel did not like this at all.  She told Augustus that he has the chance to get more cancer after he already had it, and that it stinks not being able to breathe (Hazel pretty much knows how it feels like to not be able to breathe).  Then, Augustus tells her that he never lights the cigarettes, it's just a metaphor.  He says "...You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."  I think that is a very clever metaphor.  I also like how Hazel always openly states her opinion about things, and she is not afraid to do so.  This also proves that she is brave.  Hazel has many great qualities, which is why I like her as a character.

I think Hazel is like a fifteen year old girl named Lina in a book called Between Shades Of Gray that I once read. Lina's family was taken from their home in Lithuania and deported by the Soviet secret police.  Lina endures brutal conditions at several working camps, and she must find a spark of hope that she will be freed some day in order to survive.  Lina is like Hazel because they are both brave and tough.  They each experience different hardships, but in the end, their braveness and toughness help them pull through and survive.