Augustus Waters, with a cigarette dangling from his pale lips, smirks slightly while sitting in Cancer Support Group. Augustus is a 17 year old boy, cancer survivor, and madly in love with a girl whose lungs are filled with fluid. He first met Hazel, who is the main character of the story, at a Cancer Support Group located in their small town in Indiana. They end up reading the same books, visiting Amsterdam to visit their favorite author and falling in love along the way. Once a basketball player, he had his leg amputated due to Osteosarcoma, a cancer of the bones.
Osteosarcoma is a tumor that tends to start in the bones of legs, which can lead into the tumor spreading and death. He now has a prosthetic leg, in absence of his amputated leg, to walk on but he doesn’t let the cancer get to him. With dark hair, green eyes, and an always smirking smile, he captures your attention as soon as you meet him. Augustus Waters in “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green is inspirational because he found humor in death, was very wise, and fought until the very end.
One of my favorite things about Gus is that he found humor in death. I know, that sounds wrong, but he believed in a metaphor; “It’s a metaphor see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t let it do it’s killing. ” What he meant by that is he always had a pack of cigarettes, and one, unlit, between his lips. He found that in a way taunting death made him feel stronger. He always believed that everything should have a metaphor, for he was never seen without one plain as day. Augustus was also very wise.
The Term Paper on Breast Cancer 5
This publication attempts to summarize current scientific information about breast cancer. Except when specified, it does not represent the official policy of the American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Basic Facts What is breast cancer? Cancer is a group of diseases that cause cells in the body to change and grow out of control. Most types of cancer cells eventually form a lump or mass ...
He would always ask questions, but they were never stupid. They were actually very intelligent questions. He spoke wisely, for he believed that human nature should not be wasted on stupidity. Once when discussing their fears, Hazel, the main character, told him that she was afraid of human oblivion. He replied: “There will come a time when all of us will be dead. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. If the inevitability of human oblivion scares you, then I highly suggest you ignore it.
” The fear of oblivion, or death, is called Thanatophobia. He and Hazel also would have many conversations about books and the meaning of life. Finally, Gus was a fighter until the very end. When he was 15 ? he was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a cancer which spreads through the bones. This cancer spread throughout his left leg, causing it to have to be amputated and his acceptance of a prosthetic leg. Osteosarcoma is diagnosed in about 800 people per year, 400 of them being teens and children. It also claims the lives of about 300 people per year.
When admitted to the hospital after cancer cells had been found once again, 8 days before he died, they took away his metaphorical cigarettes. He was so angered by this that he drove himself, while in critical condition, to a gas station to buy some more. When coming back to the hospital they asked him to rate his pain on a scale from 1 – 10, 1 being the least amount of pain and 10 being the most. He told them it was a 9. A day afterwards, a nurse approached him saying, “You know how I know you’re a fighter? You called a 10 a 9. ” Even up to the end, Gus was upbeat and smiling.
What inspiration, or being an inspiring person, means to me is when someone can be themselves and accept that. Someone who has gone against odds, the “status quo,” to be themselves. Augustus has always been a fighter and kind to others, as well as to himself. What made me believe he was inspirational was the fact that he fought and fought against his cancer, and he was always so positive in doing so. Something he taught me is that in life when things start looking towards the worst, you cannot give up. For in life, you must always have hope.
The Essay on Shine: Meaning of Life and Human Condition
Shine highlights three major human conditions throughout the movie, the need for companionship, the unbroken human spirits and human’s tendency to reflect on the past. From these human conditions, scenes in Shine and use of camera techniques we learn how to approach situations and downhills in life and to rediscover and give purpose to life rather than give up and accept defeat. ...
