-- Peter Van Houten, An Imperial Affliction

    An Imperial Affliction, an imaginary book by the made-up Peter Van Houten, is Hazel, and later, Augustus's, favorite novel and plays a key role in The Fault in Our Stars. The above quote from the book was placed at the very beginning of John Green's novel as the epigraph. The purpose of an epigraph is set the general tone of the novel, and this particular epigraph fulfills its purpose.
    Hazel's lungs "suck at being lungs." They are filled with water, and thus, she has to carry around an oxygen tank to allow her to breathe. The Dutchman describes water as being a "conjoiner, rejoinder, poisoner, concealer, revelator". The liquid in Hazel's lungs are all of these things: a conjoiner, because due to the fact that she has to attend the support group as a result of having the liquid in her lungs, she and Augustus meet and develop a relationship. It is a rejoinder because many people ask why she must carry her oxygen tank, and it is a poisoner because without the oxygen tank, it will kill her. The water in her lungs is also a concealer because since Hazel is incapable to doing many social activities that others are able to perform, so it, in a way, conceals who Hazel really is from people who do not know her. Lastly, it is also a revelator, because those who do look beyond her disabilities and truly get to know her discover that she is a strong person who can overcome the sadness the sickness brings. She finds that out for herself at the end of The Fault in Our Stars.
    Time is also very important in the novel. Both Hazel and Augustus know that their time is running out, so they decide to make the most of what they have left. Both discuss time frequently in the novel, specifically infinities and how some people's infinities are longer than others. In the beginning of the novel, Augustus admits that he is afraid of oblivion, but Hazel responds with, "There will come a time...when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time where there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this... will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There is time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be a time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does" (13).

There were many aspects of An Imperial Affliction that were symbolic.

THE DUTCH TULIP MAN: John Green intended for the character of the Dutch Tulip Man to be a symbol for God. Augustus and Hazel often discussed the Dutch Tulip Man as if they were discussing God. For example, Augustus says, "Not a con man, but not as rich as he was letting on" (235). This could be interpreted instead of the Dutch Tulip Man and his money, but God and His power. There is not much said about the Dutch Tulip Man either, and there is much mystery with him. The same is also with God. Peter Van Houten also claims that the Dutch Tulip Man is a metaphor for God.
PETER VAN HOUTEN: The author of An Imperial Affliction is also a symbol for God, because Hazel claims, "the book that was as close a thing as I had to a Bible" (13). However, if the Dutch Tulip Man was the real symbol for God, then Van Houten could possibly be a symbol for a prophet.
THE ACTUAL BOOK: The actual book is a symbol for the Bible, see above.
THE ENDING: The end of An Imperial Affliction actually ends mid-sentence because the narrator, Ana, dies from cancer. This is symbolic for Hazel's own story. She is worried as to what happens to her parents after she dies just like the reader is left wondering what happens to the other characters of the novel after Ana dies. After meeting Van Houten, whose own daughter had died from cancer, she doesn't want her parents to end up like him. This is why Hazel was so incredibly happy to find out at the end of the novel that her mother was learning to become a Support Group leader.

    Augustus and Hazel repeat the phrase, "Okay? Okay." back and forth to each other all the time. Their friend, Isaac, and his girlfriend, have a similar phrase, "Always, always." Augustus explained, "Always is their thing. They'll always love each other and whatever. I would conservatively estimate they have texted each other the word always four million times in the last year" (18). Hazel does not have much experience with social interactions, and she frequently does not know how to respond to Gus with anything other than "Okay." And in return, he would respond the same. So one night, he decides that "Maybe okay will be our always" (73). to signify that the phrase will be their special catchphrase that proclaims their love, similar to Isaac and his girlfriend's.

-- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act 1, scene 2)

    The title for The Fault in Our Stars comes from the quote above. Back in the time of Julius Caesar, astrology was very common. Many people believed that their lives were written in the stars. Therefore, in the quote above, Caesar is telling Brutus that it is not fate that caused bad things happen to them, but their own actions and choices and the consequences that came with them.
    However, John Green disagrees with this to some degree through the title. Hazel and Augustus did nothing to deserve cancer and, in Gus's case, dying young. There is no way to escape the fate that awaits them, no matter how hard they try. Yet, he claims through his novel that despite the fact that the stars were playing against them, they could still make the most of their life and live it to the fullest while they can.

