PAPER TOWNS SYMBOLISM,

IMAGERY, ALLEGORY

STRINGS AND BALLOONS

Cut the Cord
In the prologue, a nine-year-old Margo Roth Spiegelman wonders why the man she
found in the park killed himself. "Maybe all the strings inside him broke" (Prologue.32),
she says, because nine-year-olds love speaking in metaphor.
She brings up strings again later, saying that "Every paper girl needs at least one string,
right?" (1.6.35). When she does, she's talking about her friends—people she doesn't
really like—and how they were pretty much the only thing they had left.
Quentin wonders about all the string talk, and thinks it might be Margo's suicidal
tendencies talking. If all her strings break, is she going to kill herself? Quentin doesn't
want that, so he tries to find her and be the string that she can follow back home.
Strings, then, stand for connections, whether they're wanted or not.

Follow the Wind

All the string imagery ties into Detective Warren's assessment of Margo Roth
Spiegelman as a balloon. (No, Margo Roth Spiegelman, this isn't a comment on your
weight—put your spray paint away.) He calls her a "free spirit" (2.3.41), noting that "that
string gets cut all the time" (2.3.41) in reference to her repeated disappearances.
Margo, then, cuts her own string. And without strings, balloons just float away, which is
exactly what Margo does. And she doesn't want to come back. You go be you, Margo.
 PSEUDOVISIONS
Return to Sender
When Quentin is searching for Margo Roth Spiegelman, he thinks that she is leading
him to one of the many pseudovisions that are more numerous in Florida than
sinkholes. These pseudovisions are similar to the paper towns, "subdivision[s]
abandoned before [they] could be completed" (2.8.21). In other words, they're places
that aren't really places.
However, it turns out that these are the wrong sort of paper towns. The pseudovisions
are a red herring, a clue that isn't really a clue. Margo isn't leading Quentin to them on
purpose—but maybe she would if she recognized that she is a pseudovision, too.
Her paper girl speech (see "What's Up with the Ending?") that likens herself to a two-
dimensional paper girl makes her seem like a pseudovision, too. She abandons her
home before she can be completed, creates a sense of herself for others that isn't really
there beneath her surface.
The difference between the pseudovisions and Margo Roth Spiegelman is that Margo
Roth Spiegelman wants to be completed. If she stayed in Florida, she, like the
pseudovisions, would never be completed. Florida is where things go to die, not to live,
and Margo Roth Spiegelman isn't about to let that happen to herself, so off she goes.

MAPS
She Misses the Taste of a Sweeter Life
If Quentin knows anything about Margo Roth Spiegelman, it's that she's an obsessive
planner. And if someone is planning a trip, what do they do? Well, most people would
just plug their destination into Google Maps, but Margo wants to go to a place that isn't
actually on the map, so she needs an actual paper map.
When Quentin finds Margo Roth Spiegelman's map in the mini-mall (the Margo Roth
Spiegelmap), he's able to trace her path. But since Margo isn't actually leaving Quentin
any clues, this, too, is a red herring.
However, it's a map that ultimately leads Quentin to her. Well, a mapmaking technique,
to be exact. When he finally finds out what a paper town really means (a fake town a
cartographer plots to protect his maps from plagiarism), he pinpoints exactly where
Margo is: a town that's not on any map. And really, when you think about it, Margo Roth
Spiegelman was never on the map to begin with. She's been playing a part all along,
keeping her real self someplace no one can find her.
 THE MINIVAN
House on Wheels
Seven hours into the road trip, Quentin says "the minivan has become a kind of very
small house" (3.7.2). There's a den, an office, a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms,
and, sadly, no bathrooms. It's like your average apartment in Bushwick, but larger.
Maybe it's sleep deprivation, or maybe Quentin is thinking about how you can really
make a home anywhere. After all, that's what Margo Roth Spiegelman is trying to do
because she doesn't call her parents' house or her hometown her home. The difference
between Quentin and Margo, however, is that Margo is trying to do it all alone, while
Quentin gets by with a little help from his friends. As he says, "You can't beat the open
floor plan" (3.7.9). He's enjoying their time together, and that's what home means to
him.

ANALYSIS: SETTING
Where It All Goes Down

Jefferson Park, Florida

Anytown, USA
Jefferson Park is "a massive subdivision, because that's what Florida does with land"
(Prologue.2). There doesn't seem to be anything remarkable about it at all. When
Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman find a dead man, Margo wonders "Maybe it was
drugs" (Prologue.18), because when a Florida man ends up dead, it's usually drugs.
This town could basically be any suburb. What matters is how the characters feel about
it. Quentin doesn't mind suburban life, but Margo hates it—she considers it a paper
town (check out "What's Up with the Title?") and decides to leave.

Copyright Trap
Margo flees Jefferson Park to Agloe, New York. Don't try typing it into Google Maps,
though, because it won't pop up. Agloe is "a fictitious village created by the Esso
company in the early 1930s and inserted into tourist maps as a copyright trap, or paper
town" (2.20.40). Cool trick. And since Margo seems to be unhappy wherever she goes,
she goes somewhere that doesn't exist. We guess that way she can't be unhappy with
it?
When Quentin tracks her down, she still can't believe that he'd want to go back to
Jefferson Park. He agrees that the people are kind of weak there, but the place is fine.
She counters, "The people are the place is the people" (3.22.88). Deep stuff.
Do you believe that? And if so, does that make Margo a paper town, too? Is she a
copyright trap? A construct to trick people? And if Margo Roth Spiegelman settles down
in a paper town, does that mean she doesn't exist either? It's like trying to figure out the
sound of one hand clapping.

ANALYSIS: NARRATOR POINT

OF VIEW
First Person Narration
Green chose Quentin as a narrator for a very specific reason: He "wanted the reader to
be conscious that s/he is only seeing Margo through Q's eyes, and that Q—at least for
much of the novel—knows absolutely nothing about the girl he says he loves" (source).
Since this is a mystery, and Margo Roth Spiegelman is the mystery, this puts us in a
position to learn about Margo, to try to, in essence, "solve" the mystery right alongside
Quentin. What does Quentin end up learning about Margo Roth Spiegelman? And does
he still love her after he finds these things out? How would the story have been different
if it were told from Margo's point of view?

ANALYSIS: GENRE
Mystery; Young Adult Literature
Since Paper Towns received an award from the Mystery Writers of America (the Edgar
Allan Poe award, no less), then it must be a mystery—mystery writers know a mystery
when they see one. So what makes Paper Towns a mystery? We define mystery as
fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets. While there's no
crime here (except the fashion crime of Confederate Flag shirts), the book is about
unraveling Margo Roth Spiegelman's secrets. (More like Margo Roth Secretman. Well,
no, she's not secretly a man. Ahem. Anyway…)
Quentin plays Sherlock Holmes and tries to follow the trail of clues Margo Roth
Spiegelman has left… even when she swears she hasn't been leaving any clues at all.
Hmm, maybe mystery writers make mysteries where there aren't any? In the end, it's
elementary, our dear Margo Roth Spiegelman, and Quentin cracks the case—and
Margo's formerly impenetrable façade.
As for this being young adult lit, it's about young adults, it's written for young adults, and
it deals with young adult problems like prom, the girl next door, and what to name your
minivan.

ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH

THE TITLE?
Flat Quentin
Margo Roth Spiegelman calls Orlando (and most of Florida) a paper town early in the
book. When she and Quentin look out over the city from the top of the SunTrust
Building, Margo Roth Spiegelman makes her disdain known:
You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a
paper town. […] All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future
to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper
convenience store. (1.6.34)
This is where we chime in and say, takes one to know one, because Margo is just as
fake as the rest of them. And she comes to realize this, too, at the end. She says that
she thought Quentin was flat—"two dimensions as a character on the page and two
different, but still flat, dimensions as a person" (3.22.93)—but then she realizes, "I was
made of paper. I was the flimsy-foldable person, not everyone else" (3.22.96). It's a light
bulb moment for sure.
What does she mean by this? Perhaps she means that Quentin knows who he is. He's
happy in his small town, focusing on school and thinking about college. But Margo Roth
Spiegelman is so desperate to be liked that she tries to be friends with everyone, goes
on adventures to make herself seem interesting, and really has no idea what she wants.
She's folding herself over and over again to fit into so many different situations, and
she's getting tired of it. She has to find out who she is and become a little more solid.

ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH

THE EPIGRAPH?
Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great main dish of a story. They
illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right
direction.
And after, when
We went outside to look at her finished lantern
from the road, I said I liked the way her light
shone through the face that flickered in the dark.
—"Jack O'Lantern," Katrina Vandenberg in Atlas
People say friends don't destroy one another
What do they know about friends?
—"Game Shows Touch Our Lives," The Mountain Goats
We have two epigraphs serving as a road sign welcoming us to Paper Towns
(population: ?).
The first is from the end of a poem in Katrina Vandenberg's collection, Atlas. In the
poem, it seems that two people have carved pumpkins and are admiring their handiwork
from the road. In Paper Towns, there are no pumpkins—it isn't even Halloween.
However, we have the image of a face flickering in the dark, which happens twice
in Paper Towns. In the prologue, Margo Roth Spiegelman looks at Quentin through his
window, and the novel's last line says how Quentin "can see [Margo] almost perfectly in
this cracked darkness" (3.22.178).
So, is Margo Roth Spiegelman a pumpkin (a Margo Jack o'Spiegelman)? She is kind of
a man-made construct. No one really knows who she is, and her identity, even to
herself, is composed of what other people think of her. So maybe the epigraph is about
seeing through this and glimpsing her inner light.
The second epigraph is from a song by Quentin's (and John Green's) favorite band, the
Mountain Goats (whose lead singer's novel was nominated for the National Book Award
in 2014). Quentin and pals listen to the Mountain Goats (maybe even this very song) in
Part 2, Chapter 8, on their first early-morning trip to Margo Roth Spiegelman's mini-mall
(the Margo Roth Spiegelmall, home of the Margo Roth Spiegelmall holiday catalog).
The quote in the epigraph is misleading, though. Quentin and his friends never destroy
each other, and they only get into, like, one fight that lasts about six paragraphs. Margo
Roth Spiegelman, however, tries to destroy people, but you could argue that she never
had any friends to begin with, since she's hollow inside like a carved pumpkin. Perhaps
what gets destroyed is her ability to live beneath a façade—perhaps, somehow, her
friends (or lack thereof) force her to quit being fake and invest in being real.
So we have two epigraphs only loosely related to the actual content of the book.
Basically, they're both epigraphs by people John Green admires, and he wants you to
read and listen to them, too. So get on it.
 ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH
THE ENDING?
Looking for…
Quentin spends most of the novel looking for Alaska… oops, we mean looking for
Margo Roth Spiegelman. He finds her… but she says she doesn't want to be found.
Well that's a letdown. When he asks her to come home with him, she says no. But he at
least gets to make out with her in a parking lot before they part ways. After they kiss,
Quentin gives us the last line of the novel:
Yes, I can see her almost perfectly in this cracked darkness. (3.22.178)
His staring at her reminds us of when they stared at each other in the darkness when
they were kids. And the last line makes us recall another line from earlier in the book:
Quentin says, "Margo's beauty was a kind of sealed vessel of perfection—uncracked
and uncrackable" (1.5.37). But by the end of the novel, he sees that she isn't perfect.
She isn't uncracked and uncrackable, she's in the "cracked darkness" (3.22.178). She
might even be the cracked darkness.
But this doesn't scare Quentin away. He seems to accept her for who she really is,
instead of trying to make her into something she's not. So while they may be parting
ways, Quentin also might finally be her first true friend.

ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER
(3) Base Camp
Reading Paper Towns is easier than planning a cross-country road trip. But throw out
your GPS, because this is a book for those who like to go about road trips the old-
fashioned way. You have the destination in mind (Quentin is looking for Margo Roth
Spiegelman), but if you're open to some surprises along the way, you're going to find
the journey much more rewarding than if you just cruise by on autopilot.

PAPER TOWNS THEMES

 PAPER TOWNS THEME OF
IDENTITY
If you ever played with paper dolls (or your paper doll app) you know how easy it is to
change a person's identity. Sometimes it's as easy as just changing an outfit. And things
get really wild if you have your Pope John Paul II paper doll clothes to trade with
your Nancy Reagan paper doll…
But who are these people without their paper clothes? That's a hard question to answer.
In Paper Towns, Margo Roth Spiegelman refers to people she finds flat and boring as
paper boys or paper girls. But when she realizes that she's a paper girl, too, she tries to
find a way to give herself a third dimension.

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

DISSATISFACTION
After you've finished Paper Towns, and read everything here about Paper Towns, and
clicked on all the links speculating about Paper Towns, and written your own Paper
Towns fanfic, you might be bored. A little dissatisfied with life, a life that isn't the same
without Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Now you know how Quentin feels after Margo leaves town. So what's a boy or girl or
abandoned pet to do? You could obsess over Margo Roth Spiegelman. Who is she?
Where is she? Why is she? Or you could, we don't know, do something. Organize a
road trip, even if it's just to find out where Margo went. You might have quite the
adventure along the way

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

FRIENDSHIP
Just how many people on your Facebook friends list (whether you have two or two
thousand) would you actually consider your friends? Even though they're not on der
Facebük, in Paper Towns, Quentin and Margo fall into one of these two extremes.
Quentin has only two friends—Ben and Radar—while Margo seems to be friends
with everyone.
However, it's Margo Roth Spiegelman who feels more alone. Maybe it's because people
get tired of saying "Margo Roth Spiegelman" so much, or maybe it's because by trying
to be friends with everyone, she isn't truly friends with anyone.

