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Kathleen Blough
Rhetorical Criticism
December 12, 2014
Introduction
Many stories, whether your realize it or not, have an ability to persuade you in how you
view yourself, your surroundings, and/or the general world around you. The Fault in Our Stars,
John Green, fits this role as well as it changes how you view illness. The story focuses around
two teenagers named Hazel and Augustus who meet in a cancer support group and eventually
fall in love. Hearing this very short and limited description can lead to many assumptions, the
most common being that this is just another sad pity filled tale of two doomed adolescents so,
what makes it so intriguing? This is in no way just another cancer book where the characters are
slowly dying and seeing their friends or going to school for the last time where you know the
character is reaching their end. Instead, the male lead Augustus is written as a pretentious
teenage boy who has a tendency to use big words incorrectly while Hazel, the female lead, is
written as a girl who is well beyond her years literally and figuratively by immersing herself in
books and, like all teens, America’s Next Top Model. The characters are written in such a way
that it persuades people to believe that an illness does not define a person which is an idea that
the media has instilled in the population. This idea of illness and how it is perceived will be the
main point of discussion the research question focuses around, the question being, how do
rhetors use round characters to challenge the perception of those with illnesses? This question
will be answered with various journal articles as well as the novel The Fault in Our Stars which
will be analyzed using narrative criticism.
Description of Artifact

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The Fault in Our Stars, as stated above is a novel by author John Green. The novel
skyrocketed to fame on first the New York Times Young Adult best-selling list and then the
infamous New York Times best-selling list. In addition to its printed fame, a film adaptation was
made and released on June 6th, 2014 (Green, 2012). The novel explores the love story of Hazel
Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. The pair met in a cancer support group and became fast
friends due to Augustus’s wittiness and charm. Their friendship grew even more over their
mutual friend Isaac who lost his eyesight due to retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eye as the pair
spent time together aiding in his recovery (Green, 2012). Even though it is clear that cancer is
the center of the beginning of their story, it quickly becomes just another aspect of their lives as
one of the main ideas this novel is meant to invoke is that people with cancer are made of more
than just their disease.
The novel follows Hazel and Augustus through their adolescent love story as they share
their favorite books, listen to each other’s most beloved bands, and as they go on unofficial
(since Hazel insists they are just friends) dates to museums, coffee shops, and the mall. The pair
live their lives just like any other teenage couple would; the only difference, in the words of
Hazel, is that they have “a touch of cancer” (Green, 2012).
Throughout the novel, it is clear that Hazel and Augustus are round characters. They are
not the only important characters to the story, which will be addressed later, however the
changes that occur within their characters is imperative to the idea that the novel persuades the
audience to change their perception of illness. Hazel develops from a seemingly depressed
bookworm who protects herself behind books in order to protect others from pain into a woman
who has allowed herself to open up to another person and experience love regardless of what
might happen. At the same time Augustus transforms from a pretentious athlete who only cares

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about doing something with his life that will keep him from fading into oblivion into a man who
understand that it is ok to be remembered by few and that it is more important to create a grand
memory for those who love you instead of the world around you.
The Fault in Our Stars is a perfect example of how round characters in novels challenge
the idea that those who are sick are defined solely by their illness, which will be further
explained in the findings of this paper. Narrative criticism will be used to analyze this idea and
to show that the coded information is in favor of the research question.
Description of Method
An artifact can be classified as a narrative if the artifact tells a story and contains the four
narrative characteristics developed by Walter R. Fisher. These characteristics are that the artifact
contains at least two active or stative events, the events are organized by time order, there is
some kind of relationship between the events, and finally, there is a unified subject (Foss, 2009).
An active event is an event that expresses actions while a stative event is an event that expresses
a state or condition. For example, the sentence “The three legged cat chased a mouse.” consists
of an active and stative event. The active event being that the cat chased the mouse and the
stative event being that the cat has three legs. These events in the narrative can be constructed
in any order that the rhetor wishes as long as there is at minimum a sequence of events (Foss,
2009). The third characteristic describes the necessity for a relationship to be present between
events. For example, Mr. Jones is suing his neighbor for hitting their car. Mr. Jones would not
be suing his neighbor of his neighbor had not hit his car there for there is a relationship between
these two events (Foss, 2009). The final characteristic explains that for an artifact to be a
narrative there must be a unified subject. As stated in the brief description of The Fault in Our