There were several major symbols found in The Fault in Our Stars:

CIGARETTES: This symbol basically explained itself in the novel, "'They don't kill you if you don't light them,' he said as Mom arrived at the curb. 'And I've never lit one. It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing' (20). Augustus almost always has a cigarette in his mouth throughout the novel, but he never lights them. He likes the idea of having control over something that has the potential of killing him, especially since he does not have the power to control his cancer. The fact that cigarettes also are a known cause for causing lung cancer, it gives him a way to finally stand up to cancer in a way.
ELEVATOR: The elevator in the church has an elevator that can be used to go to the basement of the church, where the support group meets. However, Hazel doesn't take the elevator, even though taking the stairs is hard on her lungs, "because taking the elevator is a Last Day kind of activity at Support Group" (8). The support group meets at the "Heart of Jesus"- the exact center of the cross-shaped church where Jesus' heart would have been when he died on the cross- as if that is where Jesus is. The elevator to the heart of Jesus is like the stairway to heaven, so those who are close to death take the elevator, "He'd always had leukemia. He was okay. (Or so he said. He'd taken the elevator.)" (11). Even in real life, the sicker take the elevator and the healthier took the stairs. In the end of the novel, Hazel started taking the elevator.
ENCOURAGEMENTS: Around the Waters' home, Mr. and Mrs. Waters decorated the house with "Encouragements", or little sayings of comfort. Throughout the novel, both Hazel and Augustus make fun of them, because they did not find any comfort in them since they knew they couldn't escape the inevitable: death. Later, they realize that the Encouragements were actually for comforting Augustus's parents, and after Gus dies, Hazel quotes several of them at the funeral, knowing that everyone copes differently.
AMSTERDAM: Amsterdam is known as "the drowning city". In a way, Hazel is also "drowning", due to the water that is in her lungs.
AUGUSTUS: Augustus was the name of the first Roman emperor. Augustus was nicknamed Gus, which is a more childish name.
SWING SET: The swing set in Hazel's backyard is a symbol for childhood, and how Hazel is trying to get back her childhood years. Augustus helps her get rid of it and she sees that she can only move forward.
ISAAC: In the Bible, Isaac goes blind. In The Fault in Our Stars, Isaac also goes blind.
THE ENDING: John Green stated, "Comedies end in marriage and tragedies end in death- so I wanted to do both." The last line of the book symbolizes marriage.

-- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

    There has been a six year time lapse from when John wrote his first novel, Looking For Alaska, and The Fault in Our Stars. In those years from 2006 to 2012, John Green has published several other books, such as An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and co-wrote Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan. With so much writing experience, it is evident that John Green's writing style has slightly changed from when he first started writing.
    In Looking For Alaska, John Green had a very structured writing style. It was certainly much more formal than in The Fault in Our Stars. John Green focused a lot on grammar, and did not use slang very often, even though his characters would be the type to use slang. This may be due to the fact that he had majored in English a few years before. However, the novel was written in the perspective of an insightful teenager who was constantly thinking about deeper meanings, and John Green certainly wrote as so. He based Looking For Alaska on his older school, and included some of his knowledge on religion and world views from when he majored in Religious Studies and was a student chaplain.
    While reading The Fault in Our Stars, John Green went a little bit outside the laws of literature and grammar in order to capture the tone and mood of the books, as well as to develop the character. His main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster, was an extremely sarcastic girl and he does an excellent job of characterizing her snarkiness. Many cases of slang were used here. He uses less formal and more casual writing style here, giving the novel a more loose tone. It appears that John Green had perhaps grown more comfortable writing the voice of a teenager after writing about them for so long.
    In both novels, John Green had included many deep, thought-provoking concepts as well as some parallels. Both Alaska and Augustus had unusual names, but they seemed to be very insightful, using metaphors frequently and both having a difficult past that allowed them to be more knowledgeable and wise. Both also die young. Hazel and Miles were the ones attempting to figure out Gus and Alaska, and because they had met the two other characters, they learn a great amount about the world and their lives are changed, not to mention that there is also love in both relationships. John Green's interest in religion and the meaning of life shine through in both novels.

    The Fault in Our Stars movie is currently under production. Fox 2000 considered obtaining film rights for this book in January of 2012, and on February 19, 2013 it was announced that Josh Boone would be directing the film. The film is starring Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Lancaster, Ansel Elgort as Augustus Waters, and Nat Wolff as Isaac. John Green helped in writing the script, but Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote the adapted screenplay. Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen are producing the film.