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

EXPLORATION
On the road again… Margo Roth Spiegelman just can't wait to get on the road again.
Just like in Willie Nelson's hit song, in Paper Towns, Margo loves being on the road. So
much so, that she plans a trip to a town that doesn't even exist.
However, for Margo Roth Spiegelman, her road trip's main goal is just to get the heck
outta Dodge (Dodge, in this case, being Jefferson Park, Florida). Quentin, on the other
hand, is the one who is making music—okay, not really, but he is having fun—with his
friends. So he might be the one who truly has Willie Nelson's adventurous spirit. (Now
we just need to find out exactly what is in those nutrition bars Quentin loves so much…)

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

LITERATURE AND WRITING
There are a few things you'll always remember from high school, like your prom and
your graduation, but all the books you read in high school will stick with you for a
lifetime, too. And that's a good thing, since Quentin in Paper Towns skips both
prom and graduation, so the books might be the only high school memories he has.
Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" captures Quentin's imagination, so much so that he
takes it on a road trip in addition to Mark Twain, Ovid, and Melville. He finds things in
the poem that change his perception of the world, a shift that coincides nicely with his
graduation from high school, a.k.a. the official end of his childhood.

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

PERSEVERANCE
In Paper Towns, Margo Roth Spiegelman has tons of albums, meticulously arranged in
alphabetical order. We have to wonder if she pulls out Fiona Apple's "Better Version of Me" to
jam to now and then. It's a song about a "frightened, fickle person, fighting, cryin', kickin',
cursin'," which sounds a lot like ol' Margo Roth Spiegelman. The person in the song just keeps
traveling on and on because she knows her travels and her experiences will make her a better
person, and she's not going to stop until there is a better version of her. Yep, sounds a lot like
Margo Roth Spiegelman's rambling journey to us.

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF THE

HOME
Usually it's pretty easy to find your home when you're a teenager: It's the same place your
parents live, and chances are decent you've lived there all your life. But when Margo Roth
Spiegelman asks Siri to give her directions home, her smartphone is stumped. Why? Well,
in Paper Towns, Margo doesn't feel at home at home. Her parents aren't the nicest people, and
Margo just wants to get away—far, far away—and make a home of her own somewhere else.

PAPER TOWNS THEME OF

ADMIRATION
People have a tendency to put celebrities up on a pedestal, and when they do, two
things usually happen: The newly anointed god or goddess is treated as though they
aren't human, and some people can't wait to knock their butts down.
In Paper Towns, Margo Roth Spiegelman isn't quite a celebrity, but everyone in school
treats her as though she's a goddess among us. Margo is of two minds about this: She
clearly likes the attention, because she keeps doing things (like running away with the
circus) to keep the attention coming, but she also isn't able to make normal connections
with the masses. This makes her not just out of touch with other people, but out of touch
with herself.

QUENTIN JACOBSON
Character Analysis

The Normal Heart

Quentin Jacobson is our narrator and protagonist. He's not your average young-adult
hero, though. He has two parents who are both professional and employed; he's a good
student about to graduate high school; and he lives a relatively uneventful, dare we
say normal, life. Nothing tortured about this kid. But one thing complicates this picture:
He's obsessed with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, and she is
decidedly notnormal.
At the beginning of the novel, Quentin is a nine-year-old who finds a dead body with
Margo. Quentin is scared of it, backing away, but Margo approaches it. This is a good
example of both of their personalities, and importantly, Quentin is fine running away and
going home.

Nine years later, Margo Roth Spiegelman takes Quentin on a wild night of vandalism,
revenge, and breaking and entering. Quentin is anxious, and he focuses on breathing
techniques probably taught to him by his therapist parents to manage his anxiety. But
once he calms down, he's able to enjoy the adventure.
So when Margo disappears the next day, Quentin decides to step outside his comfort
zone again, this time to try to find her.

Let's Get (Hypo)critical

Quentin says he's okay with being normal, but if this were true, would he chase Margo
Roth Spiegelman across the country? We think not. Thing is, Quentin often does the
opposite of what he says, making him seem hypocritical at times. He says, "It's not just
that I don't like prom. I also don't like people who like prom" (1.1.5)… but you know he'd
go to prom with Margo Roth Spiegelman if she asked him. He even says, "I harbored
ridiculous prom fantasies. But at least I didn't say mine out loud" (2.7.21). Psst…
Quentin… It's okay to want to go to prom.
When he gets a nude picture of Jase, he says, "it wasn't [Jase's] fault he had a
micropenis" (1.4.49)—yet he has absolutely no problem making fun of him for it.
Sometimes Quentin even manages to squish his hypocrisy into one sentence: "I wasn't
really pissed about [Chuck] anymore, or about everything else he'd done to me over the
years. But I certainly wasn't going to lament his suffering" (1.7.17). Not "pissed," but
totally down to enjoy "his suffering" anyway. Hmm…
Early on, Quentin thinks, "I thought maybe if I could be confident, something might
happen between us" (1.6.37)—"us" being him and Margo Roth Spiegelman, and
"something" probably not being baking cookies together.
But when Margo calls him out on this, saying "you came here because you wanted to
save poor little Margo from her troubled little self, so that I would be oh-so-thankful to
my knight in shining armor that I would strip my clothes off and beg you to ravage my
body" (3.22.43), he says that's "bullshit" (3.22.44). Maybe his opinion of her has
changed by this point, but since he's kissing her about four pages later, it doesn't seem
like it.
Perhaps he's just selfish, and who isn't at that age? He says at one point that "nothing is
as boring as other people's dreams" (2.1.7), proving that he'll never have a job as a
motivational speaker. At his worst, Quentin laments the fact that some boys get to have
sex with hot chicks like Margo Roth Spiegelman and Becca Arrington, but "perfectly
likeable individuals" (1.4.25) such as himself, don't get any. So sad. Then he goes on to
call Becca a "raging bitch" (1.4.25). Such a Nice Guy. Our point, then, is that Quentin
might get in his own way a bit when it comes to romance.

