life-threatening disease osteosarcoma. His optimistic personality is proven through Murphy’s theory of characterization which are speech and character as
seen by another.
2. Hazel Grace’s Characteristics
Hazel Graze is the other main character in this novel. The characteristics of Hazel Grace will be explained in two parts due to the different characteristics
that oppose each other in a certain time setting. The first part will explain Hazel Grace’s characteristics that can be seen before she met Augustus Waters. The
second part will explain Hazel Grace’s characteristics that can be seen after she met Augustus Waters.
a. Before Meeting Augustus Waters
i. Pessimistic
Hazel Grace is a pessimistic person. She is a girl who does not think about her state of health. Hazel seriously does not care about her life and always
thinking about her death, wanting it to be happening soon because she is desperate enough to bear lots of medication. Looking at her condition, her mother is afraid
that Hazel is not seizing life and decided that Hazel was depressed, but actually she is not depressed. She just wants to do what she likes. It can be indicated by
her thought: “I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same
book over and over, ate infrequently and devoted a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death” 2012: 3. Based on her thought and it also can be seen
through Murphy’s theory of characterization which is thought, it shows that she is pessimistic to herself by doing activities that are not giving her the positive
reinforcement, such as reading the same book over and over, thinking about death, or spending most of her time in bed. Based on her activity, it shows that she
perceived her life as worthless in the story because she had a belief that she was dying soon.
The pessimistic character of Hazel Grace can also be seen through her conversation with Kaitlyn speech:
“Is it even possible to walk in these? I mean, I would just die” and then stopped short, looking at me as if to say I’m sorry, as if it were a crime to
mention death to the dying. “You should try them on,” Kaitlyn continued,
trying to paper over the awkardness. “I’d sooner die,” I assured her. 2012: 44.
The conversation speech above shows that Hazel is pessimistic to her condition by assuring Kait
lyn that she would die soon when she said, “I would just die”. Even though Hazel realized that she might upset Kaitlyn by thinking that it was
like a crime to mention death to the dying, she still held on to the belief that she was dying. It can be proven through the way she said that she would sooner die
after Kaitlyn had persuaded her to walk on a pair of strappy hooker shoes p.44. Her pessimistic personality can be identified through Murphy’s theory of
characterization which are speech and thought.
ii. Distant
She is also a distant person. She does not care and does not want to be closer with people around her because she is trying not to hurt other people by not
letting them to be attached to her and feel sad because of her death later on. She tried not to be closer to people so she would not let them feel her loss once she
was dead. It can be seen from Hazel ’s conversation with her mother Murphy’s
theory which is speech when she said: “Honey,” my mom said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m like. Like. I’m like a grenade, mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties,
okay?” “I’m grenade ,” I said again. “I just want to stay away from people and
read books and think and be with you guys because there’s nothing I can do about hurting you, you are too invested, so just please let me do that,
okay? I’m not depressed. I don’t need to get out more. And I can’t be a regular
teenager, because I’m grenade 2012: 99. From her statement above, she tried to portray herself as a grenade that would
blow up and caused many casualties because she thought that many people who were close to her including her parents would feel sad, thus becoming the
casualties of her death. Therefore, she would like to minimize the casualties of her death by not getting too close to people, so in the event that she was dead, no one
would feel the loss that could cause sadness, sorrow, or pain. One of the thoughts that could strengthen the fact that she prioritized her parents’ happiness could be
seen below: “I wanted to make my parents happy. There is only one thing in this world
shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen and that’s having a kid who b
ites it from cancer” 2012: 8. From
Hazel’s thought above Murphy’s theory which is thought, it shows that Hazel just wants to make her parents happy. The main reason of her desire to
make her parents happy was because she thought that being a sixteen year old girl with cancer is better than having a child suffering from cancer. Therefore, the
reason why she was being distant was because she tried to avoid her parents from the sadness, pain, or regret once Hazel was dead eventually. The other example of
