The Fault in Our Starts Critique Essay Example For Students

The Fault in Our Starts Critique Essay John Green shows the funny way to tell a sad story through the humorous, sarcastic tone while talking about something as severe and upsetting as cancer _ This book Will have you laughing and crying by the time you reach the end, it is certainly a book Roth reading. Hazel Grace Lancaster, the 16 year Old cancer sufferer, protagonist and narrator, lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she is forced by her overprotective mother to go to cancer support groups as an effort to meet friends. The bond demonstrated between Hazel and her mother was both a believable and a relatable mother-daughter relationship. It is at this support group, that Hazel meets her best friend and first love, Augustus Waters. Their relationship shows how much more meaningful life can be if you have someone to share important experiences with. It also amplifies that although the couple is young and both have suffered from hardships, including cancer, it does not get in the way of the pair building a relationship, a skill that many could learn from. We will write a custom essay on The Fault in Our Starts Critique specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Throughout the novel, Hazel does not let the illness that she has been marked with stop her from having goals or dreams, It is shown through the authors writing style, that the target audience is young adults, John Green is able to do this successfully by having the story told through the eyes of an adolescent, creating the tone and dialogue as though it is told by a manager, making it relatable to a younger audience The dialogue between Hazel and her love interest, Augustus, is both romantic and playful, when Augustus is describing why he likes Hazel he says You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are (123), by Green choosing to have the character dialogue in this style, it causes the conversations between the adolescent characters to be more related and understandable. The author deciding on this style also allows him to be able to emotionally affect the reader thou using a complex word choice. Through dialogue, Green is also able to make the r egular conversation between teenagers relatable, with the use of sarcasm. Hazel and Augustus share a mutual friend, Isaac, who has been suffering from cancer, his treatments cause him to lose his eyesight. After the surgery, Hazel asks Augustus how Isaac is doing, Augustus sarcastically responds with l mean, hes blind. So thats unfortunate. (73), This type of sarcastic response is very similar to one a teenager might say, creating these characters have a connection with a young deader, due to the readers understanding of the character, Conversations using these elements create a believable relationship in the readers mind. John Green uses intense themes, such as death, which causes the reader to stop and think about what the authors point really is. Throughout the novel, it is shown to the reader just how important it is to realize that even if you dont have a long life ahead of you, you are alive now and that is what is important. Through the first person point of view the story is told in, the reader is able to go in Hazels mind and understand her thoughts on death, more importantly, her death. Hazel thinks, I was living with cancer not dying from it, that mustnt let it kill me before kills me (120), giving the reader a better understanding Of What her viewpoint is based on her illness and how much she treasures and appreciates her life, causing her to be an endearing character that the reader is able to sympathize With. Concerning death, the author also says The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eyes of memory. .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .postImageUrl , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:hover , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:visited , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:active { border:0!important; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:active , .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u088b3c06681cbd23f1eadc153cc5bdff:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: China's Population Problem EssayThe living, thank heaven, retain the ability to surprise and to disappoint (1 13). This is said as an effort to make the reader understand that if they are lucky enough to be alive, then they should act alive. Along with making the characters endearing, the author makes it relatable to the reader themselves or someone the reader knows. Hazel is shy, but does not sugar coat what she is going through, she also does not feel sorry for herself and, like for many people, adding a sense of humor helps. She introduces her having cancer by saying, Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side e ffects of anger. But in fact, depression is not a side detect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying, (l), showing the reader from an early start that she is not going to let what she is going through stop her from doing anything, making her determination a relatable trait, Another important and relatable character is Augustus. He is that charming boy that everyone knows. He also has an extreme positive outlook concerning his cancer, which both Hazel and the reader find admirable. At their support group, he says Im on a roller coaster that only goes p (10). From When these characters are first introduced it is impossible to not relate to them. The pacing of the book was overall nicely done. The novel had 3 great hook that made the reader not want to put the book down. Although overall the novel progressed ATA fast pace, there were a few sections that seemed to be dragged on and wordy. The spotty slow tempo did not cause you to lose complete interest of the story, since the tempo would be quickly regained and taken back to the correct speed. This book is not one that you read about ND then forget about You go on a journey with these two characters that you can connect and relate to, you have compassion for their struggles and try to imagine your life in their situation. This book causes you to think about the things you take for granted every day, the things as simple as being able to breath without being connected to an oxygen tank at 16. It was a powerful story that although many readers of the story are not living with cancer, they were still able to relate to the character, This book is good for any young adult. This book will have a lasting impact on anyone who reads it.