Leaves of Grass
All that aside, Quentin experiences a lot of growth during the course of the novel. He
realizes that Margo Roth Spiegelman is kind of a white whale(don't call her Moby),
something he's chasing after that he doesn't really understand. "I barely even know her"
(1.1.37), he says at one point.
But he doesn't give up. On one hand he's worried that Margo is dead, or is going to kill
herself, which adds urgency to the hunt. But on the other hand, Quentin wants to find
her so that he can actually get to know her. He regrets making her into a mythical
creature, putting her high up on an untouchable pedestal, and he wants to get to know
her for who she really is.
He perseveres (more on this in the "Themes" section) through all the clues Margo
leaves behind and eventually tracks her down. In order to find her, he has to skip his
high school graduation, and he does so readily.
Throughout the book, we see Quentin studying hard, getting good grades, and being
concerned about college, yet skips his high school graduation to find a girl. Why does
he do this? Well, it's similar to what he discovers when he sets off on a road trip to find
Margo Roth Spiegelman. He says, "I can almost imagine a happiness without her, the
ability to let her go, to feel our roots are connected even if I never see that leaf again"
(3.15.2). Perhaps he realizes that the destination isn't what's important, it's the trip that
really matters.

MARGO ROTH SPIEGELMAN

Character Analysis

The Cool Girl

Margo Roth Spiegelman is the girl who "loved mysteries so much that she became one
" (Prologue.35), and while in school, she seems intent to be the manic pixie dream
girliest of them all.
She runs away from home occasionally to allegedly learn to play guitar in Mississippi, or
spend three days traveling with the circus because "they thought she had potential on
the trapeze" (1.1.21). (This is highly unlikely because actual circus performers
are trained professionals, not just runaways who are "all curves and soft edges"
(1.4.86).) She snuck her way backstage at a concert, had some underage drinks, and
then "rejected the bassist" (1.1.21), making her both edgy and virginal, every antisocial
nerd's dream. Margo Roth Spiegelman is basically the "cool girl" that Amy Dunnehates
so much.

Margo is often cool and aloof. "She never acted as if she liked anyone all that much"
(1.1.35), and she refers to her "friends" as her "various and sundry minions" (1.2.41).
Not a social circle we'd want to be in. She's also self-absorbed, illustrated by the fact
that "she never really asked [Quentin] any questions" (1.3.1); she only talks about
herself.
She's "the most horribly self-centered person in the history of the world" (3.22.59) (her
words, not ours) and destructive. When she learns her boyfriend is cheating on her, she
vandalizes his car and property, along with that of pretty much everyone connected to
him, which is going to hurt these kids' parents (who have to pay for this stuff) more than
the kids themselves. But Margo Roth Spiegelman, despite her obsessive, planning
nature, is unable to see past her own anger.

She's a Paper Girl in a Paper World

We're not sure why Quentin likes Margo Roth Spiegelman since she drags him around
and kind of treats him like poop. She's way more fun than he is, though, which probably
explains why he latches onto her—he's getting good grades, and she's mischief.
The she disappears, cementing her status as a teenage gone girl. We can understand
why she'd leave: No one at school really understands her (her fault) and her parents
aren't the warmest or most welcoming people in Florida (not her fault).
Quentin thinks Margo Roth Spiegelman is leaving clues so he can find her, but that's
because he's still picturing her as some sort of super-human goddess instead of what
she really is: a teenage girl. Quentin realizes during his quest to find her  that Margo is
"Someone who—because no one thought she was a person—had no one to really talk
to" (2.15.21). Bummer.
It turns out she doesn't want to be found, but it's a good thing Quentin does, because
they're able to finally define themselves instead of letting others define them. Margo
speaks to how important this is, saying, "I can't be you. You can't be me. You can
imagine another well—but never quite perfectly, you know?" (3.22.155). Truth, yo.
The problem is that Margo Roth Spiegelman has been doing this to a fault: manipulating
people into thinking she's more amazing than she really is. She blames others for
thinking she's superhuman, but she's the one who started it—she even admits it,
saying, "People love the idea of a paper girl. They always have. And the worst thing is
that I loved it, too. I cultivated it, you know?" (3.22.96). If no one knows Margo, then,
this is ultimately her creation.
So what's Margo Roth Spiegelman going to do about it? It seems that she's doing a lot
of introspection instead of trying to be a perpetual extrovert. She has started reading a
lot, and even quotes Emily Dickinson. Quentin tries to get her to return home to Florida
with him, but she refuses. She's at least learned one thing about herself while she's
been gone: She has to find a home where she belongs, and where she can be herself.

BEN STARLING
Character Analysis

A Starling is Born
Ben Starling, self-proclaimed owner of the "World's Largest Balls" (2.16.14), is an "olive-
skinned creature" (1.9.9), which is the way a white author describes a racially
ambiguous character who could be a minority, but will probably be white in the movie.
He is Quentin's best friend because they're about on the same level of the social totem
pole (a.k.a. the bottom). Becca Arrington calls him "Bloody Ben" (1.1.14) because he
had a kidney infection, complete with bloody urine (why did he share this at school?),
and she spread a rumor it was caused by chronic masturbation.
He thinks this is the reason he can't get a date, although it could also be because he's
sexist, saying things like "you should just hit that" (1.1.17), with that being a human
female named Margo Roth Spiegelman. He also calls women "honeybunny" (1.1.17),
and the last time we heard that was from the psycho who robs the diner in Pulp Fiction.
Ben is the main source of conflict with Quentin, because Ben insists that Margo Roth
Spiegelman is a drama queen who just wants attention, and Quentin is mad that Ben
has the audacity to make other friends, especially friends who do things like go to prom
and do keg stands. As Quentin explains it, he hates Ben for "jump[ing] at the first
opportunity to join the fraternity of vapid asshats" (2.14.12).
So why does Quentin even like Ben? He sums it up thusly: "He tried hard" (1.1.9). Also,
Ben is a loyal guy, helping Quentin out even if he doesn't believe in the reason for the
quest (to find the mythical Margo Roth Spiegelman). Ben is also the only main
character whose last name doesn't follow what must be a Florida tradition of requiring
three syllables and ending in n: Jacobson, Spiegelman, Arrington, Pemberton,
Worthington. And hey, variety is the spice of life.

We Need a Hero
Ben ends up dating Lacey Pemberton, the only girl at school who could remotely be
called one of Margo Roth Spiegelman's actual friends. He tags along on the road trip to
find Margo more because of Lacey than because he actually wants to find her.
It's a good thing he comes along, too, because when Quentin chokes under pressure
(as he has a tendency to do), Ben takes the wheel. Literally. Quentin almost crashes the
car into a cow crossing the road (why did the cow cross the road?), but Ben grabs the
steering wheel and guides them to safety. Everyone calls him a hero, but like a fireman
just doing his job, he won't accept the title.
So Ben goes from being made fun of as Bloody Ben to having a hot girlfriend, new
friends, and a being a life-saving hero. Good for him. One thing about him that doesn't
ever change, though, is his disdain for Margo Roth Spiegelman. When they finally find
Margo and she's just as rude as she was before she left, he tells Margo, "I like the clues
more than I like you" (3.22.36). So not only is Ben a loyal friend; he's always honest.

