The Fault in Our Stars Vs a Walk to Remember

A Walk in Our Stars

Is the movie of The Fault in Our Stars a copy of the film of A Walk to Remember? Many people argue that A Walk to Remember and The Fault in Our Stars are basically the same story, while others argue that they are not. Both films have their pros and their cons, and they are both similar and different. This essay will compare and contrast The Fault in Our Stars with A Walk to Remember based upon their plots, their settings, and their endings to determine which one is better.

The plots of the stories have both similarities and differences. The Fault in Our Stars, based on the book with the same title by John Green, shows its viewers the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, who has cancer in her lungs. Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a charming and intelligent boy of her age who used to have osteosarcoma, a type of cancer in the bone, which caused him to lose his leg. Hazel feels as though she would only hurt him, and she tells him that she is “a grenade.” What she means by it is that one day she is going to “blow up” and hurt everyone whom she loves, but Augustus does not listen to her. “All your efforts to keep me from you are going to fail,” is what he says in response, and, even though Hazel`s cancer seems to be an obstacle in their way, they cannot help falling in love with each other. In A Walk to Remember, based on a novel with the same title by Nicholas Sparks, the protagonist, Landon Carter, meets Jamie Sullivan, a very reserved girl whose father is the reverend of the church, and he asks her for help because he needs to practice for a play at their school, which he was forced to participate in due to his criminal behavior. Jamie tells him that she will help him on one condition. “You have to promise not to fall in love with me,” she says. Jamie was trying to warn Landon not to fall for her, just like Hazel did with Augustus, but Landon dismisses Jamie`s comment and tells her he would never do that. Unlike Hazel and Augustus, Landon and Jamie did not feel instantly attracted to each other, which is one main difference between the movies. Another difference would be that Landon is healthy, while Hazel is not, which means that Hazel has a battle with her own body, and Landon does not. One similarity, though, would be that both Jamie and Hazel warned Landon and Augustus about falling in love with them, and neither of them listened. Landon ends up falling in love with Jamie, but what Landon does not know is that she has leukemia, and that is why she was trying to keep him away. This also happens in The Fault in Our Stars, where Augustus admits that he still has cancer, and that it has grown stronger. Both films show how unexpected revelations make the protagonists suffer. Hazel and Landon do not know how to react to their lovers` confessions. In the end, both Hazel and Landon decide to work through the obstacles, being brave and never abandoning their partners. Both plots are beautiful and show viewers how love conquers all, even if unexpected events make them lose hope sometimes. In this aspect, it would be a tie, for both stories have beautiful messages, which makes their plot equally marvelous.

The setting for both stories is quite different. The Fault in Our Stars takes place in Indianapolis, but not the normal Indianapolis. Hazel has grown up in “sick” Indianapolis, which is just another way of saying that most of the places that she and Augustus visit are hospitals, support groups, and other places that kids with cancer would normally attend to. A great part of the movie is also set on Amsterdam, which is a bittersweet setting. It is bittersweet because Hazel and Augustus`s love blossoms there, but it is also the place where Augustus confesses that he is still sick. A Walk to Remember, though, only takes place in Beaufort, a small town in North Carolina where the rich people and the poor people are separated by a river, and it is the typical small town where everybody knows everybody else, and all the teenagers attend to the same school. The setting of The Fault in Our Stars is more interesting and less predictable than the setting of A Walk to Remember because there are so many stories that take place in small towns that the setting has become predictable and somehow boring.

Now comes the time for the endings, which were both different and alike at the same time. Both endings bring tears to the viewer`s eyes. In The Fault in Our Stars, Augustus asks Hazel to write a eulogy for him, for he knows that he is about to run out of time. Hazel writes it and reads it aloud in front of Augustus and his best friend, Isaac, who also wrote a eulogy for Augustus. Hazel talks about how thankful she is for the “little infinity” that she and Augustus shared and she thanks him for giving her a “forever within the numbered days” because she knows that her days are also numbered, and she allowed herself to love Augustus, even when she knew how things would end. One week later, Augustus dies, and Hazel receives a letter that he wrote to Peter Van Houten, who is the writer of their favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. In the letter, Augustus asks Van Houten to help him fix a eulogy that he has written for Hazel. Van Houten says that he has nothing to add to it, and he gives it to Hazel, who immediately reads it. The letter is full of the characteristics that made Augustus fall for Hazel, and it ends with the phrase “Okay, Hazel Grace?” to which Hazel responds, “Okay,” marking the final scene of the movie. In A Walk to Remember, Landon and Jamie marry each other because Landon tells Jamie that he wants to take advantage of the little time that they have together. Jamie dies a couple of months later, and Landon visits Jamie`s father years later, and he tells Landon that he was a miracle to Jamie. Landon smiles, and the final scene shows him looking at the horizon, while saying, “our love is like the wind, I can`t see it, but I can feel it.” Both bring tears to the eyes of the viewers, but in The Fault in Our Stars, the male character dies, while in A Walk to Remember it is the girl who dies. A huge similarity would be that both Hazel and Landon come to peace with the fact that their loved ones will not come back, and they both understand that their love for them will not stop, even when they are no longer there. The Fault in Our Stars is a little more touching and sad, though, because Hazel not only has to deal with Augustus`s cancer, but her own cancer as well. The stories have similar endings, but The Fault in Our Stars wins this one, too.

In conclusion, both movies have beautiful plots and messages, but The Fault in Our Stars has a less predictable, therefore more interesting, setting and a more touching ending, making The Fault in Our Stars better than A Walk to Remember.