Augustus Waters Analysis

In the novel “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, the main character Augustus Waters is presented as a very beautiful, complex and interesting character. First, he is a man of metaphor and symbol. “they don’t kill you unless you light them, 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 it’s killing” (20). How splendid! People always know that cigarettes cause cancer and other lung related diseases. Some even call it a cancer stick, a symbol of cancer. But that chap, the chap who is brave enough to a girl with lung cancer always puts that symbol of death between his lips, to make a metaphor out of it. We can also see his love for symbol and metaphor on the picnic trip at the “Funky Bones” (which is a real thing in Indianapolis) with Hazel from page 86 to page 87: everything he wears, and even the foods that they eat are orange. Because orange is the color of Amsterdam, he has everything in orange to announce to Hazel the trip to Amsterdam. Next, the he was a good man that want to take control of his life and wants to be a hero as his name, Augustus is the name of a Roman emperor. From page 56 to page 61, Augustus Waters sacrificed his character in the game that they were playing. Simply, to buy some time for the civilians, giving them life like Waters. Even if it was just a game, is it heroic? Could be. And after that, he let Isaac destroy his trophies. Because he know Isaac pain must be expressed and for he know that he don’t need the trophies anymore. He know that he will die, but he refuses to go to the hospital and choose to go with Hazel to go with Hazel to Amsterdam instead, because simply, that is his life. The last thing is his conflict. He has to bravely face cancer in his life. The type of caner that he has is osteosarcoma. He say, “Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest” (18). Well, spoiler alert: osteosarcoma likes our Gus, as it already tried his leg (222). His ex-girlfriend has already passed away due to cancer. But this brave young man doesn’t let that knock him out. It just make him wants to have a full and good life. Because after all, cancer is just “a side effect of dying”, which every one must have. So, that is why he approached Hazel, rudely announced that he was beautiful, and subsequently fell in love with this “univalent” girl. All of that together make Augustus Waters a painfully beautiful, deeply complex and inherently interesting character.