RADAR (MARCUS)
Black-ish
Radar is Quentin and Ben's other friend, although sidekick might be a more accurate
description. He's a human encyclopedia and the go-to tech guy for any research or
calculations the group needs done. Radar is called Radar because he used to look like
a black version of Gary Burghoff from M*A*S*H, but soon after the nickname stuck, he
went through a growth spurt and stopped wearing glasses. His friends decided to keep
calling him Radar anyway, though. Also, he has a girlfriend named Angela who gets one
scene and his parents collect black Santas.
We don't really get to know much about Radar. He wants to lose his virginity to Angela,
but never does, skipping their appointed sex date to help Quentin search for Margo
Roth Spiegelman. And… that's about it.
To recap: He's black, and only his girlfriend uses his real name (Marcus), but we never
learn his last name, unlike every other teen character in the book (except for his also-
black girlfriend), because he's been renamed by his white friends after a white TV
character he barely resembles.

LACEY PEMBERTON
Character Analysis

Catfish
Before we get to meet Lacey Pemberton firsthand, we get Margo Roth Spiegelman's
opinion of her. And Margo Roth Spiegelman thinks Lacey Pemberton is a terrible friend.
(That's the rhino calling the hippo fat.) Why is she a terrible friend? Because she minded
her own business and didn't tell Margo Roth Spiegelman that her boyfriend was
cheating on her, and she's honest about the fact that she's slimmer than Margo Roth
Spiegelman. What a terrible human being.
So Margo, being a perfect human being in her own mind, vandalizes Lacey's car by
smashing an entire catfish under her car seat. Gross.
But since Lacey Pemberton is actually a nice person, she worries about Margo when
she goes missing. She worries that Margo is dead, and she tags along for the road trip
to find her.
What a mistake. Margo Roth Spiegelman (more like Margo Roth Spiegelmean) is cruel
to her as soon as she sees her again. She makes fun of Lacey for dating Ben and still
can't drop it that Lacey made her feel fat. Lacey returns to the hotel with Ben, and we
never get to see if she still wants to be friends with Margo. But we doubt it, as her last
words to Margo Roth Spiegelman are "It's been a real pleasure knowing you" (3.22.34).
Note the sarcasm.

MINOR CHARACTERS
Character Analysis

Detective Otis Warren

This is the police officer who is supposed to find Margo Roth Spiegelman, but isn't really
trying. He calls Margo Roth Spiegelman a balloon (because he talks in metaphors like
he lives in Twin Peaks or something), saying that "you can see all of the balloons, but
you cannot see any one balloon" (2.3.43) and eventually "she'd deflate and float back to
Jefferson Park" (2.3.45). Basically, he's saying that she isn't that special, and since
she's an adult now, according to the law, it's up to her to make her own decisions and
come back if she wants.

Quentin's Parents
These two are trusting therapists who occasionally give Quentin some insight into the
human psyche, like when they say, "It's so hard for anyone to show us how we look,
and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel" (2.15.18). This makes Quentin realize
that Margo Roth Spiegelman might be having an identity crisis. He says that because
his parents are therapists, it "means that [he is] really goddamned well-adjusted"
(Prologue.21). But how well-adjusted is someone who obsesses over a girl he's hung
out with twice, enough to chase her across the country? Over to you, Shmoopers.

Classmates
We meet a few classmates from Quentin's high school. Cassie Hiney is "perfectly nice
and pleasant and cute" (1.1.5), which are the most important qualities for a high-school
female, we guess, despite being named after a butt. Chuck Parson is a bully who calls
other boys "faggot" (1.1.32), and loses an eyebrow. Jase Worthington is the boy who
cheats on Margo Roth Spiegelman, has a tiny penis, and eventually becomes friends
with Ben. Dr. Holden, English teacher, helps Quentin analyze "Song of Myself."
Gus was a senior when Margo Roth Spiegelman was a Margo Roth Spiegelfreshman.
He is security guard at the SunTrust building and does "Urban exploring" (2.16.48),
which doesn't involve stalking Keith Urban.
Robert Joyner is the dead guy who kind of haunts Margo Roth Spiegelman for a while,
though not literally. She and Quentin find him in the park when they're nine, and it gets
Margo thinking that she doesn't want to die in her hometown—she wants to get out and
see the world.

Super Short Summary (Aim for five or fewer sentences)

Paper Towns by John Green revolves around the life lesson Quentin Jacobsen
learned; no one ever truly knows everything about a person.Quentin has
secretly loved Margo Roth Spiegelman but when she disappears, he starts to
get extremely worried. Margo left hidden clues and it took Quentin about
three weeks to find her. Once Quentin found Margo, they talked and Margo
opened up and explained everything to Quentin. After talking, he was forced
to let Margo go and live the life she wanted to.
Thematic Connections

The theme in Paper Towns is similar to the theme in Mary Poppins. In Paper
Towns, the theme is that you never fully know every detail of a person.
In Mary Poppins, the kids always wonder if their babysitter can do any other
magical tricks. Both the book and the movie revolved around the idea of
never knowing everything about a person. The book Paper
Towns surprisingly has the same theme as Mary Poppins.
Style Analysis

John Green's writing has a bitter tone sometimes, but he also has a light and
relaxed tone. His diction is somewhat advanced, but it is still easy to
understand. Mr. Green's syntax has a variety of sentence lengths. Lastly, his
imagery is phenomenal. On page 139, it says, "The stores themselves... a
single-story building with a flat roof, and bare cinder block was visible in
places. Strips of cracked paint wrinkled away from the walls, like insects
clinging to a nest." These descriptions are so detailed that it feels like I am
actually there looking at the building.
Critique

I would recommend this book to a friend because it is overall a fantastic

book. The mix of humor, suspense, and mystery makes this book great. I like
the part of the book where Quentin ditches graduation to go on a road trip to
find a girl who might be dead. John Green made the book Paper Towns very
entertaining and interesting so much that I would definitely recommend this
book to my friends. 
Best Lines (Take from your Dialectical Journal)

"It's a paper town...All things...paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived
here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone
who cares about anything that matters."

"'What's the pleasure?' I asked. 'Planning, I guess. I don't know. Doing stuff
never feels as good as you hope it will feel.'"

"...I understand now that I can't be her and she can't be me. Maybe Whitman
had a gift I don't have. But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he
is hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only wounded man I
can be is me."

1. Paper Towns begins in Orlando Florida, where Quentin Jacobsen has lived all his life,
adoring Margo Roth Spiegelman since when they first met.  The book, however, starts
with the background of Margo and Q's relationship (or the exposition of the book.)  Back
when Q and Margo were in elementary school, they were friends... Until one day, when in
the midst of their adventures, they found a dead man sitting under a tree.  Margo was
really interested in the man, wanting to investigate his death, but Q wanted to leave and
call for help immediately.  After they left and the police had taken over, Margo had
actually looked into it herself while Q was at home.  One night after, Margo came to Q's
window and tells him what she had figured out about the man and after her explanations,
they become silent and just stare at each other.  Little did they know, this would be the last
night that they truly talk to each other again.

