Symbol

=Water =

//"Water," the Dutchman said. "Well, and time." //
Water is one of the more complex and consistent symbols in the book. Water is used symbolically in Augustus’s last name, Hazel’s lungs, her memory of playing with her father in the river, Amsterdam, the quote of Imperial Affliction on the first page, etc. What we can pertain from this the ambiguity of life( or death for that matter, but one implies the other, really). Through the book Hazel grapples with the idea of the universe being malevolent or benevolent or whether or not God (the tulip man) is a con man. We see water drowning Hazel’s lungs and Amsterdam, but we also see it as the tide returning Hazel back to her father. The ambiguity of water’s intentions is synonymous with the universe’s intentions.



=Augustus's Cigarettes = = =

Augustus in the first few chapters explains the metaphor of the unlit cigarette he holds in his mouth: “It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.”Augustus often uses the cigarette as a source of confidence; Green has drawn parallels between Houlden Caufield’s red hunting hat, that it is used as a comfort and source of poise in new or daunting situations. For example, his first time riding a place, being rejected by Hazel, and telling Hazel about his relapse in cancer. Augustus loses this power very literally on his desperate and somewhat pathetic quest to the gas station. He can’t tease the cancer between his teeth anymore because they’ve already beaten him. The cigarettes represent the power of choice one has and how that slowly degenerates as the cancer grows stronger.

=Rene Magritte’s “Ceci n’est pas une pipe“ = = = ==

Before Hazel went to see Van Houten in Amsterdam she wore a shirt that has Ceci n’est pas une pipe on the front. This represents that the pipe is not actually a pipe but rather a likeness of a pipe. This is also commonly mentioned by Van Houten in the book when Augustus and Hazel want answers about AIA. Van Houten explains that he simply wrote the story and has access to the same sentences as they do. He says “They are fictions. Nothing happens to them”. He stresses that what matters is what happens in the book and they were tools to tell a story and have to purpose outside of the story. The author only knows what is written and the rest is up to the reader. Like the pipe, they are only representations of people, not actual people. Just as the likeness of the pipe, it will not exist independently from the drawing. Nobody will smoke from that pipe, break the pipe, hide the pipe, it was used to convey an idea and that is all.

Cigarette gif. Miss Emma Jude. Web. 2012. .

Ocean gif. Spoki. Web. 2012. .

Ceci n’est pas une pipe. Yale Library. Web. 2012. <http://http://www.library.yale.edu/librarynews/ceci-n-est-pas-une-pipe.jpg.spoki.lv/stilsmode = =