Paper Towns LitChart

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Paper Towns
• Antagonist: None
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION • Point of View: First Person (Quentin)
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN GREEN
EXTRA CREDIT
John Green was raised primarily in Orlando, Florida. He
graduated from Kenyon College, where he completed a double Myrna Mountweazel. Though the connection is never
major in English and Religion Studies, in 2000. Following his mentioned in the novel, the name of Margo’s beloved dog,
graduation, Green worked as a chaplain in a children’s hospital. Myrna Mountweazel, is an oblique reference to one of the most
He was enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Divinity School famous copyright traps (a way of determining if other
at the time and intended to become an Episcopal priest, but his publications had stolen your content without attribution):
chaplaincy experience inspired a change of direction, and he Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a fictional fountain designer and
left divinity school to pursue a career as a writer. Green photographer of rural American mailboxes, who was invented
published his first novel, Looking for Alask
Alaskaa, in 2005. He by editors of the 1975 New Columbia Encyclopedia. This
published three subsequent novels — An Abundance of fictitious woman has become so famous since the publication of
Katherines (2006), Paper Towns (2008), and The F Fault
ault in Our the encyclopedia that featured her that “Mountweazel” is often
Stars (2012)— and co-authored the novel Will Grayson, Will used as a synonym for “copyright trap” — another synonym for
Grayson with David Levithan. Green collaborates with his which is the term “paper town.”
brother, Hank, to produce biweekly videos for their popular
YouTube blog. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Sarah Urist Controversial Language. In June 2015, John Green used
Green, and their two children. Twitter to respond to a reader who criticized his use of the
word “retarded” as an insult in Paper Towns. He wrote: “Yeah, I
regret it. At the time, I thought an author’s responsibility was to
RELATED LITERARY WORKS
reflect language as I found it, but now, eight years later, I don’t
Green wrote on his website that Paper Towns was written feel like a book about humanizing the other benefitted from
partially as a reaction to a trend in young adult romance novels, dehumanizing language.” Green wrote his response shortly
most notably Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, in which characters before the release of the film adaptation of Paper Towns, and his
seemed consistently to be “imagining their romantic others as apology garnered significant media attention despite the fact
more than human.” Other young adult novels published around that the novel itself was nearly eight years old.
the same time as Green’s novel, such as Sherman Alexie’s The
Absolutely T True
rue Diary of a P
Part-Time
art-Time Indian
Indian, Rainbow Rowell’s
Eleanor & Park, and Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story share PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
aspects of Paper Towns’ raw, often irreverent narrative style and
consider some of the same themes. Green also makes Quentin Jacobsen begins his story by speculating that one
reference to a number of works of literature within the text of miracle—one incredible, unlikely thing — will happen to every
Paper Towns itself. The most noteworthy of these is Walt person during their lifetime. He tells his reader that his miracle
Whitman’s 1855 collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, but was living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman in Jefferson
characters also refer to and read the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Park, their subdivision of Orlando, Florida. He goes on to
T.S. Eliot’s “Choruses from the Rock,” Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
Jar, recount an experience he and Margo had when they were nine
and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Fiv
Slaughterhouse-Fivee. years old: riding their bicycle together one morning, they
discover the body of a man named Robert Joyner, who has
committed suicide, lying beneath a tree.
KEY FACTS
Nine years later, as they prepare to finish their senior year at
• Full Title: Paper Towns Winter Park High School, Margo and Quentin’s friendship has
• When Published: October 16, 2008 long since fizzled out. Still, Quentin admires Margo from afar,
• Genre: Young Adult, Mystery convinced he is madly in love with her. Margo is glamorous and
popular, famous amongst her peers for her incredible
• Setting: Orlando, Florida
adventures and elaborate schemes. Quentin is a mild-
• Climax: Quentin and his friends arrive in Agloe after a frantic mannered nerd, though he has excellent friends, Radar and
twenty-one hour road trip, and find Margo living in an Ben.
abandoned barn.
Without warning, one night in the beginning of May, Margo
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appears outside Quentin’s bedroom window telling him she pseudovisions in central Florida, and begins traveling to them
needs his help. She has discovered that her boyfriend, Jase, has one by one. Each time he arrives at a new place, he fears he will
been cheating on her with one of her best friends, Becca, and find Margo dead, but there is never any trace of her presence.
has resolved to spend the night taking revenge. Quentin sneaks Meanwhile, Ben and Radar are progressing through the rituals
out of the house and spends the night with Margo, driving that come with finishing high school. They go to prom, and each
across Orlando and having adventures. They play elaborate of them begins a serious relationship with a girl — Ben with
pranks on the people who have done them wrong. Halfway Lacey, and Radar with his girlfriend Angela. Many people
through the night, Margo takes Quentin to the twenty-fifth encourage Quentin to let his investigation rest and focus on his
floor of a downtown office building. Observing Orlando from own life, but the thought that Margo may be dead makes it
above, Margo tells Quentin that it is a “paper town,” full of impossible for him to move on.
superficial people. She seems deeply sad, but Quentin does not Quentin returns often to the strip mall, and on one of his trips
have the courage to talk with her honestly about what is wrong. discovers a road map with pinholes in five different places. He
When they leave the SunTrust Building, Margo and Quentin begins to think Margo may have intended to travel. All the
break into SeaWorld. They delight in one another’s company, while, he is reading “Song of Myself” in increasingly greater
and by the time Margo drops him off at home in the early depth, and thinking about its themes of human connection. He
morning, Quentin is more infatuated with her than he has ever realizes that he has imagined Margo wrongly for many years,
been. and is greatly humbled by that realization.
Margo is not at school the next day, but Quentin doesn’t worry On the morning of his high school graduation, a series of
— she has disappeared before, and always returned. That chance discoveries lead Quentin to realizes that Margo has
weekend, however, Margo’s parents arrive at the Jacobsen’s gone to the town of Agloe, New York. He also realizes that she
house accompanied by Detective Otis Warren, a police officer is planning to leave Agloe the next day. He, Radar, Lacey, and
who has been assigned to investigate Margo’s disappearance. Ben skip graduation together and drive twenty-one hours in
The Spiegelmans talk resentfully about Margo’s habit of leaving Quentin’s minivan to upstate New York. In Agloe, they find
vague clues as to her whereabouts whenever she has run away Margo living in an abandoned barn. Their reunion is tense, as
in the past. When Quentin returns to his room, he notices a Margo is mortified at having been discovered. Lacey, Radar, and
poster hanging on the shade of Margo’s bedroom window, Ben storm out in anger. Quentin stays, and Margo calms down.
which has never been there before. He decides the poster is They spend the rest of the day together, talking frankly about
one of Margo’s clues, this time left for him rather than her what they have both experienced in the three weeks since she
parents. With Ben and Radar, Quentin goes into Margo’s room disappeared. Quentin urges Margo to come back to Orlando
and uncovers a string of clues, the last of which is Walt with him. Margo urges Quentin to come with her to New York
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry Ben discovers City, where she intends to go next. They realize that they need
among Margo’s things. to follow different paths in life, though they feel bound
On Monday, Margo’s friend Lacey approaches Quentin and Ben together by incredible intimacy, understanding and love.
asking what they know about Margo’s disappearance. Ben and
Lacey begin talking, and Ben convinces Lacey to go to prom
with him. Quentin has been puzzling over two lines in CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself,” which urge the reader to
remove doors from their hinges, and which he thinks must hold MAJOR CHARACTERS
the key to Margo’s next clue. In a moment of inspiration, he Quentin Jacobsen – The novel’s narrator and protagonist, a
takes his own bedroom door off its hinges and finds a scrap of senior in high school who endeavors to discover the fate of his
paper with an address printed on it in Margo’s handwriting. He, next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, after her
Radar, and Ben drive to the address and discover a dilapidated mysterious disappearance. Quentin begins the novel as a mild-
strip mall that has been abandoned for decades. They discover mannered nerd with a chronic fear of breaking rules, who has
painted-over graffiti that reads: “YOU WILL GO TO THE harbored a massive crush on Margo since they were children.
PAPER TOWNS AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK.” As he progresses in his search, Quentin begins to question the
Quentin begins to fear that Margo has taken her own life, and way he has conceptualized other people — both those he cares
realizes that the larger-than-life version of Margo he fell in love for and those he resents — and learns to recognize the
with bears little resemblance to the real, troubled young complexity and humanity of every person. Quentin is invested
woman he is now trying to find. in understanding the ways human beings build connections
An online search reveals that the phrase “paper towns” with one another, and thinks deeply throughout the novel
sometimes refers to unfinished subdivisions, which Quentin’s about the limitations of communication and the difficulty of
mother calls pseudovisions. Quentin compiles a list of all the truly understanding another person’s mind.

Margo Roth Spiegelman – Quentin’s next-door neighbor since help.
childhood, a free-spirited girl known throughout their high Gus – A friend of Margo, who was a senior at Winter Park High
school for her extraordinary adventures and elaborate School when Margo and Quentin were freshmen. Gus is now a
schemes. Margo has an unhappy relationship with her parents nighttime security guard at the SunTrust Building, and lets
and feels ill at ease in her Orlando community, which she finds Margo and Quentin in after hours. In her freshman year of high
stifling and inauthentic. Consequently, she has a long history of school, Gus allowed Margo to come with him and his friends on
running away from home and leaving clues for her family as to their urban exploring expeditions.
her whereabouts — though, until she disappears at the
beginning of the novel, she has always returned home within a
MINOR CHARACTERS
few days. Margo is largely incomprehensible to Quentin, who
first idealizes her as a carefree wild-child living life to its fullest, Connie Jacobsen – Quentin’s mother, a therapist who works
but finds as he begins searching for her that she was much with troubled children. Quentin describes her as being
more troubled and lonesome than he might have guessed. occasionally oblivious, but she is highly intelligent and handles
other people’s emotions very effectively. Mrs. Jacobsen
Ben Starling – Quentin’s best friend. Ben is goofy, frank, and
showers affection on her husband and son.
often insensitive, but he is sincerely loyal to his friends and
supports Quentin in his search for Margo despite having little Tom Jacobsen – Quentin’s father, a therapist like his wife.
personal interest in the mission. Like his friends, Ben begins the Given to introspection, he talks with Quentin about the
novel as an outcast. He wants badly to fit in and be liked, but difficulties of communicating and connecting with other people.
ends up being the butt of many of his classmates’ jokes. When Robert Jo
Joyner
yner – A middle-aged man who commits suicide in
he begins dating Lacey, however, Ben finds himself included Jefferson Park when Margo and Quentin are nine years old.
among many of the popular kids who tormented him in school. Margo and Quentin discover Joyner’s body while playing in the
Radar – Quentin’s other best friend, whose real name is park together. Finding Joyner’s body is a formative experience
Marcus. More easygoing than either Quentin or Ben, Radar is for Margo, and she continues to think about him as she grows
exceptionally intelligent and has a particular gift for computer up.
science. He is an obsessive user of a reference website called Dr
Dr.. Holden – Quentin’s English teacher, who talks with him
Omnictionary. Radar is compassionate and perceptive, and about “Song of Myself” and helps him understand Walt
often mediates conflict between Quentin and Ben. He is Whitman’s philosophy of human connectedness.
extremely useful to and supportive of Quentin in the search for
Ruthie Spiegelman – Margo’s eleven-year-old sister, with
Margo, and tends to grasp the meaning of Margo’s clues more
whom Margo is very close. After Margo’s disappearance,
easily than his friends. Radar falls in love with Angela over the
Ruthie helps Quentin and his friends sneak into her room to
course of the novel. His parents own the world’s largest
look for the clues Margo left as to her whereabouts.
collection of black Santas.
Myrna Mountweazel – The Spiegelman family’s aging dog.
Lace
Laceyy P
Pemberton
emberton – Margo’s best friend, who Margo wrongly
Myrna Mountweazel features prominently in the story Margo
believes hid Jase’s cheating from her. Lacey begins dating Ben
writes as a young child.
shortly after Margo’s disappearance, and bonds with Quentin
as she becomes more involved in his search for Margo. Lacey is Angela – Radar’s girlfriend, with whom he falls in love shortly
kindhearted and sincere, though she struggles with body image before the end of senior year. Angela is charming, beautiful, and
issues and craves the acceptance of her peers. level-headed. She does not participate in the search for Margo,
but is nevertheless a regular fixture in the lives of Radar’s
Detectiv
Detectivee Otis WWarren
arren – The police detective assigned to
friends.
search for Margo after her disappearance. Detective Warren is
well-intentioned and inspires Quentin’s trust, but is neither Becca Arrington – Margo’s friend, known for her fabulous
very effective in searching for her nor very helpful when good looks and horrible personality, who betrays Margo by
Quentin asks him for guidance in his own search. He having sex with Jase behind her back. Becca is cruel and
encourages Quentin to move on after Margo’s disappearance vindictive, and spreads rumors whenever possible.
and trust that Margo will make her own way in the world. Jason “Jase
“Jase”” W
Worthington
orthington – Margo’s boyfriend, a baseball
Mr
Mr.. and Mrs. Spiegelman – Margo’s narcissistic and superficial player from a wealthy family who she discovers at the
parents, who are more concerned with the embarrassment beginning of the novel has been cheating on her with Becca.
Margo causes them by running away than about her safety. The Jase helps Quentin reign in the popular kids’ pranks after
Spiegelmans call the police after Margo disappears, but elect Margo disappears.
not to look for her themselves. They believe Margo is a blight Chuck P Parson
arson – A hulking athlete who has bullied Quentin
on their family, and see her as being selfish and undeserving of since they were children.

