Theme

The theme of Paper Towns is experience and friendships. Road trips anchor the beginning and the end of the book. The first road trip that Margo and Quentin take through Orlando is its own self-contained set piece, an adventure of revenge that begins and ends in a night. Quentin could have forgotten all about this road trip and resumed his normal life. Physically, the road trip ends exactly where it started: at Quentin’s house. However, Quentin is transformed by this initial trip with Margo. He grows obsessed with Margo’s disappearance, which occurs directly after this adventure. Quentin uses this experience to fuel his own journey of both searching for Margo and searching within himself. Quentin searches for his independence through driving. Taking small road trips around Orlando to find Margo makes Quentin feel more in control of his life, rather a passive follower of the rules as he has always been. For the first time in his life, Quentin skips school to go looking for Margo, and the simple act of driving to these locations gives Quentin a sense of adventure he never knew he had. Though driving and road trips go along with independence and self-realization, they also highlight and solidify friendships. Though the purpose of Margo’s Orlando adventure with Quentin is to take revenge on her enemies, the unintended consequence is that it cements a bond between them. The same happens in Part Three. The purpose of Quentin, Ben, Radar, and Lacey’s road trip is to find Margo, but the trip ties the four together in a shared experience they will always remember. Road trips alter Quentin’s geographic location, but they also signify changes within Quentin. The first road trip with Margo makes him realize that there are ways to experience the world outside of comfort and routine, and the second with his friends makes him realize that he can be content with his values and with himself. In this way, road trips highlight the inherent differences between Margo and Quentin, and, ultimately, their incompatibility. On Quentin and his friends’ road trip, he drives with his friends from home in a minivan that anchors him to his roots and parents.

Point-of-View and Setting

John Green chose Quentin as a narrator for a very specific reason: He "wanted the reader to be conscious that she or he is only seeing Margo through Quentin's eyes, and that Quentin—at least for much of the novel—knows absolutely nothing about the girl he says he loves" Since this book is a mystery, and Margo Roth Spiegelman is the mystery herself, this puts the reader in a position to learn about Margo and to try to "solve" the mystery right alongside Quentin. What does Quentin end up learning about Margo Roth Spiegelman? Quentin learns that Margo wants to start her life over, brand new, in a completely different place. And does Quentin still love Margo after he finds these things out? Quentin does still love Margo after finding this information out about her, and nothing will stop him. How would the story have been different if it were told from Margo's point of view? There is no telling what this book would be like if told from Margo's point of view. The setting of this book is taken place in Jefferson Park, Florida. Jefferson Park is "a massive subdivision, because that's what Florida does with land" (Green 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" (Green18), because when a Florida man ends up dead, it's usually drugs. This town is basically like 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 and decides to leave. Margo leaves Jefferson Park to Agloe, New York. 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". And since Margo seems to be unhappy wherever she goes, she goes somewhere that doesn't exist. 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.

Character and Conflict

In Paper Towns, there is both internal and external conflict between the characters. The internal conflicts are that initially, Quentin didn’t know if he should or should not join Margo in her night of revenge. Quentin says "I had access to the vehicular awesomeness that is a late-model Chrysler minivan, except for when my mom was driving it. And since she drove to work every morning, I could only use the car on the weekends. Well, weekends and the middle of the goddamned night"(Green 28). At this point, Quentin wasn't completely confident on going on this extravaganza with Margo. Although, he wanted to but he couldn’t make sense of her intentions since they haven’t talked to each other for a long time. All through the night he still had internal conflicts of whether to follow her risky plans or not. Which he forgets about as the night progresses. Another internal conflict is that Quentin was given a chance to avenge himself from Chuck Parson’s bullying, however, he didn’t completely feel the need. But somehow Margo convinced him to do otherwise. One last, but not final internal conflict is that Margo didn’t want to go home but she missed her sister and Quentin, so she also had an internal conflict of following her own journey or going back home. But it was something she wanted to do for so long so she just stuck to own her plan. The external conflicts are when Margo, Becca, Jase and Lacey were all fighting at the beginning of the book. Jase and Becca being the wrong doers and Lacey being collateral damage. She knew about the affair but failed to tell Margo before she could find out for herself. This put an end on all of their relationships. Another external conflict is between Lacey, Radar and Ben. They all fought with Margo because she was rude during their reunion. But it was waved off because it can be excused as an effect of Margo’s shock whenever they find her in Agloe, New York. One final external conflict is between Quentin and Margo because Margo didn’t really appreciate that he found her.

Book Summary and Review

In the book Paper Towns, by John Green, on one Florida day, two nine-year-old kids were playing in the park. The birds were chirping and the sun was shining. But also, a dead body was decomposing. The kids, Quentin Jacobson and Margo Roth Spiegelman, run home to tell their parents. Quentin wants to push the whole finding-a-dead-body thing from his mind, but Margo finds out the man killed himself and wonders why. Nine years later, Margo Roth Spiegelman, now eighteen, comes to Quentin's window in the middle of the night. They haven't hung out since the day that they found a dead body when they were nine, but now Margo needs a favor. She needs Quentin to drive her around on a spree of revenge against Jase Worthington, her cheating boyfriend, and anyone else who annoys her. They vandalize houses and cars with spray paint and fish, then sneak into SeaWorld as their last crime of the night. Quentin is excited that he and Margo are friends again, but she never comes back to school. Quentin believes that Margo Roth Spiegelman has run away from home, and is leaving him clues to her whereabouts. With his friends, Ben and Radar, Quentin investigates a paper trail left by Margo, including her highlighted copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, that leads them to an abandoned mini-mall. When the trail goes cold, Quentin worries that Margo Roth Spiegelman's body has gone cold too. What if she committed suicide just like the man they found nine years ago? Quentin eventually discovers that she is still alive, and will be in Agloe, New York on May 29th. Of course, Quentin discovers this on May 28th, so he and his friends skip their high school graduation to race to Agloe, a "paper town" that doesn't exist on any map. It was created by mapmakers as a plagiarism detection tool. Someone built a general store in the general area of Agloe, and Margo Roth Spiegelman has been living there. When Quentin finds her, she tells him that she never wanted to be found, and she doesn't want to go home. She's going to find a new home and try to figure out who she really is. Quentin realizes that he's idolized and been in love with a girl he doesn't really know, and now that he does know her, he has to let her go.