I, along with nearly everyone I know, have read “The Fault In Our Stars” and seen the movie. John Green truly has a unique writing style and creates a beautiful story. After reading, I was left wondering the reason behind the success of this book. Why is our generation so intrigued? I think the success and popularity of the book is not due to the sappy love story surface. I think it goes much beyond that. Green uses the story as a platform to question truth, morality, life, death, and love. It presents the hard questions of life and love in a relatable dialogue. Our generation is tired of the shallow, poorly written, easy to read, and unrealistic fiction. Green breaks through the typical teen fiction expectations, and digs much deeper. As a Christian, I was left bothered by the popularity and worship of this book. I think that the book largely represents the religious views of our generation. In TFIOS, Hazel and Augustus converse on their beliefs of God and eternity. Hazel states clearly that she doesn’t believe in a God. Augustus admits that he believes in “Something, with a capital S.” I believe that this dialogue sums up majority of our generations’ beliefs about God. Hazel and Augustus are portrayed as two teens who are searching for meaning. They live believing in “something,” but searching for what that is. They live for the moment, basically going through life without morals and standards, but rather doing what they want and what feels good. I understand that these are fiction characters, but I also believe that Green used the characters as a representation of our generation. Wouldn’t that explain why this book has become such a success? As Christians, we should be bothered by this. The bible states that God is the only way to heaven (John 14:6). We have a generation lost and searching, wanting to believe that there is more. There couldn’t be a better time and opportunity for us to step up. We have a perfect opportunity to enter our world and bring Jesus to searching people. TFIOS asks hard questions on life, love, suffering, and death. It leaves questions open for you to find the answer. This is not in any way a Christian book, it is not a book with bibical morals or ethics. It does, however, ask questions that Christians need to learn how to answer. It asks questions that our generation of Christians will inevitably be faced with by skeptics. It’s important that we aren’t scared by those questions, and that we understand that God isn’t scared either. We need to be able to study our bibles, research, and pray to answer the hard questions. We need to learn how to defend our faith, and to understand what we believe. So, if you’ve read “The Fault In Our Stars” I encourage you not to dismiss the hard questions you were faced with. Instead, use it as an opportunity to dig deeper into your faith, and to find your answers in the bible.