Ace – A friend of Gus, and fellow urban explorer. Quentin talks about the different versions of Margo that he
The Carpenter – A friend of Gus, and fellow urban explorer. and his friends have constructed for themselves. He learns to
respect and appreciate Lacey, who he considered stupid and
Juanita Alvarez – One of Robert Joyner’s neighbors, whom shallow before getting to know her. He watches the popular
Margo tricks into telling her about the circumstances of students like Jase Worthington and Chuck Parson, who
Joyner’s death. tormented Quentin’s friends throughout high school, accept
Cassie Hine
Hineyy – A casual friend of Quentin, Radar, and Ben. those same friends into their social group, and his mother
Ashle
Ashleyy – A casual friend of Quentin, Radar, and Ben. encourages him to consider the possibility that the “popular
kids” have struggled in their own ways, though they seem to
Frank – A casual friend of Quentin, Radar, and Ben.
lead charmed lives.
Taddy Mac – A baseball player.
Though Quentin concludes that it is misguided and dangerous
Clint Bauer – A baseball player. to reduce the people around him to two-dimensional ideas, it
Karin – Margo’s friend, who tells Margo that Jase and Becca also becomes clear that it can be frightening and difficult for a
are sleeping together. person to allow themselves to be seen as a complex human
Suzie Chung – Quentin’s ex-girlfriend. being. Margo dedicates enormous thought and energy to
cultivating her larger-than-life persona, and she admits to
Betty P
Parson
arson – Chuck’s mother, a casual friend of Connie taking pleasure in the knowledge that others see her as a
Jacobsen. beautiful idea, rather than a human being. Being a “paper girl,”
Mr
Mr.. Arrington – Becca Arrington's father. as she calls it, frees her from the need to love and trust other
people, and allows her to feel powerful and in control despite
her unhappiness and shaky sense of self. Her decision to leave
THEMES Orlando and make a home for herself in New York is Margo’s
attempt to push herself out of that comfortable “paper” life and
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
toward a greater authenticity. The pain Quentin feels when he
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
and Margo part ways is a reminder that authenticity, and the
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
intimacy it creates, can be deeply painful, but are ultimately
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
necessary to living a full, real life.
black and white.
AUTHENTICITY AND ARTIFICIALITY

PERCEPTION VS. REALITY
Margo struggles to find meaning in the wealthy,
Quentin claims, at the beginning of the novel, that
suburban environment where she and Quentin
he has been in love with Margo since they were
have grown up. She disdains the interests and
children. Though their friendship has fizzled over
values of her family and friends, whom she believes to be
the years, he is amazed by the rumors he hears about Margo’s
superficial. Her favorite metaphor, which Quentin adopts after
adventures: her solo road trip through Mississippi, her three
her disappearance, is that Orlando is a “paper town” full of
days traveling with the circus, and similar, larger-than-life
“paper people,” where nobody cares about the things in life that
escapades. He thinks of her as the perfect girl, both beautiful
truly matter. Quentin finds the idea intriguing, and he uses
and intriguing. As his investigation of her disappearance
Margo’s language to justify his own bitter attitude toward his
develops, however, Quentin comes to understand that Margo is
community and classmates. He finds his cynicism challenged on
actually a deeply sad and lonely person, who is surrounded by
his last day of school, however, when he reflects on the way his
admirers but has no close, trusted friends. As his perception of
adolescent experiences have shaped him and think “[t]he town
Margo changes, Quentin stops thinking of her disappearance as
was paper, but the memories were not.” There is a sense that
an exciting mystery, and begins working to understand her pain.
the world appears artificial because Margo — and, to a
This project helps Quentin to become more compassionate in
somewhat lesser extent, Quentin — chooses to see it that way,
other aspects of his life, and he grows kinder and more
and that people are shallow and two-dimensional only when
generous toward the people around him as his story develops.
the person observing them does not make the effort to see
Eventually, however, he must confront the possibility that he
their humanity.
may never be able to fully understand another person, and that
some emotions and motivations must always remain a mystery Both Margo and Quentin have a difficult time being honest and
to him. direct about their thoughts and feelings. Each of them deals
with this in different ways. Margo plans grand gestures and
His friends and classmates are guilty of similar
allows other people to interpret her actions however they wish,
oversimplifications, not only of Margo, but of one another.
which spares her the responsibility of explaining her feelings to

anyone. Quentin accepts the status quo and works to fulfill often question whether the kind of intimate understanding he
others’ expectations for him, making it easy for him to move desires is even possible. Quentin’s parents, both of whom are
through life without questioning himself or being questioned psychologists, talk with him about the difficulties of
by others. Both rely on words written by other people to understanding other people. His father believes human beings
express themselves in conversation. Margo is constantly “lack good mirrors,” meaning they struggle both to understand
quoting poetry and novels, and Quentin learns to do the same themselves and to help other people understand them. His
as he immerses himself in the poetry she loved. However, in his mother adds that people have a hard time seeing one another
final conversation with Margo, Quentin designs a metaphor of as complex human beings, and instead idolize them as gods or
his own for talking about loneliness and connection—that reduce them to animals. The tendency toward fantasy and
people are born as perfect vessels that then develop cracks oversimplification appears over and over in the novel as a
through their lives—and in doing so illustrates a new barrier to real human intimacy.
willingness to make himself vulnerable by speaking what he
truly thinks. LEAVING HOME AND GROWING UP
Quentin’s conversation with Margo about the different Quentin’s obsession with Margo shapes his
metaphors for human experience and connection also experience of finishing high school, and of the
illustrates the ways in which his pursuit of her has helped him milestones associated with that transition. He
think more deeply about his own values and desire. His final misses both prom and graduation so that he can pursue Margo,
decision to return home and continue on his chosen path rather and when he is forced to attend an after-prom party so he can
than following Margo to New York forces Quentin to recognize drive Ben home, he is sullen and cynical, refusing to enjoy
how difficult it can be to know one’s true self. He believes that himself on principal. He becomes disinterested in the romantic
returning to Orlando and going to college is what he sincerely and sexual lives of his friends, each of whom becomes seriously
wants for himself, but Margo, who hoped that including involved with a girl during the last weeks of school. When asked
Quentin in her adventures would liberate him from the to think or talk about the landmark experiences that mean so
confining values of their community, questions whether he is much to Ben and Radar, Quentin often makes cynical
simply afraid to do something unconventional. Though her comments about the triteness and inauthenticity of those
effect on Quentin is different than the one Margo planned, his experiences, similar to the ones Margo makes at the beginning
ability to make choices for himself rather than following her of the novel. Quentin’s refusal to participate in the rituals that
prescription for him is strong evidence that he has abandoned come with finishing high school and transitioning to adulthood
his “paper” way of living and committed himself to a search for is partly a result of the unhappiness and isolation Quentin has
personal happiness. felt during his adolescence, but it also illustrates how difficult it
is for him to confront the necessity of growing up and leaving
HUMAN CONNECTION home. His handling of the situation contrasts with those of his
The events of the novel cause Quentin to consider friends, who continue to invest in the people and experiences
multiple different philosophies about the ways in around them even as the moment of separation approaches:
which human beings build connections with one Radar falls in love with Angela despite knowing that they will
another, and about the nature of those connections. Reading need to part ways in the fall, and Ben demonstrates a
Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” he becomes willingness to revise his opinions of others by pursuing a
interested in Whitman’s idea that all human beings are tied relationship with Lacey and relishes new friendships with his
together, like blades of grass that share the same root system, classmates.
and have a limitless ability to understand and empathize with On his last day of high school, Quentin reflects on the pleasures
one another. He eventually concludes, however, that Whitman’s of leaving a place where one has put down roots. Throwing
philosophy is overly optimistic about the extent to which away the contents of his locker and walking away from the
people can get into one another’s heads. He decides it is more school building are exhilarating experiences for him, and he is
accurate to think about human beings as vessels that start out surprised to discover how easy it is to leave that period of his
perfect, but become cracked and damaged as they experience life behind. He also recognizes that leaving may only feel
pain and loss. He believes that people can see one another liberating when there is something significant to leave behind,
through the cracks in their vessels, meaning that experiencing and wonders whether the best thing to do would be to chase
pain makes it easier for a person to understand the pain of that feeling indefinitely, leaving one place after another for his
others, and also makes that person easier for others to whole life. He confronts that possibility more clearly after he is
understand. reunited with Margo. During their day together in Agloe, both
Though Paper Towns tells the story of Quentin’s effort to must make choices about the kind of lives they want to lead as
understand and empathize with Margo, characters in the novel adults. Margo swears off conventional paths to success, which

start with college and end with a career and family, and decides
instead to strike out on her own and try to build a life in New SYMBOLS
York City. Quentin, however, insists that things like education
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and
and family can produce to happiness and lead to a meaningful
Analysis sections of this LitChart.
life. He declines Margo’s offer to start a new life in New York
with her, but he remarks before they part ways that “not
following her is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Though “SONG OF MYSELF”
Quentin does not condemn Margo for her choice, his decision
Quentin discovers Walt Whitman’s “Song of
to reject her restless way of life raises questions about the
Myself” as part of his search for Margo, but as he
nature of adulthood, and whether it is possible to build a
progresses in his investigation — turning his attention as he
satisfying life if one is afraid of putting down roots.
does from Margo and her intentions, to himself and the many
ways that he has misunderstood and mis-imagined Margo —the
FRIENDSHIP poem becomes a platform for Quentin to being formulating a
Friendships are the central relationships in Paper more generous, compassionate, and humble way of relating to
Towns, and are often more intimate than either others. Whitman is a tremendously empathetic poet, who
family relationships or romantic ones. However, believes that all people are interconnected, and through their
both Quentin and Margo fail to appreciate their friends, and connections can learn, not only to understand one another, but
both are forced to consider the people they have taken for to become one another. When Quentin finally talks to Margo
granted in a new light. Before leaving Orlando, Margo cuts ties about the poem at the end of the novel, though, he questions
with three of her closest friends. This includes Lacey, whom the accuracy of Whitman’s operative philosophy. He is less
Margo dismisses as spiteful and disloyal. However, Lacey optimistic than Whitman, because his experience of searching
proves herself to be both a good-hearted person and genuinely for Margo has taught him how difficult it can be to really
invested in Margo, and when the two meet again at the end of connect with and understand another person, but he does draw
the novel, Margo is forced to acknowledge her own self- from Whitman’s optimism in crafting his own philosophy of
centeredness in leaving her friend behind without a word. human connection. Quentin’s image of human beings as vessels
whose cracks allow others to see them clearly, borrows
The relationship between Margo and Lacey has parallels with
Whitman’s optimism to construct a generous vision for how
Quentin’s relationship with Ben, who is eager to enjoy his final
human beings can come to love one another in spite of and
weeks of high school to the fullest and constantly urges
because of their flaws.
Quentin to ease up on his investigation and devote more
attention to his friends. Quentin finds the things that interest
Ben to be both boring and unimportant, and he makes fun of MARGO’S NOTEBOOK
Ben for devoting so much energy to prom and his girlfriend, but
Margo’s notebook is a figure of her developmental
Ben proves his loyalty again and again by indulging Quentin’s
processes, and of the growth she has undergone
obsession even when he finds it absurd. Though he is one of the
since childhood. Margo fills the notebook when she is a young
least serious characters in the novel, Ben exemplifies the
girl with a story that reflects her dreams, her desires, and her
constancy and sincerity that Quentin and Margo believe are
need to see the world as a kinder and more loving place. As she
missing in the “paper people” around them. Radar encourages
gets older and becomes increasingly disenchanted with her life
Quentin to be more forgiving of Ben’s shortcomings, and to
and dissatisfied with herself, the notebook becomes a place
remember the things he likes and appreciates about his friends
where she escapes from her reality by throwing herself into the
before dismissing them for their flaws. Quentin put this advice
work of planning elaborate adventures and schemes and
into practice during the twenty-one hour road trip that he takes
pranks. The notebook is also the place where Margo begins to
with Radar, Ben, and Lacey to find Margo, an experience that he
imagine an alternative life for herself and an alternative way of
realizes is richer because he shares it with people about whom
being, as she begins to plan her final departure from Orlando.
he cares deeply. These developments are part of the novel’s
Margo carries the book with her at all times, but nobody knows
larger ethical code, which holds that all people are complex and
what she uses it for; in this way, it becomes a symbol for the
deserving of compassion, but learning to recognize the value of
way she keeps her authentic self hidden from others.
his friends is also a critical part of Quentin’s journey out of the
narcissism of adolescence and into a more nuanced and adult
relationship with the world around him.
QUO
QUOTES
TES
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the Speak
edition of Paper Towns published in 2009.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

It was so pathetically easy to forget about Chuck, to talk Explanation and Analysis
about prom even though I didn’t give a shit about prom. Such Margo and Quentin have just begun their night of
was life that morning: nothing really mattered much, not the adventure. They are buying supplies in Wal-Mart when
good things and not the bad ones. We were in the business of Margo launches, seemingly unprompted, into this speech.
mutual amusement, and we were reasonably prosperous. Though she uses abstraction and impersonal language to
create the illusion of having emotional distance, it is clear
that Margo is really expressing her own frustrations about
Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Chuck
the attitude many people around her — including Quentin
Parson, Ben Starling, Radar
himself — seem to have: a focus on the accumulation of
material goods and accomplishments at the expense of
Related Themes:
profound experiences in the present.
Page Number: 18 Margo hungers for deeper and more intense experiences
than are readily available to her, and she longs for a life
Explanation and Analysis molded around values and ideals rather than the desire to
Here, Quentin describes the ordinary day leading up to his meet the expectations of others. Her comments begin to
adventure with Margo. Before Quentin becomes entangled shed light on her reasons for planning the epic adventure in
with Margo, he lives a life almost entirely without extremes. which she has enlisted Quentin, as well as her other
He has few troubles and no great sorrows — but at the legendary schemes. Her rash and often dangerous actions
same time he has no real sources of joy. Quentin captures allow her to live entirely in the present, and to create some
the mild emotional power and low stakes of his life when he distance, however temporary, from the disappointments of
describes his activities, including his relationships with his her life.
best friends, as "amusement." Though he seems successful
on paper — he has friends and a social life, good grades, and
has been admitted to an elite university — his life is Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes
emotionally shallow.
Even though I could see her there, I felt entirely alone
This moment, like a calm before a storm, will provide a among these big and empty buildings, like I’d survived the
contrast with the strong emotions and powerful ideas apocalypse and the world had been given to me, this whole and
Quentin will encounter as he delves more deeply into amazing and endless world, mine for the exploring.
Margo's world. His deepening love for and understanding of
Margo will help Quentin better appreciate the relationships
and experiences he has always taken for granted, and Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
challenge him to evaluate his life with a more critical eye Roth Spiegelman
than ever before, disrupting his contentment and shocking
Related Themes:
him into a deeper and more intense experience of life.
Page Number: 53
Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

“Did you know that for pretty much the entire history of Driving through downtown Orlando after a series of acts of
the human species, the average life span was less than thirty exhilarating vandalism, Quentin has become swept up in the
years? You could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, adventure and drama of his night with Margo. Where
right? There was no planning for retirement. No planning for a before he was preoccupied with anxiety about getting into
career. There was no planning … And now life has become the trouble, he now feels empowered by the events of the night.
future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future.” The world around him, which seemed so ordinary not just in
daylight but all through the days of his life before tonight,
now seems beautiful — and, just as importantly, Quentin
Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker),
feels as though this beautiful new world is open to him.
Quentin Jacobsen
Interestingly, Quentin's feeling of ownership and
Related Themes: uncharacteristic willingness to embrace life fully comes at
Margo's expense. Thrilled and preoccupied by the new
Page Number: 33

perspective opening up inside him, Quentin ceases to even Quentin is optimistic to the point of being naive. Now that
see Margo. The night has become, from Quentin's point of Margo has disrupted the routines of his life, he is eager to
view, less about following a beautiful girl on an adventure see the world around him as being full of beauty and
and more about embracing a new vision of himself. The way adventure, and he either cannot see the underlying
he fails to see Margo here also hints at the way he (at this darkness, or refuses to do so. Margo, by contrast, is so
point) fails to entirely see the real Margo. She represents a cynical that she cannot appreciate beauty at all. Rather than
kind of dream or ideal for Quentin, and through the novel allow herself to see Orlando through Quentin's eyes, she
Quentin comes to know himself in part by learning how to has to counter his positive view of the city with a dark
get to know Margo as a person too. alternative.
“It’s a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those cul- Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes
de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the “I didn’t need you, you idiot. I picked you. And then you
houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living picked me back … And that’s like a promise. At least for tonight.
in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the In sickness and in health. In good times and in bad. For richer,
paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the for poorer. Till dawn do us part.”
paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania
of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And
Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker),
all the people, too. I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I have
Quentin Jacobsen
never once in my life come across anone who cares about
anything that matters.
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker), Page Number: 70

Quentin Jacobsen
Explanation and Analysis
Related Themes: Though Quentin feels sure Margo is only using him — that
she would never deign to include him in her plans unless she
Page Number: 57 stood to gain something from doing so — the truth is that
Margo desperately needs a friend at this tumultuous
Explanation and Analysis moment in her life. Margo has concocted this nighttime
Margo shares these reflections with Quentin while they crusade as a way of incinerating all her most cherished
look at the dark streets of Orlando from the top floor of the relationships, and she knows she will be leaving her family
SunTrust Building. Her speech is a response to Quentin's and community behind in just a few hours when she runs
claim that he finds the deserted streets of the city away to start a new life. At this moment of profound
"beautiful." uncertainty and loneliness, Margo seeks support from
Here Margo adopts the language of "paper" as a metaphor Quentin, with whom she shares a history of friendship.
for the emptiness and short-sightedness of the world she Though their relationship has fizzled over the years,
comes from. Just as paper can be easily ripped or crumpled, Quentin is now, essentially, the only friend Margo has left.
people and communities that organize themselves around
poorly chosen values — ideals Margo describes as"paper-
thin and paper-frail" — cannot hope to produce anything And I wanted to tell her that the pleasure for me was in
meaningful and lasting. She disparages the materialism of planning or doing or leaving: the pleasure was in seeing
her society, in which people spend their entire lives our strings cross and separate and then come back together.
accumulating wealth and possessions but sacrifice
relationships, beauty, and a sense of responsibility to others
in order to do so. She characterizes that materialism as a Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
kind of mental illness, which makes people "demented with Roth Spiegelman
the mania of owning things."
Related Themes:
The contrast between Quentin's perspective and Margo's
highlights the fundamental difference in their personalities. Page Number: 78


