ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Themes Videos 151 videos
Picking a theme for a party is pretty easy—always go karate party, because they come with nunchuck egg rolls. Themes in writing are a little diff...
Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.
Imagine a world in which all literature was dystopian. Okay, so we may be getting to that point, 1984 and V for Vendetta helped start it all.
The Fault in Our Stars 13587 Views
Share It!
Description:
Have you ever read a book and thought, "Whoa, this sounds like my life"? If you feel that way about The Fault in Our Stars , you're in for some major bookception: the main character, Hazel, is reading a book whose protagonist's struggles match her own.
Transcript
- 00:05
The Fault In Our Stars a la Shmoop. Imagine reading a book that ends in the middle
- 00:15
of sentence. It would be like your favorite show getting
- 00:23
canceled in the middle of the last episode. That's exactly what happens to Hazel in A
- 00:32
Fault in Our Stars.
- 00:34
When her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, ends mid-sentence...
Full Transcript
- 00:38
...she's so upset that she takes a transatlantic journey to find the real ending.
- 00:44
Why does she take this trip?
- 00:47
Why doesn't she just move on and read something else that actually has an ending?
- 00:51
Or write some fan-fiction? Maybe it's just plain ol' curiosity.
- 01:01
Wouldn't you want to know how your favorite book ends? You know... before the movie comes
- 01:08
out? Or maybe it's the fact that Hazel is just
- 01:15
sick of uncertainty.
- 01:17
She already has plenty to worry about: Will she die? Will her friend Gus die? Will the
- 01:23
sun go supernova and we all die?
- 01:27
Perhaps her search for the ending to An Imperial Affection is just the search for some certainty
- 01:33
in her life. But then there's the fact that Hazel's story
- 01:40
is basically the same as Anna's, the main character in An Imperial Affliction.
- 01:46
It's almost like the author was watching Hazel and recording her life.
- 01:54
Haven't you ever read a book and thought the main character... was you?
- 02:02
Hazel wants to know what will happen to her family after she dies, and she seems to be
- 02:06
looking for those answers in Anna's story.
- 02:10
She wants to know that Anna's mom will be okay, just like she wants to know that her
- 02:14
own parents and loved ones will be okay. So, what's the real reason Hazel goes on this
- 02:23
epic adventure?
- 02:25
Is it because, like all of us, she's just curious?
- 02:28
Or is she looking for certainty in an uncertain world?
- 02:32
Or does she see her own story in Anna's and wants to discover her own fate?
- 02:43
Or maybe JetBlue just had a killer deal on round-trip tickets to Amsterdam...
- 02:47
Shmoop amongst...
- 02:48
<<pause>>
- 03:00
...yourselves.
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...