900,000 Iraqis Killed in Repression and War

900,000 Iraqis Killed in Repression and War Casualty counts in Iraq have generated a war of their own. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a study that estimated that in the 18 months following the American invasion in 2003, 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected had the invasion not occurred. The study sparked controversy over methodology. It wasnt adding up body counts from bombs and bullets but surveying households about births and deaths that had occurred since 2002, verifying the cause of death through certificates only when possible... which wasnt often. When the same team updated its study in 2006, the death toll was up to 654,965, with 91.8 percent caused by violence. Conservative organs like The Wall Street Journal went nuts, charging that, because the study was funded by the liberal activist George Soros, it was not credible. (Where the Journals editorial page gets its logic is one of the great enigmas of the age). Saddam Hussein and the Death Toll in Iraq The well-documented Iraq Body Count site was putting the figure at one-sixth that of the Johns Hopkins study, though it was relying exclusively on verifiable press, government or non-governmental organizations reports. There comes a point though when casualty figures reach such a level that debating higher or lower numbers becomes an exercise in churlishness. Of course, theres a difference between 700,000 and 100,000 dead. But is that to say that a war thats caused 100,000 dead is somehow, in any possible way, less horrific or more justifiable? The Iraqi Ministry of Health produced its own casualty count of Iraqis killed as a direct result of violence not by survey  or estimates but by verifiable deaths and proven causes: At least 87,215 killed since 2005, and more than 110,000 since 2003, or 0.38% of the Iraqi population. One of the Journals strange and utterly meaningless comparisons in its 2006 editorial discrediting the Johns Hopkins count was that fewer Americans died in the Civil War, our bloodiest conflict. Iraq's Death Count Equivalent in the United States Heres a more telling comparison. The proportion of Iraqis directly killed in the war would amount to 1.14 million deaths in a country with a population the size of the United States a proportional figure that would exceed any conflict this country has ever known. In fact, it would be almost equivalent to the sum total of all American war casualties since the War of Independence. But even that approach understates the extent of suffering of the Iraqi population because it only looks at the last six years. What of the death toll under Saddam Hussein? 23 Years of Slaughter Under Saddam Hussein In the end, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning John Burns wrote in The Times a few weeks before the invasion, if an American-led invasion ousts Mr. Hussein, and especially if an attack is launched without convincing proof that Iraq is still harboring forbidden arms, history may judge that the stronger case was the one that needed no inspectors to confirm: that Saddam Hussein, in his 23 years in power, plunged this country into a bloodbath of medieval proportions, and exported some of that terror to his neighbors. Burns proceeded to estimate the arithmetic of Saddams brutality: The largest number of deaths during his reign is attributable to the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Iraq claims to have lost 500,000 people during that war.The 1990 occupation of Kuwait and the ensuing Gulf War caused 100,000 deaths, by Iraqs reckoningprobably an exaggeration, but not by much: the 40-day bombardment of Iraq before the three-day ground war, and the massacre of escaping Iraqi troops on the highway of death make the estimate more credible than not.Casualties from Iraqs gulag are harder to estimate, Burns wrote. Accounts collected by Western human rights groups from Iraqis and defectors have suggested that the number of those who have disappeared into the hands of the secret police, never to be heard from again, could be 200,000. Add it up, and in three decades, about 900,000 Iraqis have died from violence, or well over 3% of the Iraqi populationthe equivalent of more than 9 million people in a nation with a population as large as that of the United States. Thats what Iraq will have to recover from over the next decadesnot just the death toll of the last six years, but that of the last 30. Staring at the Abyss As of this writing, the combined combat and non-combat deaths of American and Coalition soldiers in Iraq, since 2003, total 4,595a devastating toll from the western perspective, but one that must be multiplied 200 times to begin to understand the extent of the devastation of Iraqs own death toll. Analyzed that way (since the cause of the violent deaths is not, to the dead and their survivors, nearly as relevant as the fact of the deaths themselves) even the Johns Hopkins figures become less relevant as a point of dispute, since, by focusing only on the last six years, they underestimate the breadth of the carnage. If the Johns Hopkins methodology were applied, the death toll would climb well above 1 million. One last question bears asking. Assuming that 800,000 Iraqis lost their lives during the Saddam Hussein years, does even that justify killing an additional 100,000, supposedly to be rid of Saddam? He who does battle with monsters needs to watch out lest he in the process becomes a monster himself, Nietzche wrote in Beyond Good and Evil. And if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss will stare right back at you. Nowhere has that been more true, in this young and morally stunted century, than with Americas monstrous battle in Iraq.