Summary and Analysis of John Green's Book 'Paper Towns'

Introduction

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”

What's a paper town? And what does it have to do with these high school seniors and their adventures? 'A paper town is a fake town created by map makers created to protect their copyright,' says John Green.

Background of the Author

John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTube content creator. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and his fourth solo novel, The Fault in Our Stars, debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list in January 2012.The 2014 film adaptation opened at number one at the box office. In 2014, Green was included in Time magazine's list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World. Another film based on a Green novel, Paper Towns, was released on July 24, 2015.

Aside from being a novelist, Green is also well known for his YouTube ventures. In 2007, he launched the Vlogbrothers channel with his brother, Hank Green. Since then, John and Hank have launched events such as Project for Awesome and VidCon and created a total of 11 online series, including Crash Course, an educational channel teaching Literature, History, and Science later joined by fourteen other courses as of 2018.

Summary of the Story

Who is the Real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So, when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew…

The Story

The story revolved around the life of Quentin Jacobsen who spent his whole life essentially loving Margo Roth Spiegelman, a girl who had made it her life’s mission to love mysteries, who paid him no attention until one night when she needed our protagonist’s help. Strategically, the book was subdivided into three parts. The Strings, The Grass, and The Vessel; four, if the prologue is to be included. Quick reviews of the separated parts are given below

• The Strings was the part where Margo visited Q in his room to ask for a favor: joining her as she claims revenge from her ex-boyfriend and best friend. Basically, they spend a whole night playing pranks on certain people and this is the part where Q falls harder for Margo. Being an innate adventurer, Margo made sure to give Q his best night yet. This was also the part where Margo educates Q on paper towns. On paper people. The pair paid a visit to an amusement park near the end of this segment, where they spent their remaining time trying to get to know each other a little better. This must have been my favorite part of all three.
• The Grass started with Margo’s disappearance. The search for the girl with a passion for mysteries went on and on and it got a little dragging for me, given Q’s time spent searching his first hint as to where Margo could find him (or them). As Q and his gang went on to find the next hints about Margo’s whereabouts, forming theories about Margo’s real condition. They thought of her dead, completely isolated, alone and whatnot. They came so close to giving up trying to find Margo, but in the end, it was Quentin who figured out where she was next, and maybe last to find out where she really was. He was ready to miss his own graduation just to finally get to see Margo, given that he was completely certain of his whereabouts. This was the most convincing aspect of the book and there were a few chapters that I consider to be extremely forgettable and unnecessary. It is within these chapters where this book made me feel bored.
• The Vessel, also known as the last part, was the part where everyone was in contemplation waiting to get to see our mysterious girl. Now, unlike the past two parts of the book, the chapters in The Vessel are in hours. These hours signify the remaining hours before they get to see Margo. This third part started with the car ride with Q and the gang. What I loved about this ride to Margo was that every second was needed. Given the deadline they were trying to reach and the distance they were trying to cover in just a short span of time, every second really counted. Strategically prepared, their short stops were planned and everyone had a role to play to keep their time sufficient to meet Margo on time. That was something I enjoyed, and it entertained me enough to finish this novel.

Analysis

Throughout the book, the idea of paper towns has been discussed many times. John Green, a former resident of Orlando, has seen and heard of several 'paper towns' His first encounter with a 'paper town' took place during his junior year of college while on a road trip. He and his friend came across a paper town named Holen in South Dakota. At the end of the book, John Green points out that the tale of Agloe portrayed in the text is largely true: 'Agloe began as a paper town created to protect against copyright infringement. But then people with these old Esso maps kept looking for it, and so someone built a store, making Agloe real.' Green wrote on his website that he was inspired to write Paper Towns because he wanted to write a mystery novel, and because he wanted to explore how people idealize objects of romantic interest.

The two main characters, Quentin Jacobsen and Margo Roth Spiegelman, are neighbors in the suburbs of Orlando that Margo calls a 'paper town.' Margo is a very odd popular girl in her high school, while Quentin is a nerdy, smart young man who dreams of sharing time with Margo, much as when they were young kids. In John Green's other books, such as Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and The Fault of Our Stars, the two lead characters are quite close to Quentin and Margo. Green appears to create a shimmering, unattainable girl in which a boy spends all his time pinching away to grasp and explore the magic of sex, or vice versa. I think Green's propensity to write about identical characters is a genre that fits for him, but I was looking for something different. The book is full of crazy antics and stories that have your heart pumped. There are moments that make you want to grab your closest friends and visit abandoned buildings; these are the details that truly took me in and kept me reading. Quentin's character becomes, at one point, a little uncomfortably obsessed with Margo, which is meant to add to the dramatic emotion of their relationship—but I realize that without a great deal of feeling, it wouldn't function. The tone of Paper Towns is clever, smart, enigmatic and adventurous. The sound is wise and clever, so the author uses a lot of complicated words in a format that you normally don't see or use. He also outlines in depth every single thing the characters see and do. I'd say the storyline continues to drag mildly in the center. There is a moment when all the hints slow down a little and humor is lost. Green, as an adult and a parent, wishes to communicate this message specifically to the young adult reader. As illustrated by the novel's early childhood beginning and the book's overarching concept of the coming century, Green focuses on reading the book and the book's characters as children studying and struggling to be healthy, knowledgeable people.

John Green has done a remarkable job at combining metaphors and philosophical debates with established characters and some very funny comedy. Q is relatable as our main character, a youth who's at a bit of a lost point in his life. He's doing what other people would do in his case, and he's fascinating without being precocious or cringe-worthy. His speeches are well-written and say a lot about his personality. Margo is more of an image than a character in much of the novel. Everyone has different memories of her, but they see her differently. Q's idea of Margo is changing through the plot, and her character is becoming more and more complicated. And when we learn the true Margo, she's also one of the most complex characters.

Paper Towns is a story that exquisitely shows how idealizing is damaging and restricting the idealization of others, that it can discourage individuals from becoming their true selves, that it interferes with our desire to perceive someone as imperfect and to truly interact with others on a human level.

Conclusion

We've come across a lot of people who end up being different from what we thought they were. These people may have been greedy and never cared much for us but the memories will always bring a smile to our face because we were sincerely happy at that moment.

Paper Towns has a calm, thoughtful story, which is truly a novel of heart and soul. It's got a wonderful plot, great characters, and writing makes me want to weep because it's made of incredible things. Some might suggest that John Green writes in familiar patterns. I will recommend it to fans of any other John Green novel, or to fans of any related authors, such as Rainbow Rowell. But to be honest, I think anyone and everyone could gain something from reading this.

The best thing about this novel, in my mind, was the identity debate. The novel focuses on each character's distinct idea of Margo, and finally their realization that she's just a human like them. There's so much I can tell about the importance of the ideals in this novel. The metaphors are lovely, and they are really fascinating.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Green_(author)
2. https://www.bustle.com/articles/72093-what-does-paper-towns-title-mean-john-green-explains-the-titles-mysterious-meaning
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Towns
4. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/paper-towns/context/
5. https://abloggersreviews.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/paper-towns-book-review/
6. https://www2.umf.maine.edu/flyer/archives/2015-spring/issue-5-5-7-2015/book-review-paper-towns-by-john-green/