Explanation and Analysis I refused to feel any kind of sadness over the fact that I
After breaking into SeaWorld at the end of their night of wasn’t going to prom, but I had — stupidly, embarrassingly —
adventure, Margo confesses that doing interesting things thought of finding Margo, and getting her to come home with
never feels as good to her as planning them and looking me just in time for prom, like late on Saturday night, and we’d
forward to them. The park, for example, is unremarkable at walk into the Hilton ballroom wearing jeans and ratty T-shirts,
night, when all the animals have been moved to different and we be just in time for the last dance, and we’d dance while
tanks. To Quentin, though, the only important thing is that everyone pointed at us and marveled at the return of Margo,
he is sharing this experience with Margo: that he is and then we’d fox-trot the hell out of there and go get ice cream
watching the "strings" of their lives, which were at Friendly’s.
interconnected in childhood, come back together after so
many years of tepid acquaintanceship. Unlike Margo, who
Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
plans her adventures in hopes of finding the clarity and
Roth Spiegelman
freedom she craves, Quentin relishes what the experience
really offers: a moment of human connection, full of promise
Related Themes:
and possibility.
Page Number: 133
Part 2, Chapter 4 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

[M]aybe Margo needed to see my confidence. Maybe this After a phone call with Ben, Quentin reflects on his decision
time she wanted to be found, and to be found by me. Maybe — — about which he has been adamant since the first pages of
just as she had chosen me on the longest night, she had chosen the novel — not to attend prom. Always something of an
be again. And maybe untold riches awaited he who found her. outsider, Ben describes his hope that the people who
ignored or bullied him for so many years will have to revise
their idea of him when he arrives at the prom with beautiful,
Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo popular Lacey on his arm.
Roth Spiegelman
Though Quentin dismisses Ben's fantasies over the phone,
Related Themes: it is clear that he feels a similar desire to reinvent himself
and break out of the mold of the conventional, obedient
Page Number: 115 suburban kid in which he has been trapped all his life. In his
imagination, he and Margo — a girl who represents the
Explanation and Analysis independence of mind and spirit he has never been brave
This thought occurs to Quentin while he, Radar, and Ben enough to claim for himself — reject the shallow,
scour Margo's room for clues of her whereabouts shortly conventional ritual of prom, showing up late in jeans and t-
after her disappearance. shirts instead of the formal clothes their classmates agonize
The fantasy Quentin describes — that Margo has over. At the same time, they are the stars of the evening,
engineered her own disappearance as an elaborate test for attracting the attention and admiration of all their
him, an opportunity for him to prove that he is worthy of her classmates. Quentin longs both to find acceptance and to
friendship and love — is impossibly outlandish and self- transcend the need for acceptance.
centered. Here, he reveals the extent to which his
perception of Margo has become divorced from reality.
Quentin sees Margo as a supporting character in his life, or Part 2, Chapter 8 Quotes
a kind of beautiful, impossible ideal, rather than a three- Standing before this building, I learn something about fear.
dimensional person taking control of her own life. I learn that it is not the idle fantasies of someone who maybe
wants something important to happen to him, even if the
important thing is horrible … This fear is bears no analogy to
any fear I knew before. This is the basest of all possible
emotions, the feeling that was with us before we existed,
before this building existed, before the earth existed. This is the
fear that made fish crawl onto dry land and evolve lungs, the
fear that teaches us to run, the fear that makes us bury our
dead.

Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo The assertion that she will "never come back" is frightening
Roth Spiegelman for Quentin and his friends.
Later, in Agloe, Margo explains to Quentin that her escape
Related Themes: to the "paper town" — the imaginary place that became real
— was intended as the symbolic first step in transforming
Page Number: 140-141
herself from a "paper girl," who lacks substance and self-
Explanation and Analysis definition, to a real person who can live with purpose and
conviction. Though Margo never intends to commit suicide,
When Quentin, Radar, and Ben arrive at the address listed
as Quentin fears she might, she believes that the part of
on Margo's note, they are met with an overwhelming stench
herself that hungers after praise and popularity and the
that Quentin immediately understands must be a rotting
good opinion of other people must die before she can live an
corpse. The smell jolts Quentin out of his carefree self-
authentic life. With her spray-painted proclamation, Margo
centeredness — his belief that Margo's disappearance is just
commits to the destruction of that part of herself.
a game, and that he will surely win the "prize" of her
friendship and love when he finds her — and forces him to
recognize the grave possibility that Margo may have
committed suicide, and that the dead body may be hers. Part 2, Chapter 10 Quotes
Though the corpse turns out to be that of a raccoon, this “Let me give you some advice: let her come home. I mean,
experience alters Quentin's entire relationship to Margo at some point, you gotta stop looking up at the sky, or one of
and her disappearance. After his experience at the strip these days you’ll look back down and see that you floated away,
mall, he feels a real, human connection with Margo, whereas too.”
before this confrontation with the possibility of her death,
he had still idealized her from a distance. Quentin now Related Characters: Detective Otis Warren (speaker),
begins to consider Margo's inner life more deeply, Quentin Jacobsen, Margo Roth Spiegelman
acknowledging the pain and loneliness that prompted her to
run away and working to understand her empathetically. Related Themes:
Like the fear that grips him outside the strip mall, this work
is painful and sometimes overwhelming — however, as Page Number: 151
Quentin begins to humanize Margo in his mind, he becomes
a fuller and more compassionate person, better able to care
for those he loves. Detective Otis Warren offers Quentin this warning when
Quentin calls him to discuss some new information he
believes he has found about Margo's disappearance.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Quotes Warren, who in his first meeting with Quentin compared
runaway children to tied-down balloons that finally break
YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER TOWNS
free and float away, calls on that metaphor again to caution
AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK
Quentin about losing himself in the search for Margo.
Warren isn't the first person to worry that Quentin's
Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker), obsession with finding Margo is hindering his ability to live a
Quentin Jacobsen, Ben Starling full life — Quentin's parents and Ben both express similar
concerns at different points in the novel — but it is not until
Related Themes: his near-death experience during his road trip to Agloe that
Quentin truly begins to see the consequences of his
Page Number: 149 obsession and to recapture his desire to live a full life on his
own terms.
Though the novel focuses primarily on Quentin's journey to
Quentin, Radar, and Ben find this proclamation spray-
develop greater humanity and compassion for others, his
painted on the wall of the abandoned strip mall where they
experience searching for Margo also teaches him greater
expect to meet Margo. Since they discover the message
loyalty to and understand of himself. After dismissing his
shortly after their encounter with the dead raccoon, it
fantastic ideas about the ways in which his life might change
forces them to once again consider the possibility that
if Margo were to love him, and working hard to transcend
Margo may have taken her own life (or be planning to do so).


the boundaries of his own, self-centered perspective, he
also has to recognize that his life is his alone to live. He must “I know it’s impossible for you to see peers this way, but
live responsibly, with regard and care for other human when you’re older, you’ll start to see them — the bad kids and
beings, but he also must make his own decisions and set his the good kids and all kids — as people. They’re just people, who
own priorities, rather than blindly following another deserve to be cared for. Varying degrees of sick, varying
person's vision for him. degrees of neurotic, varying degrees of self-actualized.”
Related Characters: Connie Jacobsen (speaker), Quentin

Part 2, Chapter 14 Quotes Jacobsen, Tom Jacobsen
“You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting
people not to be themselves. I mean, I could hate you for being Related Themes:
massively unpunctual and for never being interested in
Page Number: 198
anything other than Margo Roth Spiegelman, and for, like,
never asking me about how it’s going with my girlfriend — but I Explanation and Analysis
don’t give a shit, man, because you’re you.”
During a dinner conversation about Quentin's longtime
rival, Chuck Parson, Connie Jacobsen draws on her
Related Characters: Radar (speaker), Quentin Jacobsen, experience as a psychologist to counter her son's tendency
Ben Starling to reduce other people to tropes and stereotypes: the
bullheaded jock in the case of Chuck, the cold-hearted
Related Themes: popular girl in the case of Becca Arrington, the beautiful
mystery in the case of Margo.
Page Number: 194
Her profession gives Mrs. Jacobsen unique insight into the
Explanation and Analysis complexities of the human mind, but the wisdom she offers
Quentin has less to do with her background in psychology
When Quentin, frustrated when Ben refuses to discuss new
than with her compassion and maturity: two qualities
information about Margo's disappearance, declares Ben an
Quentin is still lacking, though he has made progress
"asshole" during a conversation with Radar, Radar chastises
toward developing them. In his journey toward developing
him for refusing to accept that Ben is a person with his own
greater empathy, Quentin has focused largely on learning to
values and priorities, which may not always align with
understand and appreciate Margo — a person he already
Quentin's. He encourages Quentin to focus on the things
admired and cared for, even if his reasons for doing so were
that make Ben a worthwhile person and a good friend,
flawed. In order to develop true empathy, though, Quentin
rather than on his shortcomings, and suggests implicitly that
must recognize that every person, regardless of how
this is the only way relationships can be successful: that
difficult or unpleasant they might seem to him personally,
everyone has flaws which might make them unbearable to
has a deep and significant inner life and struggles in his or
be around if those were their only characteristics, but that
her own way.
no person is defined entirely by their flaws.
This conversation with Radar is part of Quentin's long
journey to become a more compassionate and humane
person — not just with regard to Margo, but with regard to “The longer I do my job … the more I realize that humans
people who seem much more ordinary and less deserving lack good mirrors. It’s so hard for anyone to show us how
than Margo. Ben is not the exciting, complex, intellectual we look, and so hard for us to show anyone who we feel.”
person Margo is. He cracks immature jokes and craves the
acceptance of his peers. These qualities make him easy to Related Characters: Tom Jacobsen (speaker), Quentin
dismiss, but Radar urges Quentin to extend his compassion Jacobsen, Connie Jacobsen
to Ben rather than reserving it for people who seem
"special" and therefore worthy. Related Themes:
Page Number: 198


After Quentin dismisses their sympathetic comments about
Chuck Parson during a dinner conversation, Mr. and Mrs. I couldn’t help but think about school and everything else
Jacobsen speculate about the reasons people have such a ending. I liked standing just outside the couches and watching
difficult time empathizing with others. Mr. Jacobsen's them — it was a kind of sad I didn’t mind, and so I just listened,
hypothesis — that most people simply do not know how to letting all the happiness and the sadness of this ending swirl
express their emotions in ways other people can around in me, each sharpening the other. For the longest time,
understand — captures the essential loneliness and it felt kind of like my chest was cracking open, but not precisely
frustration of being human. Through Quentin's experience in an unpleasant way.
searching for Margo, which forces him to think critically
about his perception of others and brings both his best and Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Ben
worst qualities to the surface, Quentin comes to Starling, Radar, Lacey Pemberton
understand that every person — from goofy and childish
Ben to actively vicious Chuck Parson — acts mostly out of a Related Themes:
need for patience, acceptance, and love.
Page Number: 215

The fundamental mistake I had always made — and that
Since the beginning of the novel, Quentin has maintained a
she had, in fairness, always led me to make — was this:
cool, critical distance from the experience of finishing high
Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was
school: he refuses to go to prom, balks at the sentimentality
not a fine and precious thing. She was a girl.
of his parents and peers, and takes a laissez-faire attitude
toward the graduation ceremony itself, ultimately skipping it
Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo to drive to Agloe in search of Margo. In this scene, attending
Roth Spiegelman a laid-back party with his friends and acquaintances from
the school band, he allows himself to feel emotional about
Related Themes: the coming transition for the first time. The fact that
Quentin allows himself this moment of authentic
Page Number: 199 feeling—after months, or possibly years, of acting aloof and
Explanation and Analysis disinterested in order to maintain some semblance of being
"cool"—is a sign that he is developing a more mature
Throughout the novel, Quentin constantly discovers and understanding of himself and the people around him. After
rediscovers Margo's humanity. In this moment, during an working so hard to understand Margo and break down the
illuminating dinner conversation with his parents, he barrier of her larger-than-life persona, Quentin is coming to
perceives both Margo's complexity and the tremendous a greater appreciation of the power of sincere emotion in an
ordinariness of that complexity. Though he has already anxious, inauthentic world.
confronted the fact that Margo's inner life may have been
much darker than he realized — that she may have planned
to take her own life, for instance — he still has not been able Part 2, Chapter 17 Quotes
to think about her as an ordinary person.
“I know you want to find her. I know she is t he most
Even at the darkest and most frightening extremes of his
important thing to you. And that’s cool. But we graduate in, like,
imagination, Quentin has always related to Margo as a
a week. I’m not asking you to abandon the search. I’m asking
character in a story, someone larger than life whose mind
you to come to a party with your two best friends who you have
and experience bore no resemblance to his own. Now,
known for half your life.”
imagining the possibility that Margo may have suffered
from something as ordinary as loneliness and a sense of
isolation — that she may have fled Orlando, not because she Related Characters: Ben Starling (speaker), Quentin
was living in a grand and dramatic narrative, but because Jacobsen, Margo Roth Spiegelman
she felt trapped and had no idea what else to do — Quentin
begins a new stage in the development of his empathetic Related Themes:
imagination.
Page Number: 211

Explanation and Analysis thrilling, but even more importantly, cutting all ties and
escaping into a new life eliminates the need to really
When Quentin declines Ben's invitation to a casual party at confront the loss and the feelings that come with it. Though
Radar's house, Ben offers this firm but uncharacteristically Quentin seems very brave and bold as he drives away, he is
gentle argument to convince him to attend. Ben never really really avoiding the hard work of acknowledging and coping
becomes emotionally involved with the search for Margo, with his emotions: his resentment for all the bullying and
and on more than one occasion refuses outright to help injustice, his dissatisfaction at the shallowness and
Quentin chase down new clues. In light of this, his superficiality, and also the deep gratitude and love he feels
sympathetic recognition of the fact that Margo is "the most for some of the people and experiences he had in high
important thing" to Quentin becomes a gesture of solidarity school. Cutting ties without a second thought is, as Quentin
and understanding. realizes at this moment, "the easiest goddam thing in the
Though Ben is not always the kind of friend Quentin wants world" — but living life fully sometimes necessitates doing
him to be, this conversation shows that Ben is trying to be the more difficult thing. When Quentin attends a graduation
the kind of friend Quentin needs: understanding and party with his friends soon after this moment, he will face
compassionate, not jealous or resentful of the fact that the complicated emotions that come with graduation in a
Quentin spends more time searching for a girl he barely more genuine way; this experience, rather than the heady
knows than relishing his last weeks with his best friends, but escape in this scene, will better help prepare him to move
also protective of Quentin's happiness and psychological on.
wellbeing. Ben wants Quentin to have a normal end-of-high-
school experience, and to take the time to reminisce and
appreciate what he has gone through. I blame her for this ridiculous, fatal chase — for putting us
at risk, for making me into the kind of jackass who would
In some ways, this is also an effort to ensure that Quentin stay up all night and drive too fast. I would not be dying were it
keeps moving forward: that he goes through the normal not for her. I would have stayed home, and I have always stayed
process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, home, and I would have been safe, and I would have done the
because otherwise he risks becoming trapped in this one thing I have always wanted to do, which is grow up.
moment, too obsessed with Margo's disappearance to go on
with his own life. Despite all the ways in which he fails to
meet Quentin's expectations, Ben shows himself here to be Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
a genuine friend. Roth Spiegelman
Related Themes:
It is so hard to leave — until you leave. And then it is the
easiest goddamned thing in the world. Page Number: 268