In the rising action, Q goes about his every day life joking with his friends, Radar and Ben,
at high school and playing video games at home until Margo appears at his window again
for the first time again since that night.  Margo challenges Q to help her with a mysterious
twelve part plan that will take all night.  Q willingly accepts since he as been in love with
Margo ever since they were kids.  Over the course of the night, Margo sends dead catfish to
three people who she used to call her friends and boyfriend with a note Q wrote saying
"Your friendship with Margo Roth Spiegelman sleeps with the fishes."  To deliver all of
these fish, they have to break and enter into several buildings and cars.  At one house,
Margo finds her "best friend" sleeping with her (now ex) boyfriend.  They continue on
their quest and after Margo does everything that she has planned for so long, she offers Q
a chance to seek his revenge out on someone else.  Q chooses to prank the school yard
bully that has tormented he and his friends for so long by veeting off one of his eyebrows.
Once all the pranking and plans are through, the last thing Margo has Q do is help her
break into Seaworld just for the fun of it.  They get past all of Seaworld's security measures
and into the park before a guard stops them and suggests that they leave the premises.  By
the time they get home it is early morning and school is starting in a few hours.

The inciting incident begins when Margo isn't at school the next morning or the next few
days.  Q doesnt think anything of it until he finds out that Margo has ran away, again (the
fourth time to be exact).  Her parents say that they are going to change the locks and not
look for her again because she is a burden on their family but Q thinks otherwise of Margo
so he decides to try to find her himself.  Q knows that Margo leads clues for people to find
every time she has ran away so he thinks that she has chosen him to find her, like she
chose him that night to help her. 
So Q is hell bent on finding out where Margo Roth Spiegelman is.  He will search and
follow every clue that he finds even if it leads him to a dead end.  Some major clues she left
were a highlighted copy of Walt Whitman's "A Song of Myself" where she had highlighted
a line that pointed to unhinging the doors... Which Q eventually finds out is to be taken
literally as Margo had hid an address in his door.  He follows the lead and finds nothing
but an abandoned building but after he has inspected it many times, he finds that Margo
had written something on the walls of the building but had painted over it.  That lead
becomes a dead end too. 
Q's endless search for Margo is taking a toll on his friendships.  Ben and Radar begin to get
tired of him  only focusing on finding Margo rather than focusing on the last month of
their senior year.  Ben starts dating Lacy, Margo's (ex) friend, and Lacy enlists to help Q
find Margo.  His friends eventually come around and help Q but are hesitant at first.  They
help him search "paper towns" or abandoned developments within several hours of
Orlando but they don't find anything. 

The climax of the book happens when Q finally figures out that Margo is in the paper town
of Agloe, New York.  Q finds that a paper town is a nonexistent town on a map that
mapmakers created to see if people were copying their work.  He notices that a person
commented on an Omnictory( a website much like Wikipedia) saying that the population
in Agloe would be 1 on the day after the boys graduated.  But what really tipped him off
was the off-capitalization that Margo would use regularly.  So in an instant, Q decides to
not go to graduation and road trip all the way to New York to find Margo with Radar, Lacy,
and Ben.  The twenty three hour road trip brings all of them together as they race to find
Margo.

In the falling action, they finally find Margo.  She is completely shocked that they have
found her and is really rude to them.  Lacy gets upset at her reaction and leaves with Radar
and Ben which lets Q finally talk to her.  Margo explains why she couldn't stay in Orlando
anymore and how her wanderlust is too strong.  She explains that she already had her run
away planned but when she found out her boyfriend Jase was cheating on her, she decided
to execute her plan earlier than graduation.  Q pleads with her to come back to Orlando
and to live with him and his family but Margo says that her future is elsewhere, asking
Quentin to become her traveling companion.  Q knew his future wasn't with Margo
regardless of how much he hoped it would be.

In the resolution, Q and Margo talk about how their adventures might have ended when
they were younger if they had stayed in touch and about how they still love each other
now, or rather the idea of each other.  The book ends with Margo and Q saying goodbye
and promising to keep in touch.

2.  The theme of the novel is getting wrapped up in the mystery of things or idea of

something.  Q was had been completely taken by Margo Roth Spiegelman since they first
met but he really had no relationship with her.  He loved the idea of who she represented
and all the mystery surrounding her.  He loved this idea that was supposed to be Margo,
this superior persona that Margo couldn't really hold up the whole time.  He had spent his
last month of senior year, his prom, and even his graduation trying to find Margo because
he had this idea that Margo wanted it that way and that was why she was so mysterious.
He finally realized, though, that Margo wasn't the mystery or the idea that he had held so
superior to the rest.  He finally saw that she was in fact a real person that made mistakes.
He was so wrapped up in this mystique surrounding Margo, he forgot what reality was.

3.  Although John Green's tone changes throughout the book, his tone is normally

optimistic and has a determination about it to stop the dark possibilities of Margo's future.
"I found myself feeling thankful the lake was empty, so I wouldn't have to stare into the
water and wonder if she was in the bottom somewhere expecting me to put on scuba gear
to find her (p.165)."  Q can find positivity even if at times it looks like Margo has committed
suicide.  He was so determined that he even cried out "I AM GOING TO FIND
SOMETHING HERE!" (p.173) when he was going through pseudo divisions.  Regardless of
the circumstances, there is a lighthearted sense of humor that John Green writes
throughout the novel.  The dialogue and relationship between Q and his friends keeps the
book light. "I'd heard Radar say 'the world's largest collection of black santas' perhaps a
thousand times in my life, and it never became any less funny to me. (p.22)"  Something as
random as Radar's parents collecting black santas helps keep a lighthearted tone
throughout the book even though it deals with deeper and darker subjects.

