Portable Oxygen Tank

The Portable Oxygen Tank is a constant, life-sustaining companion for Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old with terminal thyroid cancer that has metastasized to her lungs. More than a medical device, the tank becomes a visible marker of her illness, a source of both physical relief and social stigma, and a central object in her relationship with Augustus Waters, who learns to see it not as a barrier but as part of her.

Physical Description and Daily Function

The tank is a cylindrical green container that weighs only a few pounds, mounted on a small steel cart that Hazel wheels behind her. It delivers two liters of oxygen per minute through a cannula—a transparent tube that splits beneath her neck, wraps behind her ears, and ends in two small nubbins that sit in her nostrils. This apparatus is necessary because her lungs, riddled with tumors, "sucked at being lungs." At night, she is connected to a larger rectangular concentrator she calls Philip, but during the day the portable tank allows her to move around, albeit with the constant awareness of its presence. The tank requires regular changes; her mother sets it for 2.5 liters per minute, giving Hazel about six hours before a new tank is needed.

Social and Emotional Weight

The tank is the most visible evidence of Hazel's disease, separating her from healthy people. She feels the stares of strangers in airports and at Support Group, and she is acutely aware that the cannula marks her as "other." When she walks through the airport security line without it for a few seconds, she experiences a fleeting sense of bodily sovereignty, but the relief is short-lived as her lungs immediately begin to fail. The tank also becomes a source of awkwardness in her relationship with Augustus. When they first meet, she is conscious of the cannula tickling her nostrils, and later, when they kiss, the tube gets tangled, forcing them to pause and laugh. Yet Augustus never treats the tank as a deterrent; he carries it for her, helps her with it, and even jokes about it, saying her oxygen tank "took her breath away."

A Symbol of Life and Limitation

The tank is both a lifeline and a reminder of Hazel's mortality. It enables her to travel to Amsterdam, to attend Support Group, to visit Augustus, and to live a semblance of a normal life. But it also tethers her, making stairs exhausting and spontaneous activity difficult. When she is in the ICU, the tank is replaced by more intensive machines, but the portable tank is always there when she returns home. In the end, the tank is not just a medical device; it is a part of Hazel's identity, a constant negotiation between the desire to live and the reality of dying. Augustus's acceptance of it—his willingness to carry it, to joke about it, to kiss her despite it—becomes a measure of his love, and Hazel's own acceptance of it is a measure of her resilience.