In the final stretch of their road trip to Agloe, an exhausted
Roth Spiegelman
Quentin fails to notice a massive cow blocking the road. As
the car barrels toward the cow, Quentin — recognizing that
Related Themes:
he and his friends will almost certainly die in the resulting
Page Number: 229 collision — suddenly sees his single-minded fixation on
Margo in a harsh new light. He sees his friends' loyalty, and
Explanation and Analysis his failure to appreciate them. He also sees what others
This thought occurs to Quentin on his last day of high have been warning him about since he began his search for
school, after he dumps the contents of his locker into the Margo: that, in his obsession with finding her, he lost his
garbage and drives away for the last time. Though he feels sense of having a self independent from her, with goals and
sentimental wandering through the halls, he feels suddenly dreams for his own life that existed before Margo's
free and deeply content as he leaves this period of his life disappearance and had nothing to do with her.
behind, knowing he'll never return. The anger and resentment Quentin feels at this moment
Quentin's exhilaration shines some light on Margo's does not last. Still, this brush with disaster awakens Quentin
decision to cut all ties in Orlando and leave her home, to the world outside his search for Margo. After weeks of
friends, and family behind. The feeling of independence is feeling like his identity is inextricably intertwined with hers,

he recaptures his appreciation for a life that has, for years, Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker),
had almost nothing to do with her. This moment of self- Quentin Jacobsen
recognition is the first step toward his eventual decision to
return to Orlando and go to college as planned, rather than Related Themes:
following Margo to New York.
Page Number: 293-294
“Oh bullshit. You didn’t come here to make sure I was okay. Explanation and Analysis
You came here because you wanted to save poor little In her conversation with Quentin in Agloe, Margo
Margo from her troubled little self, so that I would be oh-so- acknowledges that she was complicit in her own
thankful to my knight in shining armor that I would strip my objectification — that she encouraged other people to see
clothes off and beg you to ravage my body.” her as a beautiful idea rather than a human being, because it
was easier to fulfill their expectations than to make herself
Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker), vulnerable to rejection by exposing her flaws and the
Quentin Jacobsen messiness of her inner life. It is important for both Margo
and Quentin to recognize that being "paper" is something a
Related Themes: person can actively choose when they do not feel brave
enough or safe enough to show their true selves to others.
Page Number: 284 Authenticity takes courage, but it is also a necessary step
before a person can find real happiness and connection.
Margo tried to live as a "paper girl" in Orlando, but found
Margo's cynical interpretation of Quentin's actions might she could never ignore the things that made her complex
have been accurate (though exaggerated) at the beginning and human. She runs away because she can no longer abide
of the novel, when Quentin felt sure her disappearance was her own cool, aloof persona — to be fulfilled in life, she
only an elaborate game. But Quentin has grown and needs to form relationships based on honesty and sincerity,
changed a great deal since Margo first disappeared, and her and gain a deeper understanding of her real self.
presumptuous criticism shows that her failures of
compassion and imagination have been just as deep as
Quentin's.
She can see it in my face — I understand now that I can’t be
At the same time, Margo's rage at being found — and the
her and she can’t be me. Maybe Whitman had a gift I don’t
shock that rage inspires in Quentin — reveals all the ways in
have. But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he is
which Quentin, for all his growth, still expected their
hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only
relationship to follow the patterns of a neat-and-tidy fairy
wounded man I can be is me.
tale story. Quentin has assumed since the beginning that
Margo wanted to be found, and though he has released
many of his fantastic ideas about what might happen after Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
their reunion, he certainly seems to have expected some Roth Spiegelman
kind of gratitude from her. Though Quentin has spent
weeks learning about Margo and working to better Related Themes:
understand her, this moment is a reminder of the fact that
he and Margo still know next to nothing about each other. Related Symbols:
No amount of imagination can allow one person to
understand another as intimately as a real, human Page Number: 298
interaction can.
After Quentin hears Margo's explanation of her
disappearance, he tells her that he understands her reasons
“People love the idea of a paper girl. They always have. and for leaving Orlando, but that he believes she can come back
the worst thing is that I loved it, too. I cultivated it, you with him and resume her life on her own terms. When
know … Because it’s kind of great, being an idea that everybody Margo immediately rejects this idea, Quentin is forced
likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way.” finally to release his dreams of a neat and tidy ending to

their story. As much as he wants Margo to come home with empathetic imagination, Quentin recognizes that his efforts
him and continue building the relationship that has only just to see Margo more clearly have been powerful and
started between them, he has to recognize that her needs necessary. Though he will never know everything about her,
are different from his own. She is not able to give him what he has to make the effort of imagining himself into her heart
he wants — a stable, sure relationship — while still being and mind, if only because that effort shows his willingness
true to herself. Their relationship is insufficient to draw her to see her in all her complexity.
back into a life she does not want, or to protect her from
falling back into her old ways. Likewise, Quentin cannot do
what Margo will soon ask of him — run away to New York
When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you
and start a new life with her — while still being true to saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we
himself. Quentin sees this truth through Whitman's "Song of were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your
Myself," of course, and here recognizes that he isn't as
window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel
fundamentally optimistic about human connection as
cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.
Whitman is — Quentin believes in empathy and connection,
but not in the kind of perfect union Whitman describes (in
which a person can becomeanother).Margo and Quentin Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo
have achieved remarkable understanding of and love for Roth Spiegelman
one another, but this does not resolve all the problems and
complications in their lives, and it does not guarantee that Related Themes:
their relationship will be an easy or successful one.
Page Number: 302

Imagining isn’t perfect. You can’t get all the way inside In Agloe, Quentin searches for a metaphor that can capture
someone else. I could never have imagined Margo’s anger his new understanding of the complex way in which human
at being found, or the story she was writing over. But imagining beings relate to one another: the impossibility of ever really
being someone else, or the world being something else, is the knowing another person, as Whitman's metaphor of the
only way in. interconnected roots of grass suggests, and the desperate
hunger for love and compassion that he has come to
Related Characters: Quentin Jacobsen (speaker), Margo understand during his search for Margo. He conceives of
Roth Spiegelman the metaphor of human beings as watertight vessels that
become cracked and imperfect over time, until they
Related Themes: eventually split open to reveal their contents. Like those
vessels, whose contents are invisible to begin with, human
Page Number: 299 beings keep their deepest and truest selves hidden from
others as long as they can. As life goes on, however, pain and
Explanation and Analysis other profound experiences "crack" people open, making it
During their day together in Agloe, Quentin hears Margo's impossible for them to hide their true selves.
version of their shared story: the death of Robert Joyner, Margo's disappearance exposes Quentin to the most
their years of tepid friendship throughout high school, their difficult and frightening experiences of his life, and forces
night of adventures, and her disappearance. He realizes him to recognize the deep pain that was always part of
that, as hard as he has tried to understand Margo, he can Margo, but which he was never willing or able to see. When
never presume to know her fully. This is an important he finally reaches Margo, he perceives his own fragility and
addendum to all the lessons Quentin has learned about vulnerability in how deeply he has come to care for her. In
compassion and empathy; before he can truly humanize crafting his metaphor of cracked vessels, Quentin
others, he has to recognize and accept that there will always recognizes that love and intimacy are the products of
be parts of them that he cannot access. To proceed through compassion. People must allow one another to see their
life without this understanding would be arrogant, and weakness and pain before they can experience deep
would ultimately be just as dehumanizing as never trying to connection — but in exposing those darker parts of
empathize with others at all. themselves, they open themselves up to the healing forces
At the same time as he acknowledges the limits of of love and friendship, and allow the best and most worthy

parts of themselves to shine through to others. looking directly into one another's faces. While a kiss
represents a fairy tale ending — the thing Quentin wanted
and expected when he first began searching for Margo —
this moment of eye contact represents a new willingness on
After we kiss, our foreheads touch as we stare at each
both their parts to see each other for who they really are.
other. Yes, I can see her almost perfectly in this cracked
darkness. It is also worth noting that the novel ends where it began: in
the middle of the night, the period when one day transitions
into the next. Just as they were on their first night of
adventure, Margo and Quentin are here on the brink of a
Roth Spiegelman
major transition, both in their personal lives and in their
relationship to one another. Both are preparing to start new
Related Themes:
lives — Quentin at college, and Margo in New York — and it
Page Number: 305 is unclear whether they will ever see each other again.
Unlike the fairy tale, which ends with all conflicts solved and
Explanation and Analysis questions answered, this final line acknowledges that life is
It is important that this final line of the novel, after Margo a series of transitions, and that real life is never truly
drops Quentin off at his motel and they prepare to part finished.
ways, ends not with a kiss but with Margo and Quentin

SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
PROLOGUE
Quentin Jacobsen, reflecting on his childhood, considers the Quentin’s first lines illustrate his dehumanizing idealization of
possibility that every person will experience one incredible and Margo. He thinks of Margo as an event or force in his life — a
unlikely event in their life: one “miracle.” Some people win “miracle” that happens to him — rather than as a person whose
Nobel Prizes or survive months at sea, but Quentin believes his existence is separate from his. The detail with which he describes
“miracle” was living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. Jefferson Park’s history, including the eccentric Dr. Jefferson
Margo and Quentin grew up together in Jefferson Park, one of Jefferson, gives the sense that Jefferson Park is unique and specific,
the many subdivisions in Orlando, Florida. Jefferson Park is despite the fact that it is one of countless subdivisions in Orlando
named after the rich and powerful orange juice salesman who and seems unremarkable on its surface.
once owned the land, Dr. Jefferson Jefferson. Quentin found
Margo beautiful even when they were children, and
remembers getting nervous every time they played together.
Quentin remembers an experience he shared with Margo when For Quentin, the discovery of the dead man is an intrusion on
they were nine years old. In the memory he describes, he and innocence, shattering the peace of two children as they play.
Margo bike to a park at the center of their subdivision. Upon However, Margo’s fascination with the body and apparent comfort
arriving at the park, they discover a dead man lying under an in the presence of death suggests she is not so pure and childlike as
oak tree, covered in blood. Margo, fascinated, approaches the Quentin is himself, or as he remembers her. Her bloody shoes
man and examines his body, wondering aloud about the forebode the way this experience will follow her into adulthood.
circumstances of his death. Quentin is terrified and urges her
to come home with him. Biking home behind her, Quentin
notices the man’s blood on her sneakers.
That night, after Quentin has gone to bed following a Margo and Quentin’s radically different responses to finding Joyner
comforting conversation with his therapist mother, Margo anticipate the different approaches to living they will adopt as
appears at his bedroom window. Through the screen, she tells teenager. Quentin allows his mother to comfort him, which is
him she has done an investigation about the dead man, whose evidence of their trusting relationship and of his desire to be
name was Robert Joyner. She talks about her conversation comforted. Margo does not share her experience with her parents,
with Juanita Alvarez, Joyner’s neighbor, to whom Margo gained highlighting her isolation from them. She shows a powerful need to
access by claiming she needed to borrow a cup of sugar. understand what happened to Joyner and seems to feel kinship
Alvarez told Margo that Joyner shot himself because he was with him, believing she can understand his decision.
getting divorced. Quentin reminds Margo that many people get
divorced without committing suicide, and Margo suggests that
Joyner may actually have died because “all the strings inside
him broke.”
Quentin, at a loss for words, removes the window screen. He Quentin does not respond to the news of Joyner’s suicide as
seems to assume Margo will come into his bedroom, but Margo strongly as Margo does, and this creates emotional as well as literal
does not move and tells him to shut the window. He does, and separation between them. By removing the screen, he invites Margo
she remains outside, staring at him. He waves and smiles at her, into his home and life; by insisting he close the window, Margo
but notices that her gaze is fixed on something behind him, and creates a barrier between them. They are stuck staring at each
that she looks afraid. They stand in silence, looking at each other, both unable to move closer through the barrier and unwilling
other. Quentin claims that he does not remember how the to separate. They are both connected and utterly apart.
encounter ended, and says that in his memory, they continue to
look at each other through the window forever.
©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 17

Quentin concludes, narrating once again from the present, that That Quentin refers to Margo as a mystery emphasizes the difficulty
Margo always loved mysteries, and he wonders whether she of comprehending her mind. His reference to her love of mysteries,
loved mysteries so much that she eventually became one. her desire to be a mystery, also suggests that Margo has an active
desire to evade others’ understanding—to have that glass window
always between her and the rest of the world.
PART 1, CHAPTER 1
Quentin, now a senior at Winter Park High School in Orlando, This section offers a snapshot of Quentin’s life as a teenager, and
arrives at school on a Wednesday morning. He learns from his emphasizes how ordinary his interests and experiences are. His
best friend Ben Starling that another of their friends, Radar, unremarkable life as a teenager contrasts with the dramatic
has made plans to go to prom with a girl named Angela, whom childhood experience he narrates in the prologue. He occupies
neither of them has ever met. Quentin is disinterested in prom, himself with the day-to-day problems and triumphs of friends who
but Ben is fixated on the idea of going. He updates Quentin on are as ordinary as himself. This section also emphasizes Quentin’s
his efforts to find a prom date, which have been unsuccessful status as a social outcast. His friendship with Ben, who is
since nearly every girl in school has heard “the Bloody Ben romantically unsuccessful and has been a target for a popular girl’s
story,” a nasty rumor started by Margo’s friend Becca Arrington joke, casts Quentin as an outsider in the same way Ben is. That
when they were in the tenth grade. When Ben was hospitalized Becca is Margo’s friend also establishes that Margo is not a social
for a kidney infection, Becca told their classmates that the outcast: she is one of the popular girls.
blood in his urine was actually a symptom of his chronic
masturbation. The story has continued to haunt him ever since.
Quentin becomes distracted from the conversation when he It becomes clear in this passage that Margo’s status as a legend
sees Margo in the hall. She is standing with her boyfriend, the extends far beyond Quentin — everyone at Winter Park High School
baseball player Jase Worthington, and appears to be laughing thinks of her in a similar way. Her presence immediately draws
hysterically. He thinks of the escapades and adventures for Quentin’s attention, illustrating the extent of his fascination with
which Margo is famous: the time she ran away to Mississippi, her, and the posture in which he sees her — laughing with her
her brief career traveling with a circus, and her behind-the- athlete boyfriend —supports his presumption that Margo leads a
scenes encounter with a famous band in St. Louis. Stories of glamorous life.
these adventures circulate through the entire school, and
though no one can believe they are real, they always prove true.
Ben and Quentin meet Radar in the hall. Radar deflects That Quentin has nothing substantial to say when Chuck asks him
conversation about his relationship with Angela by talking what he knows about Margo illustrates the extent to which they
about Omnictionary, a reference website he loves. Quentin and grown apart since they were children. It also serves as a reminder of
Radar joke about Ben’s prom prospects. Chuck Parson, an the superficial nature of Quentin’s admiration of Margo. Though he
enormous and popular athlete, approaches Quentin and starts thinks and writes about her constantly, he knows very little about
to harass him, asking what he knows about Margo and Jase. her life.
Quentin knows nothing of interest, since his friendship with
Margo has stagnated over the years. Quentin and Radar leave
for calculus. In his narration, Quentin remarks about how easy
it was for him to amuse himself by talking about prom with his
friends, and to feel as though nothing happening around him
mattered much.

