Augustus's Illness (Dramatic Irony)
The irony of Augustus's sudden illness and decline over the second half of the book is clear and heart wrenching. Hazel thought until late on their Amsterdam trip that her illness was the reason they shouldn't be together, fearing that she, a "grenade," could die and hurt him. In the end, he's the one who is ill and dies, leaving her behind and hurting; but she realizes that she would have had it no other way, just as her parents promise they feel about her. Augustus was right about the inevitability of their being together, but was not able to be the one strong by her side like he would have chosen. In the end, though Hazel fears paralleling his prior girlfriend, he parallels her, fighting against his illness and against himself.
Isaac and Monica (Dramatic Irony)
A comical, and soon tragic, example of irony is shown in the early scene of Isaac and Monica making out aggressively against the church in which the support group is held. On one hand, there is an ironic intermingling of the minor theme of religion with a major theme of the passion of both young love, going hand in hand with Hazel's ironic tone toward the support group and hackneyed sayings of its leader and of Gus's parents. However, the tragedy of their relationship comes in with the irony of Isaac and Monica's word "always" which soon is shown to be clearly false when Monica breaks up with Isaac and refuses to visit him, unable to cope with his illness.
Post-Death Facebook Posts (Dramatic Irony)
There is ample irony in the Facebook posts that Hazel finds on Caroline's wall, affecting her deeply. Firstly, though people attempt to build up Caroline's life through talking about her strength and bravery in her final fight against cancer, Hazel understands that this makes it seem like the only things she ever was or did were about cancer rather than about her life or anything else. Secondly, because the posts can't reach the person and the people posting were often people who hadn't come to see her or been able to relate to her once she was diagnosed, especially because of what her brain tumors did to her personality, the posts are obviously for some kind of personal gain or comfort. These ironies, not recognized by the people posting, cause Hazel to despair about her own life and death, especially the way people will remember her.
Hazel's Mother's Shower Panic (Dramatic Irony)
A short burst of dramatic irony allows Green to momentarily focus on the life of parents of children with cancer in the scene in which Hazel receives a letter from Peter von Houten's secretary about their upcoming trip and Hazel's mother leaps wet and panicked from the shower upon Hazel's yell. Because we know that Hazel is safe and even happy, we see an even more stark contrast to Hazel's mother's fearful expectation, revealing that she constantly must be vigilant for the worst.