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Stars, it is clear that the general subject of this artifact is teenagers with cancer. If there is not a
unified subject then the artifact is not a narrative (Foss, 2009). These four characteristics are
clear in the artifact as it is comprised of events that relate to one another and the characters, there
is a clear time sequence as Hazel is telling the story after it has already happened, and there is a
unified subject. This is clearly stated in the description of the artifact.
Along with these four characteristics, narrative criticism involves coding for the objective
of the story, round and flat characters, kernels and satellites, as well as the presence of the
narrator among other ideas, however these will be most focused upon in this paper (Foss, 2009).
Both the novel and the film adaptation will be used to code for the above factors. Coding for the
objective and the relationship the narrator has with the story will involve analyzing the narrator’s
individual voice overs found in each thirty minute section of the film as well as the
corresponding sections in the novel. Round characters and flat characters will be coded for by
analyzing the changes or lack of changes that occur in the personality, actions, or behaviors of
the characters of the story. Finally, coding for kernels and satellites will occur by analyzing the
novel and the 30 minute increments of the film for the major events (kernels) and the minor
unimportant events (satellites). Major events consist of those where the characters experience
important changes to their person and/or events that explain or help develop important plot
points of the story. The minor events will be found by assessing the events in the same time
frame that have little to do with the development of the characters and/or plot and could
essentially be removed from the story without any side effects.
Findings

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As stated previously, illness is perceived differently in media than it is in the novel and
movie The Fault in Our Stars. The findings will focus on the ideas of body image, illness, fear of
cancer, as well as how characters in books make the audience reassess their self. It was
discovered by Cho and Lee that no matter how the description of a character is made whether it
be in a printed photo, a written description, or an on screen portrayal, the characters who are
perceived as most productive and social are those who fit the “perfect body image”. That image
is that men are lean and muscular and that women are thin and stereotypically pretty (Cho and
Lee, 2012). It is further explained that the media has a habit of showing adolescents that you can
only be successful in your life if you fit this perfect body image. The research through their
questionnaires showed that this was how the participants viewed those who had the “perfect
body” and that it was visually more appealing to see someone with such an image (Cho and Lee,
2012). The participants in their study were also provided with videos and images to watch as
their gaze was being observed. In almost all participants it was found that the images that
depicted the “perfect body” were focused on more. When asked about the assumptions they
would make about the images shown it was clear that the participants believed that those fitting
the image stated above were more healthy, pleasing, successful, social, and appealing (Cho and
Lee, 2012). It was concluded that media had manipulated the images the audience sees so that
the perception of health and wellness lies only with those fitting the image of the perfect body
which in turn effects the perception of anything else that is seen that is not this “ideal”. A similar
idea is found when studying on-screen portrayals of illness.
Overall, the attitude towards mental illness portrayed on screen by Pirkis, Blood, Francis,
and McCallum is highly negative and that it is typical for anyone with a mental illness to be
portrayed as a stereotype. These stereotypes include the crazy, the zoo like person, the over-

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privileged and self-obsessed, and the one free to do whatever they please at every moment
(Pirkis, et. al., 2006). It is further explained that the same ideas can be attributed to those who
are not mentally ill but physically ill. On-screen portrayals show that treatments for any illness
are described as something highly improbable, far too expensive, or even supernatural. It was
found that these portrayals are harmful to the audience as it creates a negative connotation about
real world experiences (Pirkis, et. al., 2006). When an audience member who is personally
effected by an illness or is closely related to a person or situation regarding a serious illness they
can be harmed by the images seen on-screen. These images instill more fear into the audience
whether they are currently in the situation or not, which will be reflected in a further study
(Pirkis, et. al., 2006). The audience is constantly being fed the idea that no matter what they do
to help themselves or the person/situation they are related to they will always fall short of health
which is only shown to them as a physical body instead of through behaviors as described by
Cho and Lee above. This idea is further heightened by the fear of cancer in media.
Nelissen, Beullens, Lemal, and Van der Bulck found that a strong relationship has been
formed between how the fear of cancer has developed between television and the internet. Both
of these means have developed into strong manipulating forces. It was found that the internet
manipulated the audience in a good way as it provided more straightforward facts and instilled in
them more hope. On the other hand, television portrayals of cancer made the audience more
fearful (Nelissen, et. al., 2014). This relationship showed that the portrayals on television were
more often than not purely negative as the primarily featured scenes were those of dying in
hospital beds, disfigurement, relapses that are terminal, or anything that lead to a negative
outcome or created a negative image (Nelissen, et. al., 2014). The study further explains that
even though there is beneficial and more lighthearted content available on the internet which is

