…I don’t think you understood the point of the book or the character at all??
we’re not supposed to admire the way Augustus Waters applies metaphor to his life. it’s a defence mechanism that he uses because he has a deep obsession with heroism that he uses to cover up his crippling fear of his own mortality.
"Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we’re disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare, and no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about." (152)
Gus is terrified that he will be the person about whom Sonnet Fifty-five is written.
Augustus Waters is a teenage boy who is in remission from osteosarcoma; he’s allowed to be a little deluded. Hazel’s relationship with Gus stems at least in part from the fact that she recognizes how ridiculous some of his more grandiose mannerisms are and loves him in spite of this.Â
And even though he’s not forgotten in the least, Gus doesn’t get the heroic life or death that he wishes for near the start of the novel. He does not fight his disease staunchly until the very end because that’s not how real life works and human beings are not put on this Earth to fall victim to transience after having made A Difference in the world. We live and breathe and die for the sake of being human, and—though this is just me—I think that’s the resolution of Gus’ character arc. He doesn’t need a one-song-glory to go out on; he existed and lived and that is all that matters.
tl;dr: this got away from me. but TFioS is a book/movie. characters aren’t going to mimic reality.Â
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