Katie's+Literary+Critique

www Everyone likes a good story. Even a bad story is pretty gosh darn amusing to ridicule, although almost never worth your time, but how do we know the difference between the two? It is hard to pin down the black and white criteria that every meaningful story must have because this is literature; where gray area thrives. I //can// provide a guideline that many worthwhile stories follow, but you could still probably find a tale or two that is outside my guidelines. The guideline I propose is a worthwhile story is one that helps you both to remember and forget.

www The remembering aspect of my guidelines implies that it makes the reader remember what it’s like being a person. A gratifying story provokes feeling and emotion. Whether it is by sympathy or disdain for the characters, the reader feels because they view the roles in the books as real people deserving sympathy or indifference. This is possible not only because the book is well written enough so that the characters and their motives seem realistic enough for compassion, but also because they are relatable. What makes books relatable are the characters. They don’t need to have the same life as the reader to be relatable, that would be incredibly dull. The story should have characters that remind the reader of things that they have seen, done or heard about. If the book can do this, the reader can make more sense of the world around them by using the story as a new perspective to view their world.

www Now we move on to forgetting. Entertainment and stories are virtually inseparable. When one reads a story, they do not pay attention to the action of reading itself; they are focused on learning the developments in the story. The reader should forget where they are or what they have to do later. Complete immersion in the stories and characters are imperative aspects to a story. Forgetting that the character’s fates are predetermined and are completely fictional, the reader cheers for their hero and silently hopes for the villain’s downfall. Being able to forget about the real world and all the daunting tasks the reader must face, they instead read about the greater and even more intimidating tasks of others. A book is a comfort in the fact that it’s easy to forget about whatever is troubling you when you’re focused on a story, and a story that is worthwhile should provide that comfort.

www The Fault in Our Stars accomplishes both of these things in a very subtle and sophisticated way that still manages to make itself attractive to a young adult audience. Green manages to intertwine a constant source of humor in the tragedy of the plot. Not only do the deliciously clever and hilarious remarks from Augustus, Hazel and Isaac alleviate the tragic circumstances that the plot follows. The book chose to be a generally pleasant one, as opposed to another heartbreaking cancer book. Choice is frequently mentioned in the book. Hazel and Augustus mention that they have choice between making their trip to Van Houten a sad one or a funny one, they chose to make it funny. “You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice.”. The same goes for this book. It was entertaining because the characters were real and funny individuals who made you sympathetic towards their affairs. You are given equal parts humor and tragedy, and the author really leaves it up to you if you want to remember it as a tragedy or a comedy. I chose to make it a funny story. Remembering in this story is also very prevalent. Many references are made to art and poetry. The world in the book is constructed so that it is very real (Green lives in Indiana- where the book takes place). All of these components work to make the story very real. Hazel makes cancer and dying much more understandable, and reminds you that life is fleeting, beautiful and complicated. The book is very thoughtful and entertaining, and I believe it was very successful and reminding and forgetting.