The Fault in Our Stars

If you are a fan of John Green's The Fault is Our Stars, you are impatiently waiting for the movie. Watch the press conference with the cast and the writer:

Part Two

Anna’s Letter to Alexei Aleksandrovich

Task: Write a monologue for a literary character who did not get the chance to voice his/ her thoughts in the literary piece.



This essay was modeled on Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. For a short summary. click on 'Read More' at the end of the essay.

Anna’s Letter to Alexei Aleksandrovich

By

Anastasija Pop-Arsova

The light of love shined on my book called life; cleared the way to heaven’s gate, but then vanished in the dark. They say love is something worth the struggle and once you find it, it warms up your heart; takes you to the sea of eternal happiness and rest. But once this love really strikes your heart, you can see that it slays in ways you cannot even imagine. Once you find love, it will not leave you alone; you can try escaping from it, but in the end you will be drawn by the sound of its calling. Then you will blindly follow its call until you find yourself tied to a wheel.

I did find love, but I needed to give away love in order to have it. Alexei Aleksandrovich, I am not writing this letter to you to justify my acts and beg for forgiveness once again. I am writing this, hoping that you will understand and leave my son with a picture of the mother I am.

You did not let your son kiss his mother goodbye. I begged you for forgiveness once, looked you in the eyes and lied, just so I can see my dear Sergei. For once someone made me feel as strong as a lioness. He was my little cub and I was his protector, his mother. But what is a lioness if she cannot roar for her cub, what is a mother if she cannot tell a bedtime story? Alexei Aleksandrovich, I took away your pride, but you took away my life. I replaced you with true love and you pushed me into a pit from which I cannot get out. True love, I could not escape, but what you did was in your will and whiteout doubt, it filled the hole I made in your heart. You gave my son an image of a dead mother, so I decided to disappear and leave him with peace in his heart. Regardless of how much I wanted to see him, I left, so my son can live a happy life and his happiness matters to me more than mine.

You, Alexei Aleksandrovich, blamed me because I have fallen for a man that gives me real love while you were leaving me dine alone every second night; you blamed me for choosing a man who follows me in a train from Moscow to St Petersburg while you were cracking your fingers thinking of ways to please your Mother Russia, instead of your wife!

Alexei Vronski loved me like no one ever would. But every story comes to an end sooner or later; too bad mine ended too soon. The more I loved him, the less he loved me and slowly he stopped seeing the heaven beside him.

When we first met, he could not give me peace; he did not know any… now I am the one who cannot give him peace, so he left. Now he would probably get married to that woman, his mother convinced him to.

A boy passed by, he looks a lot like Alexei, I shall tell him when we see each other… but wait, no, no I wont. He is never coming back. He will not be there for me to tell him.

I am telling you my sad story Alexei Aleksandrovich, so I can at least feed your soul now when I have nothing left.

I shall be going now, the train is about to leave. The old man is even closer. I heard his hammer for the last time now… we both know what that means. Why not turn out the light, when there is nothing more to be seen?

Do not forget to kiss my Sergei goodnight.

(Puts the letter in the mailbox and slowly walks in front of the train with a slight smile on her face.)

-       Not a word, not a gesture of yours will I ever forget, or will I?

-       (gets run over by a train and dies)