<p>Please can you readers grade my essay on a scale of 1-6. All critiques are most welcome. Please do, if it is not much trouble, point out the grammatical errors. I in advance abundantly thank all those who sacrifice those precious minutes of theirs to read his rather long essay.</p>
<p>Prompt
In his poem ―In Memoriam, romantic poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson expresses his view that loss is an unavoidable consequence of love. Yet, rather than shunning love because of this, Tennyson resolves to accept both the experience of love and the pain that inevitably comes with it. As he writes in his often quoted passage, ―Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.</p>
<p>Assignment
Are people unwise to pursue love even when they know it will cause them pain?
Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Essay
Love in a man’s life is indispensable. To exclaim this in the words of Max Muller: just how a flower cannot blossom without sunshine, a man cannot live without love. However distressing love’s consequences and imminent conclusion may be, to have loved, suffered and endured is to have lived life to its truest and fullest sense. A life without love is like a flower without petals, a perfume without fragrance, a rainbow without colors. So when Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson writes – Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, he is correct. This assertion has best been validated in popular literature, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ being a good example.</p>
<p>Writer John Green’s global phenomenon ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ follows the poignant story of a young teenage girl named Hazel Grace who has been diagnosed with terminal Stage IV thyroid cancer which has spread to hers lungs. She lives a near-hopeless life idling away her hours waiting to die. But her forlorn life is about to change when one day, while reluctantly attending a support group to appease her much-loved parents, she meets Augustus Walters, a charming and confident teenage boy who is in remission from a rare form of osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, after a leg amputation. There is a spark between them and they instantly fall in love with each other. </p>
<p>Augustus arranges for a Dutch themed picnic where he announces his plans to take Hazel to Amsterdam where she could meet her dearly esteemed author of The Imperial Affliction, a book which recounts the story of a teenager girl battling cancer, a story cherished by Hazel. She is thrilled about going to Amsterdam but when Augustus touches her face to kiss her she, for some reason, feels reluctant. She then realizes that felt hesitant because she loves him so much that she is afraid she will hurt him when she dies. She compares herself to a grenade. But it is at his time hazel suffers from a fatal episode where her lungs get filled with fluid and she is rushed to the hospital. Augustus is deeply concerned for hazel and though he is agonized to see Hazel in such a hapless state, he stays by her side at the ICU. Hazel in an attempt to not distress Augustus courageously endures the episode. After an affecting recovery Hazel somehow manages to get her parents and doctors to acquiesce in her visit to Amsterdam. On their assent Augustus and Hazel embark on a romantic and carefree journey to visit Hazel’s all-time-favorite writer at Amsterdam where they, for the first time, make love. </p>
<p>But their bliss and happiness is only momentary when, after the trip, Augustus announces that while Hazel was in the ICU he, having experienced some bodily pains, had gotten a body scan which revealed that his cancer had returned and only this time it was not restricted to a limb but had spread everywhere making him terminal. He also tells her that he had suspended this information on ice because he wanted her to fully enjoy their first and, regrettably, the last trip together. Augustus becomes vulnerable, insecure and scared but in Hazel’s eyes he is still the gorgeous Augustus she had first met in the support group. As his condition quickly deteriorates Hazel realizes that she loves him more than ever before. She tells Augustus how much she loves him, and that she would not barter their short time together for anything in the world. Augustus dies shortly after. </p>
<p>The novel concludes with Hazel reading a tribute Augustus had written for her. He says that getting hurt in this world is inevitable, but we do get to choose who we allow to hurt us, and that he is happy with his choice. He hopes she likes her choice too. The final words of the novel come from Hazel, who says she does.</p>
<p>Therefore, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ tells us that loving someone, whatever its consequences may be, is after all not unwise. Hadn’t Hazel fallen in love she would have just lived a bleak life waiting to die. She would have simply given up on fighting the fatal episode. Augustus would have never enjoyed a trip to Amsterdam before he passed away. So, it is indeed better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. I would like to conclude by quoting Leo Buscalgia, “Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.”</p>
<p>Again, thanks a lot for your help guys. GBY guys.</p>
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