Hazel states that she needs to call somebody in hurry seeing Augustus’
condition that she cannot handle it by her own. Furthermore, Augustus performs his disagreement for Hazel’s assessment by immediately stating bare exclamation ‘No’.
He also clearly states ‘Please don’t call 9-1-1. Please. Don’t call my parents or 9…’ that contains an expression of begging and preventing. He also adds a threat for Hazel
by saying ‘I will never forgive you if you call them’. In this context, Augustus’s
statement explicitly shows that he prevents Hazel to call his parents or 9-1-1. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reason of this kind of disagreement acts is
because the current speaker prohibits the first speaker to do an action.
f. Making An Excuse of the Initial Statement
The other reason that the characters in
The Fault in Our Stars
movie perform disagreement acts is because the current speaker is making an excuse of hisher initial
statement. The example is taken from a dialogue between Michael and Hazel in Datum 7 below.
Michael : Uh, you don’t “take” pot.
Hazel : Well, that is the kind of thing I would know with a fake ID.
Datum 7 The conversation takes place in Lancaster family’s home when Hazel protests
to her parents that she does not need to go to the Support Group anymore for the sake of socializing. Hazel gives another alternative to her parents if they want Hazel to be
a teenager, they need to get a fake ID to Hazel so that she can go to clubs and take marijuana pot as she likes. Then, Michael notices that ‘pot’ or a specific kind of
drug is not ‘taken’ to consume. However, Hazel delivers her disagreement by making
an excuse of her initial statement saying that she needs a fake ID. She excuses that she will know that kind of knowledge only with a fake ID. In other words, the
character performs this kind of disagreement expression because she is making an excuse of the initial statement.
g. Avoiding the Topic of Conversation
Some characters in
The Fault in Our Stars
movie often employ disagreement acts as means of avoiding the topic of conversation. It happens frequently when the
speaker performs hisher disagreement in the form of changing the topic as the strategy. The example is as follows.
Hazel : Well, that is the kind of thing I would know with a fake ID.
Frannie : Can you just get in the car, please?
Datum 8 In this dialogue, Hazel argues with her parents that she does not need to go to
the Support Group anymore. She thinks that she just need a fake ID to do something outside like going to the club and consuming pot. Frannie, who definitely disagrees
with this idea, tries to drag Hazel to the car to go to the Support Group with her by saying ‘Can you just get in the car, please?’. This kind of question does not
correspond with the initial statement by Hazel who talks about getting a fake ID. In this case, Frannie’s question is considered as a disagreement act because she tries to
make Hazel not to talk about a fake ID anymore by changing the current topic of the conversation. Therefore, it can be concluded that Frannie’s reason of expressing her
disagreement is to avoid the topic of conversation.
