A Shout-Out to Oblivion!
the fear of being forgotten.
Augustus Waters in "The Fault in Our Stars" states his biggest life fear- the fear of oblivion. He was scared of being forgotten. How much are we afraid of being forgotten?
All our deeds, hard work, and triumphs are what else for if not to be remembered by people. A mere peeping into the future where we no longer exist in the memory of someone is haunting. I like how John Green dived deep into our core and brought out our covert fear. The fear that has always been there, but we never realised it. We never thought about it. Until one day a character named Augustus Waters made us feel it.
Even though we never named it, we continue to chase it. We live with the fear and the desperate quest to overcome it. The name plates outside homes, the designations before and after our names, and even our names are nothing but human efforts to leave imprints. Or the fear cocooning deep in our soul that if we don’t mention it, we will be forgotten. Our today, tomorrow, and yesterday were probably spent running away from this fear. Maybe the hurt that comes after love is birthed from the very need of humans to be remembered. The human's obsession for forever is nothing but his continuous chase to escape the misery of evaporating into oblivion.
And then there is Hazel Grace accepting the inevitability of oblivion. Everything before us existed. Everything after us will exist. We are nothing but Stardust and to dust we shall return. The Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Potassium, Calcium, Sodium etc decided to do their thing and there we were. Here we are, still trying to get them balanced which we artistically call living. We are the results, not the beginnings. Or the beginnings of a new result but the end is inevitable.
It’s okay to get lost in the memory lanes. To merge with the non-existent. It’s okay not to be remembered. Nothing stays forever. Perhaps forever is just a memory that keeps coming back.
Think about it!
Aakanksha