During lunch, Ben admits he wants to go to prom even though Their conversation with Angela establishes how well Ben and
Quentin thinks the idea is stupid. He tells Quentin he has Quentin know Radar, and how loyal they are to him. While both
already been rejected by one potential date. A girl with know the reason Radar is not inviting Angela to his house, they have
dreadlocks approaches them, and Quentin realizes that this is no qualms about lying to cover for their friend.
Angela. Angela tells the boys that Radar — who has a different
lunch period, and so is not with them — hasn’t invited her to his
house, even though they’ve been dating for five weeks. She
asks whether Radar is embarrassed of her, or whether his
parents are weird. Quentin rushes to assure her that Radar’s
parents are just overprotective. She leaves, apparently
satisfied, and the boys wonder how long it will be until she
learns the real reason that Radar hasn’t invited her to his
house.
Talking with Radar after lunch, Quentin and Ben tell him about Though the reason for Radar’s embarrassment is absurd and
their conversation with Angela. They tease Radar about the comical, the fact that he is not integrating Angela into his life
real reason his for reluctance to bring his girlfriend home: his because of that embarrassment shows on a micro level how
parents own the world’s largest collection of black Santas, and insecurities keep people from connecting with one another.
every surface in his house is covered with black Santa
paraphernalia.
After school, Quentin follows the same unremarkable routine Quentin is comforted by the boring predictability of his life, and
he follows every day, watching television and eating dinner does not seem to have any particular thirst for adventure. However,
with his parents. His days are boring, he thinks, but there is his apparent failure to replace the window screen, which he
something pleasant about being bored. A little before midnight, removed on the night Joyner died to let Margo into his room,
however, the routine of the day is disrupted. Margo appears at suggests he has been waiting subconsciously for her to re-enter his
his bedroom window and opens it, something she hasn’t done life.
since the night after Robert Joyner died, nine years earlier. The
window still has no screen.
PART 1, CHAPTER 2
Margo is dressed in black and wearing black face paint. Margo’s flair for the dramatic is evident in all aspects of her arrival
Standing outside his window, she tells Quentin that she needs at Quentin’s window. Her face paint, the suddenness of her
to use his mother’s minivan. When Quentin reminds her that appearance, and her quip about her agenda for the night give this
she has a car of her own, Margo tells him that her parents have moment an air of performance, and make it clear that she wants to
locked the keys to her car in a safe under their bed, and that her make a certain impression on Quentin. The sudden reconfiguration
dog, Myrna Mountweazel, will bark and give her away if she of her relationships — her belief that her friends have become a
tries to steal the keys back. She also tells Quentin that she “problem” and her decision to enlist Quentin as a companion
needs him to drive, because she has “eleven things to do though they are practically strangers — hints at her actual isolation
tonight, and at least five of them involve a getaway man.” even within her popularity.
Quentin resists, telling Margo she should get Lacey or Becca to
help her, but Margo tells him that Lacey and Becca are part of
the problem.
Margo and Quentin’s conversation comes to a sudden close Margo’s father disrupts her cool persona when he appears
when Margo’s father appears outside and orders her back into unexpectedly and exercises his authority to order her inside. His
the house. Margo tries to deflect her father with jokes, but hostility and her disregard for him are early signs of the strained
eventually she disappears out the window with a promise to relationship between Margo and her parents.
Quentin that she will be back in a minute.

Waiting for Margo to return, Quentin collects his car keys. He Quentin’s access only to his mother’s minivan (as opposed to his
remembers his disappointment when, on his sixteenth birthday, own car) is a symbol of his continued dependence on his parents —
his parents gave him a key to his mother’s minivan instead of a a reminder that he is not an adult. Though she seems exasperated
car of his own. When Margo returns, Quentin is still hesitant to when Quentin insists they are not friends, Margo’s strong reaction
go with her. She appeals to their friendship, and when he insists to that statement suggests she is more vulnerable than she would
that they are neighbors, not friends, she gets frustrated and have Quentin believe. She seems genuinely to want and need his
reveals that she has been subtly looking out for him throughout companionship. At the same time, while secretly “protecting”
high school, ordering other popular students not to bully someone can be considered a nice thing to do, it is also
Quentin and his friends. Finally, she tells him that they have to condescending and not actual friendship. Margo’s relationship to
go, and he follows her. Quentin is unequal: she expects him to do what she wants, and he
does.
Driving through Jefferson Park, Margo tells Quentin that her Margo tries to seem unaffected when she talks with Quentin about
parents don’t care about her sneaking out, but are only worried her relationship with her parents, but she betrays her frustration
about being embarrassed in front of their friends and and disappointment with their superficial fear of embarrassment.
neighbors. She describes the extreme measures they have Their efforts to control her trap Margo in a state of extended
taken to prevent her from leaving the house at night, putting a childhood, sleeping with a baby monitor and sneaking out like a
baby monitor in her room so they can hear her sleep breathing. cliché rebellious teenager.
She was only able to sneak out because she paid her little sister,
Ruthie, to sleep in her bed.
Quentin asks Margo where they are going. She tells him that As their adventure begins in earnest, Margo resumes use of
their first stop is the grocery store Publix, and that their next dramatic words and gestures — such as pulling out a stack of
stop will be Wal-Mart. She tells him that they are going to hundred-dollar bills — to reassert herself as a confident ringleader.
spend the night righting wrongs, and pulls out several hundred However, it also seems like she’s playing a role she might have
dollars in cash, which she claims is money from her bat mitzvah. watched on TV. That her money is leftover from her bat mitzvah, a
As they pull into the empty Publix parking lot, she tells Quentin, rite of passage for young teenagers, is a reminder that Margo, for all
“[T]his is going to be the best night of your life.” her posturing, is not actually the self-sufficient adult she seems to
be.
PART 1, CHAPTER 3
In the parking lot at Publix, Margo gives Quentin a list of items The odd combination of items Margo asks Quentin to buy herald a
to buy and a hundred-dollar bill with which to pay for them. The strange night ahead, and also emphasizes the odd and
list includes, among other things, three catfish, a dozen tulips, a unpredictable nature of her mind. Her list provides no insight into
can of blue spray paint, and hair-removal cream. Reading the her plans for the evening, and so heightens the sense of mystery
list, he comments on her unusual capitalization style: she surrounding her, while her unconventional capitalization creates an
capitalizes words at random, in the middle of sentences rather aura of studied quirkiness. Though she seems nonchalant, there is a
than at the beginning. Margo tells him that she finds sense that everything Margo does is intended to create a certain
conventional rules of capitalization unfair to words in the impression.
middle. Quentin goes inside alone to buy the items, while
Margo waits for him in the parking lot.

When he returns to the car, Quentin worries aloud that Duke Margo’s condescending answer to Quentin’s anxiety reveals both
University, where he plans to attend college, will revoke his her disregard for his feelings and her general disenchantment with
admission if he gets arrested. Margo expresses amazement at the values and conventions that guide her peers. Her academic
the fact that Quentin can be interested in things like college, success may be evidence of hypocrisy—that she’s only pretending
school, or the future. Quentin begins to protest with a not to care—or may simply show how hard it can be to disregard
comment about Margo’s academic success — her good grades others’ expectations.
and her admission to the University of Florida — but Margo
urges him on toward their next stop, Wal-Mart.
At Wal-Mart, Margo and Quentin buy a device called The Club, Margo has now become very open and eager to talk about her
which is designed to lock a car’s steering wheel into place. personal philosophy. Her distaste for the idea of living for the
Quentin asks Margo’s reason for buying The Club, but Margo future— planning for a career and an adult life, as the people who
ignores him. She goes on an unprompted diatribe about her surround her tend to — suggests dissatisfaction with the life she is
belief that, as the average human life span has lengthened, living and path she is on, and her desire to do something more
people have begun to spend more and more of their lives fulfilling in the present rather than wait and hope to be happy later
planning for the future. She claims that this pattern has on.
reached a point where every moment of life is lived for the
future.
Quentin suspects Margo is rambling to avoid his question, and While Margo is happy to talk about her abstract ideas, she keeps
he asks her again why she needs The Club. She promises that Quentin ignorant of the basic facts. This allows her to maintain
everything will become clear before the night ends, and control of both him and their situation, but is also evidence of her
changes the subject by taking an air horn from the shelf. desire to talk about things that bother her —something Quentin
Quentin orders her not to blow it, but she blows it anyway. does not notice or respond to.
A Wal-Mart employee appears and tells Margo she needs to The Wal-Mart employee’s mistake in referring to Quentin as
stop blowing the air horn. The employee is visibly interested in Margo’s little brother plays to Quentin’s insecurities about being
and attracted to Margo, and invites her to come with him to a less adult — and, though it is never said outright, less sexy —than
bar after he gets off work. The employee assumes Quentin is Margo. When she brings Quentin back into the conversation with
Margo’s younger brother. When Quentin, clearly embarrassed, her joke, Margo “chooses” him again, dismissing the employee who
tells the employee that he is not Margo’s brother, Margo puts ignored him and bolstering Quentin’s confidence. This is a gesture of
her arm around his waist and announces that Quentin is both sincere friendship.
her cousin and her lover.
As the employee walks away, Quentin enjoys the feeling of Quentin presumes an intimacy with Margo at this moment that he
Margo’s hand and takes the opportunity to put his arm around has not shown before, touching her and joking with her. Margo’s
her. He tells her that she is his favorite cousin, and she answers, playful response shows that she is not unhappy with this intimacy,
“Don’t I know it?” She smiles and shimmies out of his embrace. but she deflects it nevertheless by moving away.

PART 1, CHAPTER 4
Admiring the streetlights as they drive on the highway, Quentin In order to appreciate something fully, Margo needs to respect its
quotes T.S. Eliot, calling them “the visible reminder of Invisible source and context. She is moved by Eliot’s words, but the fact that
Light.” Margo thinks the words are beautiful, and though she is they do not come from Quentin directly diminishes their power and
disappointed to learn that the line is a quotation, she asks authenticity.
Quentin to say it again.
As their conversation continues, Margo reveals that Jase has Quentin’s mistake illustrates the extent to which he has both
been cheating on her with Becca. Quentin is dumbfounded, and idealized and dehumanized Margo. He believes her life is totally
tells Margo he saw her laughing with Jase at school that glamorous and without problems, and is convinced of that to the
morning. He realizes that he misinterpreted the scene in the point where he cannot differentiate between laughing and
hall: Margo had only just found out about Jase’s cheating when screaming.
Quentin saw her, and she was not laughing but screaming at
Jase and Becca.
Quentin wonders aloud why Jase would have sex with Becca. Though Margo talks about physical beauty and ugliness, her
Margo suggests that, since there is nothing pleasant about comment about not being “hot” up close also speaks to her fear of
Becca’s personality, it must be because Becca is hot. Quentin being discovered to be less than she appears when someone gets to
answers without thinking that Becca is not as hot as Margo, but know her too well — becomes too “close” emotionally to believe the
Margo responds that she isn’t pretty up close, and that people image she projects.
tend to find her less hot as they get closer to her. When
Quentin tries to argue, she immediately shuts him down.
As he and Margo continue driving, Quentin meditates on the Margo has given Quentin a lot of substantial information by this
injustice of the fact that someone as unpleasant as Jase should point: she has shared her ideas about life and adulthood, talked
get to have sex with both Margo and Becca, while he, who is about her family, and now revealed the painful fact of Jase’s
perfectly likeable, doesn’t get to have sex with anyone. He tries cheating. Despite all these openings, and Margo’s obvious pain at
to engage Margo in conversation with a comment about how this moment, Quentin says nothing. He has no idea how to talk
Becca “does sort of suck,” but Margo barely answers. Looking to seriously with Margo, or how to comfort her as a friend.
the passenger seat, Quentin thinks she might be crying —
however, Margo immediately pulls up the hood of her
sweatshirt and begins giving Quentin directions for the next
phase of the evening.
Quentin and Margo reach Becca’s neighborhood and drive Margo tells Quentin what she has been keeping from him, but the
around looking for Jase’s Lexus. When they find it, Margo uses reader does not learn these details. The reader’s exclusion heightens
The Club to lock Jase’s steering wheel into place. She instructs the sense that Margo has brought Quentin into a special
Quentin to drive to Becca’s house, and while they drive she conspiratorial intimacy — literally nobody knows her plans but the
explains the next phase of her plan. Quentin concedes that her two of them.
ideas are brilliant, but is silently nervous about what lies ahead.

Outside Becca’s house, Margo and Quentin use a pair of Margo’s plan has an elegant choreography — each part is perfectly
binoculars — which Margo stashed in the car early in the day, timed to lead into the next. She has clearly put great effort into
before asking for Quentin’s help — to look into the basement. planning this night, but it is hard to know whether her commitment
Quentin uses his cell phone to call Becca’s father. When Mr. comes from her penchant for larger-than-life performances and
Arrington answers, Quentin tells him that Becca and Jase are thrills, or from a genuine anger and hurt that she does not know
having sex in their basement. He and Margo hide behind a how to deal with in any other way.
hedge with a digital camera and soon see Jase crawling out the
window of Becca’s basement in his underwear. Quentin snaps a
picture, and Jase stares at him briefly before running away.
Margo tells Quentin they have to get into the basement while Margo uses exaggerated gestures to express what are ultimately
Becca is upstairs getting a lecture from her parents. She brings simple sentiments: she is angry with Becca and uninterested in
a catfish and the can of blue spray paint. Quentin collects Jase’s continuing their friendship. By retaliating with dead fish and spray
clothes and baseball cap and writes a note for Becca that says paint and cliché lines from gangster movies, Margo turns the
her friendship with Margo “sleeps with the fishes.” Margo hides dissolution of this relationship into a game. Whatever feelings of
the catfish in Becca’s drawer, and sprays a blue letter “M” on anger or pain she has about the situation — if she has any — become
Becca’s wall. As they flee the Arrington’s house, Becca’s father invisible amidst the absurdity of her revenge plot.
appears in the front yard with a shotgun. Margo and Quentin
make it to their minivan and speed away.
When they encounter Jase running blindly through the streets Quentin here reveals both an instinct toward kindness and a lack of
near Becca’s house, Quentin takes pity on him and throws loyalty toward Margo —though he has no reason to be sympathetic
Jase’s shirt out the car window. Margo is furious, and yells at toward Jase, he is not emotionally invested in her project. Margo’s
Quentin for helping someone who has wronged her. She outburst shows her emotions slipping out of her control. Though she
punches the dashboard and tells Quentin that she’d thought, does not want to care about Jase — intellectually, she does not think
after hearing about Jase’s cheating from her friend Karin, that this is important — she cannot force herself to stop feeling hurt from
it might not be true. Quentin tells her that he’s sorry, and his betrayal.
Margo says she can’t believe she cares.
Quentin’s heart is still pounding from the stress and fear of Quentin and Margo seem to be totally incompatible at this
being chased by Mr. Arrington. Though Margo insists the moment: he has no stomach for the escapades that thrill her, and
pounding heart is evidence that Quentin is having fun, he pulls she has no sympathy for his timid behavior. Their partnership seems
into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven to calm down. Margo calls his especially remarkable at this moment, since it is clear that they are
anxieties childish, and paints her nails while she waits for not naturally suited to one another.
Quentin. Quentin thinks of her arm around him in Wal-Mart,
and tries to tell himself that there is nothing to be afraid of.
PART 1, CHAPTER 5
When they begin driving again, Margo directs Quentin to her Margo is clearly an extremely impulsive person, who has no
friend Karin’s house, telling him how she verbally abused Karin reservations about burning bridges with people she cares about; her
after hearing her news about Jase. She leaves a bouquet of harsh and unfair response to Karin illustrates this. She encourages
tulips and an apologetic note for Karin, and tells Quentin that Quentin to feel personally invested in their mission when she refers
their next task is to leave a fish for Jase. Since Jase’s family has to “our” enemies. This is a hint that she might be planning
an extremely sophisticated security system, Margo says she something bigger than strict revenge. It also suggests she is invested
will handle things at his house. She remarks that she and in Quentin as an individual rather than simply a companion, and
Quentin “bring the fucking rain down on our enemies.” Quentin wants him to feel like an active participant in this adventure.
reminds her that they are punishing her enemies, not his.
Margo answers this with a cryptic, “We’ll see.”