4.  Allusions- Regardless of the circumstances, Q's everyday life and classes helped the
book lighten up.  Like the typical student, he too had to read Moby Dick but procrastinated
on it.  "Dr. Holden completely ruined Moby Dick for me by incorrectly assuming we'd all
read it and talking about Captain Ahab and his obsession with finding and killing this
white whale (p.159)."
More Allusions- Q's main clue to Margo's location is within Walt Whitman's "Song of
Myself". "A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,... Like grass is a metaphor for
God's greatness or something....(p.172)"
Rhetorical Questions- Sometimes Q lost hope and found himself second guessing Margo's
fate.  "Or maybe I'd never find her.  Was that the better fate? (p.165)"  He couldn't help but
sometimes wonder as anyone else would.
Repetition- "I missed her I missed her I missed her I miss her (p.157)."  Q's missing her so
much made his determination even more stronger as he searched for her everywhere,
following whatever clue came his way.
Imagery-  "And for the first, I had to picture it: Margo Roth Spiegelman, slumped up
against the tree, her eyes silent, the black blood pouring out of her mouth, everything
bloated and distorted because I had taken so long to find her (p.156)."  Q is forced to think
about the gruesome reality of Margo's disappearance.  By showing this sick imagery,
Green also shows part of why Q is so determined to find Margo.
Synesthesia- "... her eyes silent... (p.156)"  Green uses some synesthesia in his book during
his descriptions of Margo and possible outcomes that might have happened during her
runaway to produce a greater sense of gravity of the situation.
Pathos- "'Look, is it sick that it's a blessing to have her out of the house?' (p.103)"  Margo's
parents don't want Margo at the house which makes you feel like Margo is misunderstood
and that Q is doing this for the right reasons.
Simile- "'That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people would want to be around
someone because they're pretty.  It's like picking your breakfast cereals based on color
instead of taste.' (p.37)"  Margo had a very insightful mind.  She would use similes to make
her point sometimes to show how outrageous things are even if they were as simple as this
quote was.
Metaphor- "'It's a paper town.  I mean look at it, Q: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those
streets that turn in on themselves, all those houses that were built to fall apart.  All those
paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm.  All the paper
kids drinking beer some bum bought for thema at the paper convienience store.  Everyone
demented with the mania of owning things.  All the things paper-thin and paper-frail.
And all the people, too...'(p.57)"  Margo uses metaphors for her way of thinking in order to
create the mystique that surrounds her.  If John Green wrote her character more straight
 forward, she wouldn't have nearly have been such a powerful, mysterious character.
Persona-"And all at once I knew how Margo Roth Spiegelman felt when she wasn't being
Margo Roth Spiegelman: she felt empty.  She felt the unscaleable wall surrounding her....
The funamental mistake I had always made- and that she had in fairness, always led me to
make- was this: Margo was not a miracle.  She was not an adventure.  She was not a fine
and precious thing.  She was a girl. (p.199)"  Towards the end of Q's search for Margo, he
starts to see the more realistic version of Margo rather than this persona he thought her to
be.  Without Margo's persona, Green wouldn't have been able to write this novel.

Literary Analysis: Paper Towns by John Green

An author has the ability to connect with the reader on multiple levels. An arrangement of letters
and punctuation can determine all sorts of feelings that engage the reader which allows them to use
their imagination and create a story in their minds. Reading becomes so much more when you are
able to not only see the words flow past you but feel them as well. Paper Towns by John Green is
written in a narrative story structure, where the main character is telling the story through his eyes,
and his conversations with the other characters. When a story is written in a way where the setting
connects with the reader, right away you are able to feel, and begin to see what life is like for the
character. Throughout the novel, everything was written in a way that would lead up to something
like the engines we learned about in class.  Halfway through one engine a whole other question was
brought up, leaving the anticipation continuous through the whole novel. Setting is not only a way
to tell the reader where the story takes place, but also a way to connect with the reader.

The main character of the book is a nervous young boy, and the way John Green was able to
specifically elaborate on times where he felt most uncomfortable made the text that much more
relatable. A specific setting described where and what the character was feeling yet also telling us
how he felt and developed the character's importance and further values the character would
develope. “We stood outside, leaning against the back of the minivan, the air so warm and think I
felt my clothes clinging to my skin. I felt scared again, as if people I couldn't see were looking at
me. It had been too dark for too long, and my gut ached from the hours of worrying.” Like I
mentioned before, the setting is clearly described but when keywords that enhance a feeling or
thought become a whole new way to read. You are then allowed to take it and compare it to a
feeling you may have once had in the past. However the setting is not only written for connection
but also how a character changes the mood of the entire scene. Later parts in the book, you
gradually begin to see how he becomes less afraid, less nervous, and more care free.

John Green made it clear to what the the main character seemed to relax around, or make it so
everything seemed to be focused on one thing. The only character that was described in that way,
was Margo. This was another way how setting can be described. When a change in the story
changes the feel and mood. The main character (Quentin) seemed to become calm and focus all of
his energy into this girl. It can go to him thinking or as in my example before to calm, serene. “She
tucked her hair behind her ears, pulled up her hood, and scrunched it shut with a drawstring; the
street light lit up the sharp features of her pale face.”

Adjectives, metaphors, similes, the classic way to make writing interesting. When written in
figurative form, the story seems to be real and effect the reader much more than saying it straight
forward. In the book the boys were in the van looking for a friend that ran away. While driving up to
a warehouse she might be in, John Green built up the anticipation of what will happen next. "Strips
of cracked paint wrinkled away from the walls, like insects clinging to a nest. Water stains formed
brown abstract paintings between the store windows." Not only did this build the anticipation but
also set where the reader can imagine what the characters are seeing. 

When you look at books, there are multiple ways setting can be described. From the shift in moods,
to the connection for the reader, and even the use of descriptive context which are just a few ways
to set up a setting. What John Green and many other authors have taught me, is that the setting
isn't just for telling the reader where you are but rather a way you can develope characters and
connect with the reader.

Paper Towns
-What Does It Mean?
In this novel, Margo Roth Spiegelman shows a connection to the title of the story, 
Paper Towns
by John Green. Margo compares herself to a paper girl. She often spends time at the top of the tallest
building in the city and looks down on society as she thinks about how fake she is, an idea that everyone
likes but isn’t real. Margo decides to run away to a town called Agloe, New York, which was originally a
fictional place written on maps to protect against copyright infringement, but became real when someone
built an Agloe General Store. Margo explains, “... A place where a paper creation became real… Maybe
the paper cutout of a girl could start becoming real also…” Margo thinks if she escaped to a paper town
that became real, she, a paper girl, would become real as well. 

Quentin Jacobsen, also known as Q

The cautious, dedicated protagonist in this story, Quentin Jacobsen, searches for the love of his life after
her disappearance in 
Paper Towns 
by John Green.

Quentin and Margo grew up together. They were best friends from a very young age, and one day as they
were walking in the park, they encountered a bloody corpse sprawled on the ground. Quentin describes
Margo and himself reacting to this situation differently: “”He’s dead,’ Margo said, as if i couldn’t tell. I
took two small steps backward...As I took those two steps back, Margo took two equally small and quiet
steps forward. “His eyes are open,’ she said. ‘Wegottagohome,’ I said. ‘I thought you closed your eyes
when you died,’ she said. ‘Margo wegottagohomeandtell,’” (5). This scene in the prologue illustrates how
Quentin is always the careful one, while Margo is much more spontaneous. Quentin proves how
dedicated he truly is when he decides to go search for Margo after her disappearance. The entire book
describes how Margo herself has become a mystery, and Quentin is determined to solve it. Near the end
of the book, Quentin convinces his friends to join him on the final quest to find her. This means skipping
their own graduation to take a road trip across the country, but Quentin doesn’t hesitate for a moment.
Another example that proves his dedication is when Quentin and his friends arrive in Agloe, New York
and finally find Margo, instead of being grateful, she is extremely rude. Instead of leaving immediately
like Lacey, Ben, Radar decide to do, Quentin stays and gives Margo another chance, asking her to explain
her behavior. After all this hard work, he will not accept failure. 

