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Playlist Contemporary Literature (21st Century) 11 videos
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The Fault in Our Stars 13587 Views
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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.
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