Paper Towns
1. General information
Paper towns is written by John Green, the novel was published on October 16, 2008 by Dutton Books in America.
John Green is an American writer. He was born in Indianapolis on August 24, 1977. His parents are Mike and Sydney Green. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious studies. His first novel, Looking for Alaska, was published in 2005. In 2008, debuted Paper Towns, as his third novel, at number five on The New York Times Best Seller list for children’s books.
2. Summary
The Prologue:
On a lovely day in Florida, the nine years old Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quentin (Q) were cycling in the park. But then they saw a dead body. They go home to tell their parents. Quentin wants to forget the dead man, but the curious Margo finds out he committed suicide.
The Strings:
Nine years later in the middle of the night of May the 5th Margo Roth Spiegelman sneaked into Qs room. Since they found the dead body they haven’t really talk to each other, but Margo needs a favor from Q. She asks if she could borrow his car, and to drive her around. She found out that her boyfriend Jase Worthington cheated on her with her best friend, Becca. So she made a plan to take revenge on them. First they took revenge on Becca and her ‘ex’ boyfriend. Than they went to Lacey Pemberton, who is her other best friend. Because Margo thought Lacey knew that her boyfriend was cheating on her. Than they went to Chucks house and so they cleared the list. They vandalize houses and cars with spray paint and fish. After the plan succeeded Margo took Q to a building with an overview of Orlando. She told him that It’s a paper town. Nobody cares about anything there. At last they broke into SeaWorld, this was the last thing they did that evening and went home.
The Grass:
The next morning Margo wasn’t at school. It was not the first time she disappeared, but Q felt that this time was different. He tells Radar and Ben about it and together they find some clues they think Margo could have left. Those are things like: a poster on the back of a curtain, hidden notes in doors and marked words in poetry that leads them to an abandoned mini-mall. Q worries about Margo and thinks she may be committed suicide like the man they found nine years ago.
On may the 28th Q was searching on Omnictionary for information about paper towns. He found out Margo is still alive and that she will be in Agloe, New York till May the 29th. Q, Radar, Ben and Lacey skip their school graduation to go to Agloe, which is a “paper town” that doesn’t exist on the map, to find her.
The Vessel:
Q, Radar, Ben and Lacey went on a road trip of nearly 24 hours. When they arrive in Agloe, they found Margo in an old farmhouse, writing in her book. They are happy because they found her, but Margo is doesn’t reacts very friendly. Lacey, Ben and Radar went to a near Motel. Q and Margo have a deep and long conversation and at the end Margo tells she never wanted to be found and that she doesn’t want to go home. She is going on a road trip through the USA and he has to let her go.
The book is divided four parts. Each part has its own name. Part 1 is called the Prologue, this is the introduction of the book, in the introduction is told what you need to know before the beginning of the story. Part 2 is called The Strings that refers to Margo’s description in the book where she compared suicide to the man who commit suicide. She told Q that maybe all the strings snapped in his body, so this was the only option to him. Part 3 is called The Gras, this is a reference to Whitman’s poem, which Margo underlined. The idea of the grass is that Whitman believes that people are the same as grass. Grass consists out a lot of blades of grass, but none of them is individual. They are all part of the same origin. Whitman applies it to people, because people all have the same origin. He believes that if you analyze a person long enough, you are able to understand that person in process of time. Part 4 is called The Vessel, this is what indicated the car which they use for the road trip to find Margo.
3. Characters
Quentin Jacobsen: Quentin is the main character and he is the narrator who tells the story from his own perspective. His nickname is Q. He is 17 years old and is a quiet and introvert boy. He loves to game with his best friends and is not the type of person who goes to parties. He has a crush on his neighbor Margo. When they were little, they sometimes played together. Now is Margo is popular on school and they don’t really talk anymore. In the beginning of the book Q dares not much, but in the end he is more confident about himself. He will not give up the mission to find Margo.
Margo Roth Spiegelman: Margo is a popular and mysterious girl. She is the neighbor of Q and the best friend of Lacey and Becca. She seems really happy and spontaneous, but it turns out that she feels very alone and depressed. She says she’s fake, like paper, so she must live in a paper town. A paper town for a paper girl.
Ben Starling: Ben and Quentin are best friends since the fifth grade. He is not very long and has an olive colored skin. Ben wants to get popular on school, so he goes to the parties where all the popular kids go to. He is often selfish and has no attention for Quentin. But in the end turns out, he is a true friend.
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