"...preternaturally huge, like his whole head was basically just his fake eye and this real eye staring at you" (Simile) (p.6)
Like Hazel's oxygen tank drawing stares at the airport, corrections for people's illnesses often draw even more attention to them. This is further physicalized in Isaac's glasses which, compensating for his failing eyesight, draw even more attention to his fake eye (and real eye) as if it encompasses his whole being.
"I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up" (Metaphor) (p.11)
Augustus stays chipper about his diagnosis, both when he seems to be cancer free and when he relapses, by repeating this metaphorical phrase. Rather than seeing his life as a downward spiral, he somewhat sarcastically creates imagery of his life going up and up.
"...the tears not like tears so much as a quiet metronome - steady, endless" (Simile) (p.60)
Green makes an effort to include deep imagery of sadness throughout the book and through the feelings and actions of different characters. Hazel watches Isaac cope with his girlfriend's dumping him just before his eye operation - she watches him calmly but this foreshadows her own feelings and coping with Augustus's death.
"My hair looked like a bird's nest; my shuffling gait like a dementia patient's" (Simile) (p.108)
Hazel makes two comparisons here: one with a bird's nest, which is a common comparison but a very different image than hair; and one to a dementia patient, which, as a chronic illness, hits her very close to home. The contrast between these two images creates a tone of youthful and somehow aged sadness.
"The sun was a toddler insistently refusing to go to bed: It was past eight thirty and still light" (Metaphor) (p.167)
This metaphor is a good example of the youthful, intelligent voice Green writes for Hazel. She is someone who notices things, experiences things, and appreciates things. It further serves to emphasize how young she is, though in the moment she notices this (at a fancy dinner with Augustus in Amsterdam) she is allowed to act more adult than perhaps ever in her life.
