In the moment he loses his strength and control, Green tears away the image of a hero, and shows us the terribly sick truth of serious illness. Augustus no longer is able to be a superhuman, he can't even provide for his own life, let alone inspire ours, his dignity is stripped and as readers we can understand how sucky seriously ill people are. .
Swing sets are used primarily by children, for entertainment and fun, they symbolise childishness and happiness. Hazel has one and used it as a child before she was "diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer when I was thirteen." After being diagnosed and sick, her lungs wouldn't have been able to allow her to swing anymore. As readers, Green shows Hazels devastating reality of her illness, as she was no longer the happy healthy child that used to swing, instead, her illness completely took her swing set from her, as symbolism, also her childhood. The swing set is no happy object; her illness makes the swing set a representation of the past Hazel used to have, when she was healthy and perfectly normal. Green directly demonstrates his purpose through this, showing how Hazels life has changed so dramatically through her thyroid cancer, how the symbolism of the swing set, which causes her pain, relates to her childhood and happiness in general, how destructive and not 'inspiring' her struggle with cancer is. The swing set is not something Hazel can deal with heroically, showing us how amazing she is as a 'terminally ill teenager' as compared to us 'strength less healthy humans', but shows how depressing life can be with the "swing set of tears", and how utterly ugly terminal illness is. .
An Imperial Affliction is not only Haze's favourite novel, but it is a symbol of her own life. Like Anna, the main character of An Imperial Affliction, Hazel is terminally ill, and as Hazel says, "it's not a cancer book, because cancer books suck.