Quentin remarks that Jase’s subdivision, Casavilla, is full of Quentin reveals his own subtle distaste for the subdivisions of
“big, ugly homes for big, ugly people.” Parked outside Jase’s Orlando in his remark about Casavilla. He hasn’t expressed this kind
house, Margo writes Jase a note saying her love for him “sleeps of opinion before, and it seems as though Margo’s disdain for their
with the fishes.” She tells Quentin to keep the car on and ready world might be inspiring similar feelings in him. That Margo recycles
to drive. Wearing Jase’s baseball cap, Margo runs across the the same note she used to disown Becca — the “sleeps with the
Worthington’s front lawn. The house lights up and sirens begin fishes” message — makes her attack on Jase’s house seem less
blaring. Quentin sits panicking in the car while Margo throws personal and emotional than her outburst in front of Becca’s house
the fish through a window and sprays an “M” next to the might suggest.
shattered glass. Margo runs back to the car and they flee the
scene, Margo cursing at Quentin when he slows for a stop sign.
Margo admits that the escapade was intense even for her, but Here, Margo shows herself to be vulnerable to bullying and insecure
assures Quentin that the eighth part of their adventure will be in much the same way that less socially successful people can be.
easier. She explains that their next target is Lacey, who has Her popularity and good looks do not protect her from feeling
been her friend since Kindergarten, but didn’t tell her about victimized by other people. In fact, her position is even more painful
Jase and Becca. She goes on to claim that Lacey has been a than Quentin’s, since the people making her feel badly about herself
terrible friend. Attempting to offer an example, Margo asks are supposed to be her closest friends.
Quentin whether he thinks she’s fat, and says that Lacey often
uses backhanded compliments to imply that this is the case.
Quentin rushes to assure Margo that she shouldn’t lose any While Quentin’s comparison between Margo and the Eiffel Tower is
weight. He thinks at length about her unusual beauty, which supposed to be a flattering one—the tower is a tremendous work of
seems to be inextricably intertwined with her personality. He art, after all —his professed inability to separate Margo’s personality
claims that a statement about whether Margo was fat or skinny from her body shows how his admiration of her originates in what is
would be as absurd and meaningless as a statement about essentially a shallow crush. Quentin romanticizes the fact that he is
whether the Eiffel Tower was or was not lonely. physically attracted to Margo, and this makes it possible for him to
convince himself that being attracted to her is the same as knowing
and loving her on an essential level.
When they arrive at Lacey’s car, Margo jimmies the lock open. In agreeing without hesitation to paint Lacey’s car, Quentin throws
Quentin helps her hide a fish — which, like the other two, is himself more boldly into Margo’s plan than he has at any other
accompanied by a “sleeps with the fishes” note —under the point during the night. This task is less intense than the others, but
backseat, and doesn’t hesitate to spray an “M” on the car’s roof his calm is nevertheless a sign that these experiences have helped
when she asks him to. ease some of his “childish” anxiety about breaking rules.
Back in the minivan, Quentin notices that using the spray paint Agreeing to paint Lacey’s car is Quentin’s gesture of loyalty to
can has left a blue spot on his finger. He shows Margo, who Margo and solidarity with her, and also a sign that he is coming to
raises her own blue finger and touches it to Quentin’s. After a understand her in a deeper way. Margo and Quentin are united at
long time spent sitting that way, she tells Quentin to head this moment as they have not been before.
downtown.

PART 1, CHAPTER 6
Downtown Orlando, which consists mostly of office buildings in By this point in the night, Quentin feels liberated and sees the world
skyscrapers, is deserted when Margo and Quentin arrive. around him as being full of possibility. Margo has made this happen
Though he is aware of Margo sitting next to him, Quentin feels for him, but in pushing Quentin to be confident and courageous, she
completely alone among the buildings, as though he has has made herself less essential to his satisfaction.
survived the apocalypse and now has an amazing, endless
world to explore on his own.
Margo directs Quentin to a towering green sculpture, known Though Quentin has spent the entire night helping Margo terminate
to teenagers in town as The Asparagus. As he parks near The her most important friendships, he has been too caught up in the
Asparagus, Quentin notices Margo staring into the distance thrill of the evening, and too absorbed by his own thoughts and
and thinks for the first time that something might be seriously feelings, to consider her seriously. He freezes when confronted with
wrong. Not knowing what to say, though, he ignores her her emotions, as he has also done at other points in the night. This is
troubled expression and asks what they’ve come for. a reminder that he is still emotionally immature, though he seems
bolder and more adult than he has at other points in the night.
Margo tells Quentin that they are going to the top of the Margo’s friendship with Gus places her in a different world from the
SunTrust Building to check their progress. Quentin resists, but one in which Quentin is used to seeing her. Besides being older, Gus
Margo reveals that she knows the security guard, Gus, who is a working-class man who exists outside the shelter of
was a senior at Winter Park High School when she and Quentin subdivisions. It is clear that Margo has made an effort to expand her
were freshmen. When they walk in the front door, Gus invites experience and connect with people whose lives are different from
them to take the stairs to the top of the building. hers.
In a conference room on the twenty-fifth floor, Margo surveys The symbolic image of Quentin and Margo leaning against the glass
the city through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Leaning reflects the fragility of this intimate moment. They are vulnerable in
against the glass, she points out their houses and Jase’s, then the literal sense — Quentin worries the glass will break under their
pulls Quentin up next to her. He leans his forehead on the glass weight — and their bond is similarly precarious, since their night is
despite being worried about breaking it with their combined drawing to a close and it is not clear what will happen next.
weight.
Quentin remarks that Orlando is beautiful, and Margo scoffs. Quentin is eager for Margo’s approval, and willing to alter his
He scrambles to justify himself, points out that it is impossible opinions to align with hers, which shows the weak sense of self that
to see the city’s imperfections from such a great height — that is still integral to his character. Margo praises his confidence when
instead, they see Orlando as someone once imagined it. Margo he flirts with her, but it is clear Quentin still lacks the confidence to
says everything is uglier close up. Quentin says that isn’t true of defend his beliefs and ideas.
her, and Margo smiles and tells him he’s cute when he’s
confident.

Still staring at the city below, Margo tells Quentin that Orlando Margo has made comments throughout the entire night about what
is a “paper town.” She claims that everything about the town is is not important — rules, friendships, college, material possessions.
fake, and that the “paper people” who live there are obsessed However, she never speaks about what she thinks actually is
with material possessions. She tells Quentin that, in the important. Margo knows what she does not value or want for her
eighteen years she has lived there, she has never met anyone life, but doesn’t know what a satisfying life would look like.
who cared about anything really important.
Quentin tells Margo that he won’t take her comments about Margo uses the same language to talk about herself that she once
“paper people” personally. Margo apologizes, saying her used to explain Robert Joyner’s suicide: the metaphor of “strings.”
experience might have been different if she had spent her time While this doesn’t necessarily suggest that Margo is considering
with Quentin and his friends instead of Jase, Becca, and Lacey. suicide herself, it does convey her feeling of being lost. Strings keep
She goes on to say that she isn’t even terribly upset about things connected, and the loss of valued relationships that gave her
Jase’s cheating, but simply that it is the last “string.” life structure and purpose has left Margo without that stability.
Quentin tells Margo she would be welcome to eat lunch with Quentin’s attempts to make Margo feel better are naïve, but kind
him and Ben tomorrow. She smiles, and he spends the rest of and well-intentioned. The more mature voice he uses to reflect on
their time in the SunTrust Building trying to make her laugh by his actions creates distance between the person Quentin is at this
racing her down the stairs and leaping around clicking his heels. moment and the person he will become in the wake of these
In his narration, he claims that he thought he was cheering her experiences.
up, but recognizes in hindsight that he was wrong.
PART 1, CHAPTER 7
Back in the minivan, Margo tells Quentin that it is his turn to Appointing Quentin to choose a victim seems to be Margo’s attempt
choose a victim, whose punishment she has already planned. at empowering him — forcing him to stand up to one of his bullies.
Quentin is at a loss, and claims there is no one he feels the need However, Margo maintains total control of this situation. She
to punish. Margo suggests Chuck Parson, and reminds Quentin chooses Chuck when Quentin hesitates to give her a name, and in
of a humiliating prank Chuck played on him in middle school, mentioning her guilty memory of having helped humiliate Quentin,
when he convinced all the girls in their ballroom dance class she reveals her personal interest in punishing Chuck. She seems to
(including Margo) to reject Quentin when he asked them to want to redeem herself for mistreating Quentin by taking his side
dance. She apologizes for going along with Chuck’s prank. against his bullies.
Quentin tells her things are “all good” between them, but the
memory of that embarrassment riles him. He agrees that
Chuck should be their next victim, and speeds toward Chuck’s
house.
Margo directs Quentin through Chuck’s subdivision, College Quentin displays remarkable confidence in Margo, agreeing to
Park. She does not remember his address, but points out a follow her into a strange house when she admits she is not sure
house that she is “ninety-seven point two percent sure” is the whether it is even the right place. Though their night has been full of
right one. Quentin remarks that entering a house randomly close calls, Quentin has clearly learned to trust Margo, to the point
could get them into trouble, but doesn’t hesitate to follow where he is not even seriously afraid of entering a stranger’s house.
Margo with the spray paint, Vaseline, and hair removal cream in Margo shows trust herself when she squeezes Quentin’s hand, a
hand. Margo explains that they will be covering the doorknobs gesture of encouragement and camaraderie.
in the house with Vaseline, to prevent Chuck and his family
from chasing them if they need to leave in a hurry. Walking
toward the open window that she claims leads to Chuck’s
bedroom, Margo takes Quentin’s hand and squeezes it.

Margo and Quentin climb through the bedroom window and When Margo’s information fails, Quentin assumes a new role as an
discover, not Chuck, but an old man they have never seen active, resourceful leader for their team. It is the first moment he
sleeping in the bed. They flee the house and drive to the other has real control of the adventure, since he has a choice of whether
side of the subdivision to regroup. Quentin remembers that to search for Chuck’s address or let the plan fizzle out. He has
Radar has the log-in information for the school directory. Radar obviously invested in this particular missions’ success, though it is
doesn’t pick up his phone, so Quentin calls Ben — who knows all not clear whether his primary objective is to punish Chuck, impress
of Radar’s passwords and is groggy, but cooperative —and gets Margo, or enjoy the thrill of executing the plan.
Chuck’s address.
Quentin and Margo successfully break into Chuck’s house. All of Margo’s earlier stunts demonstrate sincere anger, but the
Margo spreads hair removal cream on Chuck’s right eyebrow, “punishment” she plans for Chuck is fairly lighthearted, and seems
then she and Quentin spread Vaseline on the doorknobs. Back meant to involve and empower Quentin rather than to send Chuck
in Chuck’s bedroom, Quentin wipes the hair removal cream a message. Margo is not just campaigning for justice; she is trying to
from Chuck’s face, taking Chuck’s entire right eyebrow with help Quentin, too.
him. Chuck wakes up suddenly, screaming to his parents that
there is a robbery in progress.
Speeding away in the minivan, Margo relishes their success and Quentin’s question about the friendship between Margo and Chuck
Chuck’s impending humiliation. Quentin asks why Margo hates — and Margo’s jaded answer — highlights the ways in which Margo,
Chuck, remarking that she was always “kind of friends” with like Quentin, has been a social outcast. She is popular, but the
him. Margo brushes the question off, saying she was always people who admire and include her are only “kind of” her friends.
“kind of friends” with a lot people. Then she reveals the final She lacks a sense of real belonging.
stage of their adventure: breaking into SeaWorld.
PART 1, CHAPTER 8
Quentin flatly refuses to follow Margo to SeaWorld. He Margo’s condescension when Quentin refuses to participate in this
worries about getting caught, and though Margo agrees that last stage of her plan is characteristic of her behavior throughout
they probably will, she insists that nothing bad will come of it. the night, but Quentin’s aggressive reaction to her remarks is not.
She tells Quentin that, after everything she has done for him He challenges Margo’s narrative of their night and resists her
over the course of the night, the least he can do is stop being so evaluation of his character in ways he would never have done at an
terrified and enjoy this last adventure. Quentin is furious at the earlier point in the novel. Though his experiences have not
implication that Margo has been helping him, rather than the transformed him into the daring adventurer Margo is, Quentin has
other way around. He reminds her that everything they’ve clearly become more confident in himself. This confidence allows
done over the course of the night has been for her benefit. He him to have a more honest and equal conversation with Margo than
yells that she didn’t choose him as an accomplice because he has been possible at any other point during the night.
was important to her, but rather because his living next door
made him a convenient choice.
Margo is repulsed by the idea that she needed Quentin to Here, Margo allows herself to be more vulnerable to Quentin than
accomplish her plans. She tells Quentin that it would have been she has been at any point during the night. She makes it clear,
easy for her to steal the safe from under her parents’ bed, or to through her comments about their picking each other, that she
climb through window and take his keys while he was asleep. values the connection they share and needs him to stay with her.
She insists that she didn’t need Quentin —she picked him, she Margo has been let down by people she trusted, and Quentin’s
says, and he picked her back when he agreed to help her. She “promise” is obviously precious to her.
tells him that their picking one another is a “promise,” and that
they have to stand by each other at least until the night is over.

Quentin grudgingly agrees to break into SeaWorld with Margo, Yelling at one another, Margo and Quentin share an intimacy and
but tells Margo that his parents and Duke University will both honesty that is totally new in their relationship. Now that their fight
be mad when they find out what he has done. Margo assures has calmed, Margo undermines that intimacy with flippant
Quentin that he is going to be very successful for as long as he comments that seem intended to insult Quentin. She pushes back
lives. She predicts that at the end of his life he is going to think on their closeness by emphasizing her anger instead of the trust
that everything he ever did was a waste, except the night he that made her “pick” Quentin.
broke into SeaWorld with her.
Driving to SeaWorld, Quentin thinks about Robert Joyner. He Quentin has noticed troubling things about Margo on many
notices that the metaphor Margo once used to explain why occasions during the night, but has never said anything about them.
Joyner killed himself —that all the strings inside him broke —is Now, reaching out to her about the possibility that she may be
similar to the one she used when explaining that her friends’ suicidal, he invites Margo to change the dynamic between them —
disloyalty was “the last string.” He points out this connection to where she is the inspiring and beautiful heroine and he is the
Margo, worried that the connection may imply that she is bumbling sidekick — and enter into a more equal, adult relationship
considering suicide, but Margo assures him that she is “too in which they can talk about serious things.
vain” to allow herself to die the way Joyner did, and to have
children who don’t know her discover her body the way they
discovered Joyner’s.
When they reach SeaWorld, Margo reveals her plan to sneak in In this moment, Quentin begins to see the limited usefulness of fear.
by wading through a drainage ditch that runs along one side of There are many valid reasons to be fearful of going into the drainage
the park. Quentin is concerned there might be alligators in the ditch —it is really possible that alligators might be lurking in the
ditch — a reasonable fear, since alligators are common in water — but the risks are not nearly so high as Quentin fears, and
central Florida — but Margo inspires his confidence by telling when he dares to jump in the water, everything is fine.
him that they are ninjas. Quentin wades fearlessly into the
disgusting water, and Margo follows.
While crossing the moat, Margo is bitten by a snake. Fearing Quentin leaps at the chance to play the hero in this moment, saving
the snake is a water moccasin, Quentin tries to suck the poison the damsel in distress from danger. The revelation that the snake is
out of the bite. Margo soon realizes the snake is a harmless not poisonous puts a damper on his heroism, but also confirms that
garter snake. She and Quentin laugh about the incident, and the ditch is not a dangerous place.
they climb over the fence into SeaWorld.
Margo and Quentin wander past a row of tanks, but do not see Quentin’s pleasure at escaping arrest may be understood as an
any animals. They encounter a security guard, who considers exhilarating sense of freedom from fear. Like the drainage ditch that
arresting them but eventually accepts a one-hundred dollar did not actually harbor dangers, the world of rule-breaking — of
bribe from Margo and leaves them alone. Quentin’s relief at failure to live the values that have been taught to him — is not
having avoided trouble so narrowly gives him intense, nearly as perilous as he imagined it would be.
unexpected pleasure.