Margo, Quentin’s childhood best friend and love interest

Margo Roth Spiegelman, a thoughtful, adventurous teenager, is the mystery of this novel.

Margo says “That’s when I decide that I’m going to do one more thing, one big thing, and then leave…
And then it’s about to happen, and the plan has come together really well… But then I just decide to
leave” (292). Margo Roth Spiegelman decides to run away from her hometown and plans her great
escape, writing detailed instructions for her departure over and over again in her special notebook. Years
were spent writing almost 70 pages of describing exactly how she will make her exit, showing her
thorough, thoughtful side. But when it comes down to the moment Margo has been waiting for, she finds
out that her boyfriend has not been faithful to her, and her friends have been keeping secrets, and she
frantically rewrites the plan and carries it out immediately. She runs away from home, leaving Florida
behind and disappearing without telling a soul, showing how adventurous and fearless she really is. Plus,
she shows off her courageous side at the beginning of the story, just before her disappearance, when she
brings Quentin on a wild night of pranks, blackmail, and breaking into Sea World. 

Ben, Quentin’s closest friend

Ben Starling, Quentin’s self-centered but lovable best friend, can be frustrating at times, but he truly has
good intentions.

On one occasion, while driving to find Margo Roth Spiegelman, Ben saves the lives of everyone in the
car but insists he only did it to save himself. “Do you guys remember the time when we were definitely
going to die and then Ben grabbed the steering wheel and dodged a ginormous freaking cow and spun the
car like the teacups at Disney World and we didn’t die?’ … ‘I mean, you are a hero, do you realize that?
They give out medals for this stuff.’ ‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wasn’t thinking about none
of y’all. I. Wanted. To. Save. My. Ass.’ ‘You liar. You heroic, adorable liar,’”. Additionally, after
Quentin drives across the state in the middle of the night to drive Ben home from a party, Ben wakes up
the next morning and instead of being grateful to his best friend, he is very rude and selfish. Quentin asks
if he can come over to talk about urgent news regarding Margo’s disappearance, and Ben claims he is too
hungover and wants to sleep so he hangs up on Quentin. Another time, Ben is talking about how he plans
on graduating high school with no clothes under his robe in front of his girlfriend who is clearly ashamed.
She says, “‘You’re a challenging boyfriend. Rewarding, but challenging.’” Ben seem a bit big headed and
embarrassing at times, but he is still a good-hearted, lovable character.
Plot Line
Maria Gieg Section 3 February 12th
Margo, Quentin’s childhood best friend who he hasn’t spoken to in years, randomly appears at Quentin’s
window one night for a crazy adventure, consisting of breaking into Sea World and pranking Margo’s
enemies. The next morning, Margo is missing. Quentin locates some clues in her bedroom pointing
towards abandoned housing developments, and finds evidence that Margo has been there: she has painted
on the wall “YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER TOWNS AND YOU WILL NOT COME BACK”.
Quentin and his friends, Ben, Lacey, and Radar, continue to search for clues and see that the signs are
beginning to point to New York as her final destination. They discover a post on Omnictionary (similar to
Wikipedia) that suggests that Margo will be in Agloe, New York for the next day only. Quentin, Ben,
Lacey, and Radar skip their own graduation to take a road trip to Agloe from their hometown in Florida.
They reach her at the General Store just before she leaves. Quentin and Margo have their fairy tale
ending, but only for a few hours, because Margo needs to stay in New York, while Quentin wants to
return to Florida. 

Lesson Learned
By getting to know the love of his life only through clues, Quentin learns that you must try to understand
a person for who they really are, rather than who others believe that they could be. As Quentin embarks
on his journey, trying to find Margo after she goes missing, he discovers that she is not just an idea, she is
a real person, and that is a much more complex thing. Quentin describes his realization: “The
fundamental mistake I had always made—and that she had, in fairness, always led me to make—was this:
Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and precious thing. She was a
girl.” His failure to locate Margo throughout most of the novel was due to this mistake. However, after
this realization, he soon found her with the help of his friends.
Literary Device
When Margo disappears, she leaves behind clues that Quentin uses to try to determine where she has
escaped to. One of these clues is a book of poetry by Walt Whitman. One line reads, “I do not ask the
wounded person how he feels… I myself become the wounded person.” Quentin takes these wise words
into consideration. he realizes that to find Margo, he must become Margo, and to become Margo, he must
really understand her. Quentin may like the idea of Margo, but he doesn’t truly know who she is and what
she stands for. 
Final Resolutions
Readers who enjoy teen realistic fiction or mysteries with a bit of romance would like to read this novel. 
Paper Towns
is a good book to read because it encourages the reader to reflect on their own lives, to think about
whether they are simply seen as a paper person or who they truly are. It is memorable because the
mystery is intense and haunting and the characters are very easy to relate to.

Critical Analysis
The book is pretty much good. Its story really had an impact on me. Even though the ending is kind of sad just
like in “the story of an hour.” They’re endings are what we would not expect. In the story of an hour Mrs.
Mallard suddenly dies and in Paper Towns Margo snaps at Q and tells him off. But even though these endings
are unexpected they make the story better in my opinion.

The targeted audience is young adults, and even though they are the targeted audience I think everyone could
relate to the story. John Green maybe have thought that this happens often to young adults. Most of the young
adult book I’ve read is somewhat similar to this. It’s always if not most of the time composed of a guy and a
girl, and they somehow like one another or along those lines. Maybe most young adult books are like this
because “young adults” spend their time experimenting with their sexuality and how they interact with their
co-young adults!

In the story Margo does horrible things to Q especially near the end. I think this is what most people who have
read this book would discuss and it is was Margo being a douche bag to Q all those times? And my answer is
no. Well, at first I thought she really was a jerk to him, but after several days of thinking I think Margo does
the right thing in the end.
Margo just wants Q to know who she really is and what things she’s been through. We can see this when
Margo leaves a clue for Q to go to the abandoned grocery store, I think. She’s slept many times. and that’s the
message she was giving to Q. She’s not the Margo he really knows and sees. Every clue gives out a little about
the true Margo. Q is just oblivious about what’s really happening and why Margo does what she does. That’s
just my take on it.

Overall it’s a good book. I’m also looking forward to reading John Green’s other works.