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readily available for the audience, there is still a negative connotation towards the perception of
health when it comes to the audience’s personal relationship with the content. This means that
the audience will attribute the knowledge that have been manipulated to gain through television
portrayals to their own situation which is harmful as stated by Pirkis as well as subconsciously
seek out the fearful and negative content that can be found along with the straightforward facts
on the internet (Nelissen, et. al., 2014). This negative perception is continued in mass print as
well.
Mass print media plays an important role in how cancer is perceived whether this
information pertains to prevention, diagnosis, and/or treatment. Cancer has been described as the
most feared modern disease because of this perception (Clark and Everest, 2006). The
researchers surveyed the participants and found that they all responded as simply terrified by the
word cancer. This is done because it was found that there is a strong emphasis around the idea
that cancer could be developing in anyone at any moment prompting the thoughts developed in
on-screen media (Clark and Everest, 2006). These thoughts include those of chronic bed rest, a
life in and out of the hospital, and fear that if they bear any resemblance to what they see on the
screen and with what they read that they may be ill themselves (Clark and Everest, 2006). Over
all, this article concluded that this fear mass printed is only worsened by the images seen on the
screen as they depict the characters with “perfect bodies” as the healthy ones while those who are
ill are only depicted as having chronically bad health days or are doing better but on bed rest or
something similar (Clark and Everest, 2006). This perception is detrimental to the audience as it
manipulates their ability to distinguish their own beliefs from the beliefs they are told from the
media. The idea that print media and on-screen media have this power of manipulation is found
in novels as well, especially in novels aimed towards adolescents.

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It is stated by Moss that literature helps the audience place itself in their family. This
leaves literature with the power to have you determine whether or not you are the favorite child,
the black sheep of the family, as well as whether or not you share in the family responsibilities.
These are remedial sounding things at an adult level, but for adolescents this can contribute
heavily to their development (Moss, 2013). Literature constructed for adolescents also has the
power to incorporate ideas such as death in a way that is easier for adolescents to understand.
The way adolescent literature typically goes about this is by utilizing round characters (Moss,
2013). Round characters act as examples for the audience by being a figure that they can relate
to as they go through changes and experience various events such as death whether it be their
own or someone close to them (Moss, 2013). Moss further explains that it is important to utilize
round characters in this way in adolescent novels as they have the power to manipulate how the
audience perceives their experiences by relating to the audience. The first step in analyzing a
character once it is determined that a change did occur with them is to look at their name as it is
usually the first detail you know about the character. The importance of this is explained by
Hilpinen.
Hilpinen focuses his work around the importance and meaning a name holds. This article
specifically focuses its examples of names and meanings from a specific story, however their
definitions are vital to the importance of characters’ names. It is stated that names and words are
symbols therefore there is a relationship between the name of a character and their traits, their
personality, or it can act as a foreshadowing mechanism (Hilpinen, 2012). This relationship
cannot be defined by just the name, however. There has to be examples taken from the text that
exemplify the trait the name is in relation to (Hilpinen, 2012). According to the article, names do
not have to have a deeper meaning. In many cases a name is simply chosen because the author