Margo and Quentin continue walking through the park past the It is easy for Quentin to have an amazing experience of an inactive
animals’ empty tanks. Margo talks about the anticlimax of theme park, because he is more enchanted with the aesthetics of
breaking into theme parks: the things that make them having broken in — with the knowledge that he has lived a story
spectacular during the day are closed down at night. She tells worth telling — than with the actual place. Margo, by contrast, is
Quentin that the pleasure is in planning rather than being looking for something more fulfilling. Though she is famous for the
inside, and speculates that nothing ever feels as good as the stories she has lived, they are not enough to satisfy her.
person planning it hopes. Quentin answers that he feels great,
despite the fact that there is nothing much to see.
Margo and Quentin stop in front of the empty seal tank. Quentin uses the metaphor of the strings here, but changes it to
Quentin imagines spending the night with her on the grass, and assert a positive vision of human connection rather than the
wants to tell her that the real pleasure of the adventure is being negative one Margo tends to perceive. While Margo sees strings
with her — “watching our strings cross and separate and come break — connections and relationships come apart — Quentin sees
back together” —but thinks the sentiment is too cheesy to them entwine. In his version of the metaphor, people can separate
share. He and Margo dance to the jazz music playing on the and grow close again without breaking the relationship; connections
park’s speakers. are not fragile, but constantly developing.
PART 1, CHAPTER 9
As they drive home in the early morning, Quentin wonders Quentin keeps no tokens from his night with Margo except for the
what will change now that he and Margo have shared this embarrassing picture; their last task together is to erase all the
experience: whether they will eat lunch together and be friends evidence of what they have done by cleaning the minivan
in a public way. They rid the minivan of garbage and other thoroughly. Though Quentin wants to believe this shared experience
muck, and fill up the gas tank to exactly where it was at the start will change his relationship with Margo, this is a period of erasure, in
of the night. Standing in Quentin’s driveway as their adventure which Margo prepares him to go back to ordinary life.
comes to a close, Margo gives Quentin the camera with the
picture of Jase, and tells him to use the picture’s powers wisely.
She avoids answering when Quentin tells her he will return the
camera at school.
When Margo and Quentin return home, Margo gives Quentin a Though Margo makes it very clear that Quentin’s vision for their
hug and tells him she will miss hanging out with him. Quentin friendship is not going to happen, Quentin feels totally positive and
insists they can hang out together, but Margo answers that it continues to believe things will be different when he arrives at
isn’t possible. She smiles and walks away, climbing back through school the next day — that he will say all kinds of things to Margo
her bedroom window. Quentin, reflecting as the narrator, says that will solidify their relationship. He is too caught up in wishful
he “believed the smile” — the he thought Margo was happy, and thinking to hear what she is telling him, or investigate the meaning
that everything was fine. Quentin goes to bed, anticipating of her comments.
eagerly the things he will say to Margo at school the next day.

PART 2, CHAPTER 1
Quentin sleeps briefly, then wakes up to get ready for school. It seems as though Quentin’s psychologist parents should be
He considers skipping school to sleep, but decides not to extremely sensitive to changes in their son, and that a major
sacrifice his perfect attendance record. His parents do not experience like the one he has just had would register right away.
notice his exhaustion or the smell of algae from the ditch Their obliviousness is a testament to the difficulty of perceiving
outside SeaWorld. Instead, they spend breakfast talking about change in people one knows well: the Jacobsens trust that Quentin
his father’s recurring dream of taking a college Hebrew class will be the same person from one day to the next, and this
where students speak and read gibberish rather than Hebrew. monumental event is invisible even to their well-trained eyes.
Quentin’s mother believes the dream is a metaphor for young
adulthood, when people struggle to understand the rules of
mature social interaction.
At school, Quentin notices that Margo’s car is missing from the Quentin is eagerly looking for the effects of what he considers a
parking lot, but is not troubled. He and Radar talk about prom, major life event. He wants the people around him to think about
until Ben arrives and asks Quentin’s reason for calling him the him differently, as he now thinks about himself differently, and to
night before. Quentin points out Chuck’s missing eyebrow and recognize the same fundamental changes to the order of the world
tells Ben and Radar that he was with Margo the night before. that he perceives. His frustration is specific, but it also represents
Ben and Radar make a series of crude jokes about Quentin the larger frustrations of young adulthood, when people feel their
having sex with Margo. As he heads to class, Quentin realizes lives and minds changing radically and struggle to have those
with disappointment that his world has not changed as much as changes respected.
he had expected it would in the wake of his adventure.
Quentin is exhausted, and falls asleep in his first period class. The friendship Quentin shares with Ben is the center of this scene.
During lunch, he and Ben sit together in Ben’s car, RHAPAW, a That Quentin both trusts Ben with his story of the night before and
clunky hand-me-down whose name is short for “Rode Hard and has no reservations about falling asleep in Ben’s car shows how
Put Away Wet.” Quentin gives Ben a detailed account of his comfortable they are with each other. Leaving a burger for Quentin
night with Margo, but soon finds himself too tired to talk more. is a considerate, and even somewhat protective, gesture on Ben’s
He falls asleep in the passenger seat of RHAPAW. When he part.
wakes up, he finds a hamburger and a note from Ben, explaining
that he had to return to class.
After school, Ben drops Quentin off at home. Quentin notices It is unlikely that Quentin’s perfect attendance record was a factor
that Margo’s car is not in her driveway, and concludes that she in Margo’s decision to leave without him, but Quentin reveals his
missed school to have another adventure —this time without new understanding of the ways perfectionism limits him when he
him. He realizes that Margo would never have invited him on a makes this assumption. He knows his need to follow the rules has
daytime adventure, because she would have known that he stopped him from enjoying life before, and now sees evidence of
cared too much about missing school. He wonders what stories perfection’s limiting influence everywhere.
she will come back with this time.
That night, Ben calls Quentin to report the rumors that have Though Quentin had only had one meaningful encounter with
begun circulating about Margo’s absence: that she has moved Margo in nine years, he acts like an expert on her mind by making
into a storage room at Disney World, or that she met a man statements about what she would or wouldn’t do. He feels
online. Quentin laughs at these rumors, saying Margo would ownership over Margo, and presumes deep knowledge that he
never do such things, and assures Ben that Margo is off having doesn’t have.
fun and creating new stories.

As he falls asleep, Quentin stares out his bedroom window. He Quentin’s fascination with Margo is entirely self-centered. He thinks
cannot help but hope that Margo will come back to sweep him not of her, but of the effect she has on him.
away on another adventure.
PART 2, CHAPTER 2
At the beginning of the chapter, Quentin writes that Margo was The lawlessness and cruelty that reign in Margo’s absence, and the
the “queen” of Winter Park High School, and that after she speed with which the atmosphere changes after she disappears, are
disappeared, there was nobody to stop the other popular kids so overblown as to feel unbelievable. Just as Margo constructed a
from creating chaos. The day after Margo disappears, Quentin persona to fulfill the archetype of the thrill-seeking cool girl, the
arrives at school to find that Chuck and two other popular boys students at Winter Park seem determined to style themselves as
—Taddy Mac and Clint Bauer — have used Clint’s truck to stereotypes: the thuggish, popular athletes torment the sniveling
destroy twelve underclassmen’s bicycles. One girl also claims band geeks, although they have no clear reason for doing so. They
that someone has posted her phone number in the boys’ are paper people, as Margo says: everyone is playing their role, but
bathroom. A few minutes after arriving at school, a boy wearing nobody questions whether the animosities are necessary, or even
a ski mask and carrying a squirt gun runs past the band room sincerely felt.
where Quentin and his friends gather every morning. The boy
in the ski mask knocks Quentin down and drenches two
freshmen boys with his squirt gun. The drenched boys shout
that the squirt gun was filled with urine, not water.
Quentin assures the students who have been wronged that he Though Jase seems like a daunting opponent, with his money and
will handle the situation. When he gets home in the afternoon, social capital, he gives in quickly when Quentin confronts him.
he uses a fake email address to write an anonymous message to Although tormenting their peers may seem like a way for the
Jase. In the email, Quentin threatens to release the naked popular kids to solidify their dominance, it seems here that their
photo of Jase unless the underclassmen are paid for their basic desire is to be led, rather than to lead. Jase is willing to take
destroyed bikes and the general treatment of the “less socially orders from Quentin, now that Quentin feels assertive enough to
fortunate” improves. In his response, Jase tells Quentin that he make them, and the other popular kids will listen to Jase when he
knows who he is, and tries to shirk responsibility for the orders them to rein in their pranks.
destroyed bikes, harassment, and squirt guns filled with urine.
Quentin stands his ground, however, and he ends the email
exchange certain that Jase and the other popular students will
not cause any more trouble in the future.
Later that night, while Quentin and Ben are playing a video This exchange upends the social hierarchy that Quentin has
game called “Resurrection” in Quentin’s room, Jase and Chuck accepted for years, putting tough jocks at the mercy of nerds. This
arrive at the Jacobsen’s front door. Chuck apologizes for disruption inspires Ben to behave with startling boldness, and forces
crushing the bikes and ordering the urine squirt gun attack on Jase to acknowledge that boldness with respect. The disruption in
the freshmen. Ben, pretends to offer Chuck a conciliatory hug, the accepted social order has made it possible for people to behave
then punches Chuck in the stomach. The punch hurts weakling in unexpected ways, and to make visible new possibilities for respect
Ben more than Chuck, but Jase compliments Ben on his “guts” and relationships.
and shakes his hand.

After Jase and Chuck leave, Ben and Quentin go back to Though standing up to Jase is an uncharacteristically courageous
playing “Resurrection.” Ben soon falls asleep, and Quentin is left undertaking that seems to suggest that Quentin is seriously
meditating on his satisfaction at having kept the popular kids in changed after his night with Margo, he seems to feel that the
line during Margo’s absence. Though he figures Margo will be change is entirely temporary, and that he will cease to be so bold
back by Monday, he is proud of having stood up for his friends. once Margo returns home. Quentin has trouble perceiving and
respecting developments in himself in much the same way his
parents and friends have a hard time recognizing changes in him.
PART 2, CHAPTER 3
The next morning is a Saturday, and Quentin comes downstairs The gathering of tense adults in his dining room introduces the
to find his parents sitting in the dining room with Margo’s possibility that Margo is not simply a girl who has gone on an
parents and a man he doesn’t recognize, who introduces adventure —which is the way Quentin has been thinking of her
himself as Detective Otis Warren. Margo’s parents tell Quentin —but rather a girl who has run away from home. That change
that Margo has run away again; Detective Warren claims this is emphasizes the basic unhappiness at the center of Margo’s life, and
the fifth time that the Spiegelmans have reported her missing. connects her to a network of real, complex relationships that
Margo’s mother announces that she and her husband are Quentin has never thought about. The seriously unhappy Margo
changing the locks to their house and washing their hands of itching to escape dysfunctional parents is a much less enticing and
Margo. Quentin’s mother tries to calm Mrs. Spiegelman down, mysterious version of the girl Quentin knew.
saying that Margo will need her parents’ love when she comes
home, but Mrs. Spiegelman insists that they have allowed
Margo to control them for too long.
Detective Warren mentions that Margo tends to leave clues Margo has always left clues as messages to her family, but her
before she runs away. Margo’s father lists some of the clues she parents have always refused to do the work of deciphering the
has left them in the past — alphabet soup with only the letters messages, giving up instantly rather than working to see her logic
M, I, S and P when she ran away to Mississippi, and Minnie and follow the clues to their end. Margo is unable or unwilling to
Mouse ears when she spent the night at Disney World — and communicate with her parents in a language they find acceptable,
he insists that they never lead anywhere useful. He mentions and her parents refuse to indulge her when she attempts to speak to
that Margo was disappointed when nobody solved her clue them in unconventional ways. The result is that Margo and her
about Mississippi, and remarks that there was no way they parents cannot talk to one another at all.
could have found her with so little information, since
Mississippi is “a big state.” Margo’s mother tells the Jacobsens
that Margo was “a sickness in this family”
Detective Warren pulls Quentin aside, where the others Detective Warren believes that Quentin and Margo may have had a
cannot hear them. He tells Quentin that he does not approve of special relationship, and though Quentin’s conduct over the past
the Spiegelmans’ parenting, or care whether they are reunited few days suggests that he also believes this to some extent — at
with Margo, but that he does want to know whatever least, he believes their experience together made them real friends
information Quentin has about her. He asks whether Margo with real understanding of each other — his total inability to guess
had a partner who helped plan her various schemes, implying what Margo may have planned for herself highlights all the ways in
that Quentin might be that partner. Quentin swears he does which he still doesn’t know her.
not know what has happened to Margo, but he trusts Detective
Warren enough to tell him about his adventure with Margo two
nights earlier.

Detective Warren describes Margo as a tied-down balloon that Detective Warren’s balloon metaphor makes an important claim
has been straining against her strings and now has finally about Margo’s reasons for leaving. Balloons have the energy to
broken them and begun to float away. He tells Quentin that his travel, but cannot control what happens to them or where they go.
desk is littered with the files of missing people, and says that Warren considers Margo’s decision to run away to be an expression
the only thing worse than worrying about all those people is of her unhappiness and of her desire for freedom, sources of courage
having only one, specific person to worry about — in other and energy that made it possible for her to take the risk of leaving
words, that it will be harder emotionally for Quentin to think home, but does not believe — as Quentin does — that she has total
about Margo than for Detective Warren to think about dozens control of the situation. His comment about uncut string seems to
of missing people at once. He tells Quentin that “once that be an attempt to warn Quentin that there is nothing he can do to
string gets cut … you can’t uncut it.” Quentin is not sure he bring Margo home —she will have to return on her own, when the
understands the detective’s advice, but he feels confident that moment is right.
Margo will return to Jefferson Park soon, just as she always has
in the past.
Quentin and Detective Warren return downstairs, and Though their failure to recognize Quentin’s shocked and altered
Detective Warren leaves with Margo’s parents to look through state the morning after his escapade with Margo made the
Margo’s room. Quentin talks with his parents about the Jacobsens seem a bit distant and self-involved, they reveal
Spiegelmans. All three of them agree that the Spiegelmans have themselves in this exchange to be compassionate and invested in
not been good parents to Margo, and Quentin suggests that helping others. Occasional cluelessness is not a sign of bad
Margo might live with them after she returns home, until she intentions, but a natural part of being human.
graduates high school and begins college. Mrs. Jacobsen tells
him that Margo would be welcome, and that they will be happy
to help her however they can when she returns.
Ben, who has been sleeping upstairs since the night before, Though Ben and Radar are curious about Margo, neither one of
emerges from Quentin’s room. Quentin tells Ben about the them shows the same passionate interest as Quentin. They would
visit from Detective Warren and the Spiegelmans, and Ben rather talk about the mystery while playing video games than
suggests they discuss the issue further over a game of immerse themselves in a serious conversation, and they are not
“Resurrection.” Radar arrives and he and Ben play the video invested in Margo personally.
game while Quentin speculates aloud about Margo’s plans.
Glancing out the window, Quentin notices that someone has The slogan painted on Woody Guthrie’s guitar is a comment about
pulled down the shade in Margo’s room, which her parents the power of art to create radical change. Music, the slogan implies,
raised shortly after she left. He sees a poster hanging on the can inspire common people and empower them to resist oppression.
back of the shade that hasn’t been there before. The poster is a Though fascism, a system of government characterized by intensely
photograph of a man holding a guitar, which is painted with the oppressive and often violent dictatorships, is not a major political
words: “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Radar searches for the force in the world Quentin and Margo inhabit, her evocation of that
phrase on Omnictionary and tells Quentin that the man is suffocating government reflects Margo’s feelings of being stifled in
Woody Guthrie, a folk singer from the early twentieth century. conformist Orlando.
He suggests that Margo may have left the poster for Quentin
to find. Quentin says that he thinks, by the look of the
photograph, that Guthrie wants them to come into Margo’s
room.

