In John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, one of the memorable sights that affects Hazel Lancaster deeply is seeing Augustus Waters put a cigarette between his lips on their first encounter. This distresses her extremely, as she herself has thyroid cancer; she finds it disgusting that someone would willingly engage in such a self-harming activity such as smoking. Her negative feelings are overturned, however, when Augustus then explains to her that he does not actually light the cigarette—he says, “You put an object of death right between your lips, but you don't give it the power to kill you.” This striking encounter, in fact, is the start of Hazel and Augustus’s intimate relationship.

Another memorable sight that affects Hazel is the view of the Anne Frank house, which so moves her and Augustus that it becomes the site where they share their first kiss—in front of the video installation of Otto Frank. The view itself is especially meaningful because Hazel struggled to make her way up the steep steps of the Anne Frank house, carrying her oxygen tank with her all throughout the climb. Thus, Hazel and Augustus’s first kiss, like all else in their young lives, is marked by struggle and hardship. It seems fitting, then, that two teenagers who confronted unsure and imminent death would share their first kiss in the house of Anne Frank—a precocious young girl whose life was tragically cut short by the Holocaust.

What memorable sights affect Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars?

In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Hazel Grace is a 16-year old girl who has been battling cancer. The book chronicles her life, as she strives to fight her illness and navigate the same problems that teenagers in general face. At support group, she meets Augustus Waters, a 17-year old cancer survivor with whom she forms a strong bond and ultimately a romance.

The author paints some of the scenes with Hazel and Augustus, or Gus, vividly and it is clear that most of the memorable sights that affect Hazel include Gus, not surprisingly. In particular, Hazel is affected by Gus' smiling, blue eyes. When she first meets him, Hazel, as the narrator, says, "I looked over at Augustus Waters, who looked back at me. You could almost see through his eyes they were so blue." When Gus tells her how nice it is to have met her, she responds, "Ditto, Mr. Waters," I said. I felt shy looking at him. I could not match the intensity of his waterblue eyes.

Thanks to Gus, Hazel is given the opportunity to meet her favorite author. Hazel and Gus travel all the way to Amsterdam to see him. When Gus comes to Hazel's house to tell her about their pending trip, she is quite affected by how he looks and the care he takes to make the occasion special. Hazel notes:

Augustus Waters was sitting on the front step as we pulled into the driveway. He was holding a bouquet of bright orange tulips just beginning to bloom, and wearing an Indiana Pacers jersey under his fleece, a wardrobe choice that seemed utterly out of character, although it did look quite good on him. I took my tulips inside.

"Do you want me to put those in a vase?" Mom asked as I walked in, a huge smile on her face.

"No, it’s okay," I told her. If we'd put them in a vase in the living room, they would have been everyone's flowers. I wanted them to be my flowers.

Moreover, Hazel is clearly affected by the beauty of the European city. When Gus and Hazel go to a lovely restaurant for a special dinner, Hazel notes the sunshine, the people, the canal and the general beauty of the city:

The slight chill in the air was balanced magnificently by the sunshine; on one side of us, cyclists pedaled past— well-dressed men and women on their way home from work, improbably attractive blond girls riding sidesaddle on the back of a friend's bike, tiny helmet-less kids bouncing around in plastic seats behind their parents.

And on our other side, the canal water was choked with millions of the confetti seeds. Little boats were moored at the brick banks, half full of rainwater, some of them near sinking. A bit farther down the canal, I could see houseboats floating on pontoons, and in the middle of the canal, an open-air, flat- bottomed boat decked out with lawn chairs and a portable stereo idled toward us. Augustus took his flute of champagne and raised it.

Later on that same evening, making an observation about Amsterdam and its residents, Hazel tells Gus, "People always get used to beauty, though." It seems clear from this that both Hazel and Gus are struck by the beauty of the city and of the moment.