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liked it and it fit the character they envisioned because it is a “stereotypical” name. That being
said, names that are important to the development of a character will be able to be clearly tied to
events and traits concerning the character (Hilpinen, 2012). This description holds true with the
characters Hazel and Augustus and its importance will be described in the discussion.
Discussion
The novel begins with a narrator whose name does not come about until page five of the book
when the main character describes how she would answer when it was her turn to speak at the
cancer support group by saying “I’m Hazel, sixteen, Thyroid originally” (Green, 2012). The first
thing the audience may recognize is that Hazel is an older name, one that might not fit the image
of a sixteen-year-old girl. Also, hazel is the name of a color. However it isn’t a flat color like
brown. It is inbetween the colors green and brown showing both shades. This begins to tell the
audience more about the character Hazel. She explains on the very first page that she is
depressed according to her Doctor’s standards and this is soon followed with the knowledge that
she is terminally ill but is doing okay (Green, 2012). As she further explains her condition she
states that she uses an oxygen tank because her “lungs suck at being lungs” and that she almost
died but a miracle drug started to work prolonging her life. On a lighter note the audience learns
more about her outside of her illness. She is in community college and she enjoys reading and
watching America’s Next Top Model. She also, like many teenage girls, has a crush on an older
boy which is playing with her emotions throughout the story and that boy is Augustus (Green,
2012).
Even though this is just a general overview of Hazel’s character, it provides an insight
into the meaning behind her name. Hazel is an inbetween color while Hazel herself is an

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inbetween person. She is inbetween being sick and healthy due to the miracle drug slowing her
cancer. She is inbetween her adulthood as she spends half her time as a sixteen-year-old college
student and the other half being a sick kid sitting with her mother on the couch watching
television and trying to keep down her food. Lastly, she is inbetween her emotions as she
develops feelings for Augustus that are completely new to her while at the same time wanting to
stay a safe distance away from him so she does not hurt anybody. Her name alone foreshadows
for the audience that something is going to change and this same idea is apparent with the name
Augustus.
Augustus is a pretentious eighteen-year-old boy that uses big words at the wrong time
and his name tells you to expect nothing less. Augustus is a name that belongs to men living in
an empire from many centuries ago and implies that the man with that name is strong which is
exemplified through the novel. The audience learns that Augustus was a star basketball player
with many friends. He was popular in school and just as popular when he was in the hospital.
He lost his leg due to cancer but came out completely okay due to the 85% survival rate (Green,
2012). Augustus is a name that belongs to a man who is very aware of who he is as a person
and what he wants in life, which fits this character very well. However, the audience finds while
reading the text that Augustus became part of the 15% and after this is stated he is only referred
to by the nickname Gus (Green, 2012). In comparison to Augustus, Gus is a kids name and it
only comes about when Augustus becomes weaker which tells that audience that Augustus is not
going to recover but also foreshadows a personality change. He even says to Hazel “You use to
call me Augustus” referencing that he is aware of the change he has made in his personality as
well. It is clear that by simply examining the names of characters in comparison to a brief

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summary of events in the novel that the audience can recognize the main characters as round
though the kernels described next do verify this.
There are several major events throughout the story that aide to the idea that round
characters are used to challenge the perception of illness. The events discussed occurred in both
the movie and film adaptation. These events show the moments that the characters develop. The
first of these occur in the very beginning of the film after the narrator, Hazel, had begun the
story. In the first section of the film Hazel is seen begging with her parents to stay home and
watch America’s Next Top Model or read instead of going to the cancer support group that her
Doctor suggested because of Hazel’s depression. She states while narrating in this section that
she is depressed because of her situation (Green, 2012). Half way through this first section
Hazel meets Augustus for the first time and as she enters the bathroom to check her hair it is
clear that something has suddenly changed with Hazel. This is further expressed as Hazel
describes Augustus staring at her as she has become very aware of how she is dressed (Green,
2012). Both these moments establish the moment that Hazel begins to develop into a round
character. This is also the first moment that disproves the idea that those who are ill cannot be
sociable or that they essentially live in a hospital as Hazel is acting like any other sixteen year
old girl. The novel and film are filled with scenes that depict this change happening, however the
most important is the first as it is the beginning of this development.
There is a scene later in the second section when Hazel experiences an episode of
sickness that forces her to go to the hospital. Augustus comes to visit her and even though he is
not allowed in, she knows that he was there and it is this moment that she becomes terrified of
the relationship she has started (Green, 2012). This moment shows Hazel developing even more
as she realizes that she may not be able to handle a relationship in fear of hurting Augustus

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because she is still sick while he is currently cancer free. Even though the fear revolves around
her cancer as the subject it lies solely in the thought of hurting someone she has developed
feelings for which is a subject that anyone healthy or not can relate to.
The next kernel imperative to the developments of Hazel and Augustus occurs at the
beginning of the third section when the pair venture to Amsterdam through Augustus’s wish,
similar to Make A Wish. At the beginning of the trip it was clear that Augustus was terrified of
the plane which is an insight into how the man who says he is only afraid of never being
remembered is also afraid of planes showing how he has started to weaken as a character (Green,
2012). As the trip continues Hazel experiences her biggest development in character and that is
when she admits her love for Augustus. This is also the time that Augustus reveals to Hazel that
his cancer has come back (Green, 2012). This section of the story shows both of the main
characters at their peak of development expressing that Hazel has now become her strongest by
admitting her feelings and Augustus has now weakened by finally admitting to Hazel and to
himself that he is sick again. This scene explains the idea that both the main characters are
capable of traveling and of having a life outside of a hospital bed showing that you do not have
to be the media’s epitome of health to live a prosperous life.
One final scene at the very beginning of the fifth section shows Hazel and Augustus at
Funky Bones where Augustus first told Hazel about the trip to Amsterdam. It was in this scene
that Augustus brings up his feelings about fading into oblivion. Hazel takes this time to explain
to him that the fact he has people who love him for who he is should be enough which is his final
development when he admits that she is right (Green, 2012). This scene wraps up the final
development of Augustus as it is the moment he has changed from the pretentious teenage boy

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only afraid of oblivion to someone who has experienced love and events only thought to be
experienced by those who are healthy.
There are several other scenes which occur throughout the story that express these same
developments, but are also not as important to the story leaving them as satellites to the story.
An example of which is found in the fourth section of the film when Hazel, Augustus, and their
friend Isaac decide to go throw eggs at Monica’s, Isaac’s ex-girlfriend’s, car. When her mother
comes out to turn the car alarm off Augustus says that between the three of them they have four
eyes, two working pairs of lungs, and five legs so she should just go back inside and let them
finish (Green, 2012). This scene acts as comic relief as well as a moment expressing that those
who are ill are still able to go out and have fun, but it is not vital to the story itself. Another
example is featured only in the novel when Hazel looks up Augustus’s ex-girlfriend on social
media and then worries about her own feelings and his feelings just like any other person would
(Green, 2012).
Conclusion
The goal of this paper was to answer the question, how do rhetors use round characters to
challenge the perception of those with illnesses? As referenced in the findings, the research
showed that the media portrays the sick as those who are bed ridden moving between their bed
and the hospital only, and as being chronically unhealthy. In addition to this portrayal there is
fear that constantly revolves around the idea of cancer. When these ideas are mixed together
then the audience is left only with a negative connotation of how illness should be perceived. As
round characters, Hazel and Augustus challenge this perception. Even though the pair are sick
they develop just like any other teenage couple that fits the standard of health described in the

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findings would. They challenge their own beliefs, develop new feelings, and explore new areas
all while being ill. Hazel and Augustus become new role models for those who are ill or are
closely related to a person or situation focused around illness. Like Moss had stated, round
characters in adolescent novels have the power to influence their audience which is what Hazel
and Augustus were written to do and was something they did well as they changed throughout
the story.

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Works Cited
Cho, A., & Lee, J. (2012). Body dissatisfaction levels and gender differences in attentional biases
toward idealized bodies. Body Image, 95-102.
Clarke, J., & Everest, M. (2006). Cancer in the mass print media: Fear, uncertainty and the
medical model. Social Science & Medicine, 2591-2600.
Foss, S. (2009). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration & practice. Long Grove, Il.: Waveland Press.
Green, J. (2012). The fault in our stars. New York, NY : Dutton Books.
Hilpinen, R. (n.d.). 2012 Types and Tokens: On the Identity and Meaning of Names and Other
Words. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American
Philosophy, 48(3), 259-284.
Moss, B. (Ed.). (2013). Assessing Oneself: Young Adult Books for Middle Graders. Voices from
the Middle, 21(2).
Nelissen, S., Lemal, M., & Van den Bulck, J. (2014). Predictors of Cancer Fear: The Association
Between Mass Media and Fear of Cancer Among Cancer Diagnosed and Nondiagnosed
Individuals.
Pirkis, J., Blood, R., Francis, C., & McCallum, K. (2006). On-Screen Portrayals Of Mental
Illness: Extent, Nature, And Impacts. Journal of Health Communication, 523-541.