PART 2, CHAPTER 4
Quentin and Radar sit in the Jacobsen’s living room and wait Ruthie’s revelation — that Margo does not allow friends to come
for the Spiegelmans and Detective Warren to leave the house. into her room —is surprising, given that her first clue for Quentin
When all the adults are finally gone, the boys collect Ben — who invites him to do precisely that. If keeping her friends out of her
has been upstairs playing “Resurrection” while Quentin and room is a sign that Margo did not trust them entirely, her invitation
Radar keep watch — and go next door. Margo’s little sister, to Quentin is a sign that she feels a special connection with him.
Ruthie, is reluctant to let them in because Margo doesn’t
typically let her friends into her room. Radar pays Ruthie five
dollars, and they head upstairs into Margo’s room.
In Margo’s room, Quentin is stunned to find hundreds of vinyl The contents of Margo’s room reveal a side of her personality that
records lining the bookshelves. She is apparently obsessed with she has carefully hidden from everyone around her. A passionate
music, but Quentin has never seen evidence of her passion interest in music is an odd thing to keep secret, since there is nothing
until this moment. He cannot even remember seeing Margo shameful about that interest. Hiding the records may not be a sign
listen to music, except occasionally while running in the park. of her embarrassment, but rather of a need to keep her authentic
She has no Woody Guthrie records, but Quentin finds an album self totally private.
of Woody Guthrie covers. The album has the same photograph
from the poster printed on its sleeve.
Quentin shows the album to Radar and Ben. They take the The boys tackle the project of unraveling Margo’s clues with the
album from its sleeve and are disappointed to find that there is expectation that there will be a clear, easy solution to the puzzle —
nothing inside except the record — no note from Margo, for that Margo will leave a convenient note with all the information
example. Ben notices that one of the songs listed on the back they need. This is their first sign that the mystery will not be so easy
cover of the album has been circled in black pen. The song is to solve.
called “Walt Whitman’s Niece.”
Quentin knows that Walt Whitman is a nineteenth-century Margo sends her message as a series of small, breadcrumb-like clues
American poet. Radar searches Whitman’s name on rather than one big, clear sign. Since the clues are relatively
Omnictionary, but finds no information about any of the poet’s straightforward, it seems as though her goal is not to confuse
nieces. He begins searching for a book of Whitman’s poetry Quentin, but to test his loyalty and ensure that he won’t give up
among Margo’s things. He finds nothing useful, but Ben notices searching for her, the way her parents did.
a copy of Whitman’s book Leaves of Grass on the bookshelf.
Radar is sure another clue is waiting for Quentin in the book.
Radar wonders aloud why Margo would leave clues for While addressing her clues to Quentin is an expression of Margo’s
Quentin this time, when she has always left them for her confidence in him, it is also evidence that she has given up on her
parents in the past. Quentin will not admit it, but he quietly parents. Her attempts to communicate with them this way have
hopes that Margo has chosen him again, the way she chose him failed in the past, and she has given up on trying to reach them.
as a partner for her night of adventures. He hopes that Margo
wants to be found this time, and specifically wants to be found
by him.

The three boys return to Quentin’s house, and after paging Annotating a book is a way of recording the thoughts and feelings
through Leaves of Grass without finding any obvious clues, Ben one had while reading. Margo seems to have buried a clue in
and Radar go home. Quentin spends the rest of the afternoon Whitman’s poem, but she has also offered Quentin access to her
reading the longest poem in the book, called “Song of Myself.” mind by allowing him to see the lines that meant the most to her.
He notices that Margo has highlighted many lines in blue, but Her clues are superficial, but the places where she hides them —
that two are highlighted in green: “Unscrew the locks from the among her records, in her books — offer more personal information
doors! / Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!” He about her
doesn’t know what to make, either of these lines or the ones
highlighted in blue, but he feels certain Margo wants him to
“play out the string,” to follow her trail until he finds her.
PART 2, CHAPTER 5
On Monday morning, Quentin arrives at school to find Lacey While Quentin feels he has a special connection with Margo for
waiting for him outside the band room. She has heard that having shared a unique experience with her, Lacey’s intimate
Quentin and Margo were together the night before Margo knowledge of the life Margo led from day-to-day reveals an equally
disappeared, and wants to know whether Margo was angry substantial —though perhaps less well-maintained or appreciated —
with her. Quentin admits that Margo was upset at Lacey for not bond between the two of them. In fact, Lacey’s ability to guess
telling her about Jase and Becca. Lacey insists she knew where Margo might have gone based on things she has said in the
nothing, and tells Ben and Quentin that she has just broken up past highlights the extent to which Quentin’s experience of Margo is
with her boyfriend because he was hiding Jase’s cheating from actually solipsistic and centered around himself, rather than around
her. She refers offhand to Margo having gone to New York. closeness wit her. He knows how Margo made him feel, but he does
Quentin asks why she thinks Margo would be there, and Lacey not know what Margo might have wanted or thought, as Lacey
tells him that Margo has made comments in the past about does.
New York being “the only place in America where a person
could live a halfway livable life.” Quentin leaves the discussion
there, seeing that Ben wants to turn the conversation toward
prom since newly-single Lacey no longer has a date.
As Quentin walks through the hallways, two freshmen whose Quentin has developed a new confidence and boldness that makes
bikes were destroyed stop to thank him for the money they’ve him seem completely different. However, when he deflects the
received from Jase. He tells one to thank Margo rather than freshman’s thanks onto Margo, it becomes clear that he doesn’t feel
him, knowing Margo gave him the tools he needed to confront ownership of the person he has suddenly become. Quentin sees
Jase. Quentin relishes a sudden feeling of ownership and himself as using Margo’s tools and filling Margo’s role — not as
control. The school seems to belong to him in a way it never has acting or creating for or by himself.
before. He reads Leaves of Grass during calculus, looking for
references to New York, but finds nothing of interest. A few
minutes into class, he sees Ben doing a victory dance outside
the classroom door — Lacey has agreed to go to prom with him.
At lunch, Quentin finds Ben and Lacey waiting at his locker. Lacey is the first person Quentin has encountered who seems to
Lacey tells Quentin that Margo never allowed people into her share his investment in finding Margo; Radar and Ben have been
room, and that she had no idea Margo owned such a massive helping mostly out of loyalty to him, and no one else, including
collection of records, or had any particular interest in music. Margo’s family, has made an effort to look into her disappearance.
She goes on to say that Walt Whitman was from New York, and Lacey is proof that, despite her feelings of aloneness, Margo had
tells Quentin that she has sent missing person fliers to her friends who sincerely cared about her.
cousin who lives in the city, asking her to put them up in record
stores. As they walk toward the cafeteria, Ben turns the
conversation back to prom.

In his last period of the day, Quentin reads Leaves of Grass while Though Ben, who has been excited about prom for weeks, is clearly
his teacher, Dr. Holden, lectures the class on Moby Dick. After thrilled to have a glamorous girl like Lacey as a date, Quentin is too
class ends, he sits in RHAPAW waiting for Ben and Radar to focused on Margo to celebrate with him. While his dedication to
finish band practice and wondering what Margo might be doing Margo and her clues may seem like a mark of a good friend, his new
in New York. When Ben and Radar emerge from band practice, fixation has made Quentin less considerate and more self-centered
Ben is still celebrating his good luck in getting Lacey as a prom — a worse friend, at least to Ben.
date, and is full of ecstatic energy. Quentin is happy for Ben, but
directs the conversation toward Margo and Leaves of Grass.
Radar is certain that the two lines in “Song of Myself” that Quentin and Radar have been so preoccupied with trying to
Margo highlighted in green — about removing doors from their coordinate this clue with their preconceived notions of what was
jambs —contain Margo’s next clue. He wonders whether Margo important to Margo — her frustration with close-minded people in
was trying to make a comment about close-mindedness. Ben Orlando, for instance — that they failed to see her obvious message.
says Radar is overestimating the complexity of Margo’s clue, Since Ben is less invested in Margo, he can see the situation more
and that the highlighted lines are not a metaphor, but a set of clearly, without projection.
instructions: they need to go into Margo’s room and unscrew
the doors from their jambs.
PART 2, CHAPTER 6
Quentin, Radar, and Ben return to Jefferson Park. Ruthie lets Ben’s revelation seemed like a turning point, but proves to be
them into Margo’s room, and they remove the lock from her frustrating and anticlimactic. They are forced to recognize that they
door and the door from its hinges, just as Whitman’s poem are not heroes in an adventure story, and answers will not fall easily
instructs. There is nothing, so the boys reattach the door and into place.
leave.
Quentin and Radar follow Ben back to his house. They play In addition to being absurd, the elaborate scheme that Ben
video games and discuss Margo. Ben insists that Margo has to imagines assumes Margo’s entire world revolves around Quentin,
be in New York. He urges Quentin to go looking for her, and and that everything she has done has been crafted to get his
offers a grandiose vision of what might happen if he does. Ben attention. This is the narcissism of adolescent boys, who have
suggests that Margo may have faked her fight with Lacey, and difficulty imagining that the people around them have complex
instructed Lacey to ingratiate herself with the boys and pass on inner lives, and imagine themselves to be at the center of everyone
information about Quentin in her absence. As soon as he leaves else’s consciousness, just as they are at the center of their own.
for New York, Ben imagines, Lacey will tell Margo what he has
done. When Quentin gets off the plane, he is sure to find Margo
waiting for him at the airport.
Quentin knows Ben’s idea is ludicrous, but he finds it oddly Quentin has had some success inhabiting a cool, confident persona
compelling. Still, he cannot stomach the idea of missing two among his peers, but he is still a rule-follower, afraid of doing wrong
days of school, or provoking his parents’ anger by charging a and getting in trouble.
plane ticket to his credit card. He lets the idea drop and goes
home.

Quentin remembers a former patient his mother once told him Though Quentin knows Ben’s ideas about Margo are wrong, and
about: a nine-year-old boy who, after the death of his father, that going to New York would not resolve everything as neatly as
began drawing circles obsessively on every surface he could Ben assumes (or, in fact, resolve anything at all). He is not
find. Mrs. Jacobsen told Quentin that the boy had created a disappointed at having passed up a chance to reunite with Margo,
routine to cope with the loss of his father, and that the routine but rather at having failed to live up to the example she set for him.
became destructive. Quentin says he understands the circles Doing what he thinks Margo would want him to do is a way of
kid, because he has always found routine and feeling close to her and protected by her. The comfort is no longer in
boredomcomforting. As he goes about his routine after leaving his safe routine, but in the intimate and caring relationship he
Ben’s house, however, he cannot help thinking about his refusal imagines they could have.
to go to New York in search of Margo. The ordinariness of that
night and the next day make him feel far away from her.
PART 2, CHAPTER 7
Six days after Margo’s disappearance, Quentin tells his parents The adults in Quentin’s life encourage him to prioritize his own
about her clues. His father suspects that Margo will be coming wellbeing over Margo’s. This was the message of Detective Warren’s
home soon, and his mother warns his father not to speculate, balloon metaphor as well. Unromantic pragmatism is in conflict
presumably because she doesn’t want to give Quentin false here with the intensity that often accompanies deep feelings of
hope. They encourage Quentin to focus on his own life and connection. Quentin does not consider their advice seriously, and it
trust that Margo can take care of herself. Later, Quentin hears seems as though caring for Margo is more satisfying to him than
them talking in worried tones. caring for himself.
Later that evening, Ben calls Quentin. He is preparing to go Ben is completely honest and unpretentious. He talks about his
shopping with Lacey, to help her pick shoes for prom. Quentin happiness, anxiety, and hope without worrying about how Quentin
scoffs at this. Ben confesses that he is nervous, that he really will perceive him, and he continue to do so even when Quentin
likes Lacey, and that he hopes his showing up to prom with her ridicules him outright. Though nothing he says is particularly deep,
will force their peers to see him in a different light. Quentin it is strange that Quentin should resent Ben’s honesty, which sets
brushes all this off and ends the conversation as soon as he can. him apart in their image-obsessed world, and that he should pride
He thinks of his own prom fantasy, in which he brings Margo himself on being less forthcoming than Ben.
home just in time for the last dance and their peers marvel
while they do the fox-trot. This is a silly dream, but he takes
pride in the fact that that — unlike undignified Ben —he doesn’t
talk out loud about it.
Thinking about Ben, Quentin’s mind wanders to their earlier Before this moment, Margo’s clues have never seemed like a direct
attempt to remove the doors in Margo’s room. Suddenly, a new message from her. She has used objects and images to
idea occurs to him: that the doors he was meant to remove communicate, but not her own words. Finding her note brings
were not Margo’s, but his own. He sneaks into the garage and Quentin closer to Margo than he has been since she ran away, and
smuggles a screwdriver into his room. When he wrestles his the fact that she hid it in his room rather than her own, presuming
bedroom door from its hinges, he finds a sliver of newspaper access to his personal space, amplifies the sense of a bond between
with an address —8328 Bartlesville Avenue — printed on it in them.
Margo’s handwriting.

Quentin searches the address online and discovers that the Quentin’s decision to abandon his perfect attendance record, which
place to which it refers is 34.6 miles away. He calls Ben and he has mentioned again and again before this moment, marks a
announces a plan to drive to Bartlesville Avenue that night. Ben reorganization of his priorities. His earlier remorse about having
tells Quentin that he will not let him drive alone to a strange refused to go to New York seems to have soured his attitude toward
address in the middle of the night, and Quentin agrees to skip the world of rules and routine. His friends’ immediate willingness to
school and go in the morning, saying he is tired of having accompany him shows their loyalty.
perfect attendance. Ben and Radar, whom Quentin calls after
hanging up with Ben, both make plans to fake illness so they can
accompany Quentin the next morning.
PART 2, CHAPTER 8
In the morning, Quentin forces himself to vomit and tells his The day begins as a classic adventure: three friends on a road trip.
mother that he has a stomach bug. She leaves for work, telling Quentin, Radar, and Ben have all embraced the trappings of that
him to call if he needs anything. Ben and Radar arrive shortly adventure. They are living out their idea of what carefree kids do
after she leaves. They are blasting music, and the three of them and feel, inhabiting this cliché as they have so many others. The fact
drive toward the Bartlesville address with the windows rolled that it is cliché, though, doesn’t diminish the pleasure.
down, enchanted with their freedom.
On the outskirts of Orlando, the land becomes dry and Here, the grim reality lurking beneath the thrill and mystery of
desolate. Quentin notices a patch of undeveloped land with an Margo’s disappearance is becoming visible to Quentin for the first
unfinished blacktop road. A sign refers to the place as time. The unfinished subdivision is an eerie figure for other things
“Grovepoint Acres,” and he thinks it must be what his mother that have been cut short, such as Margo’s experience in high school
refers to as a “pseudovision” — a subdivision abandoned before and the life of Robert Joyner, among other things. It forebodes a
it could be completed. A few miles past Grovepoint Acres, sudden and painful end to the boys’ adventure.
Radar announces that they are getting close to their
destination. Quentin finds his excitement has faded before the
depressingly barren landscape.
The address in Margo’s note turns out to be that of an Margo understands the human mind’s subconscious power to
abandoned strip mall with boarded-up windows, water recognize and interpret symbolism, and she uses that understanding
damage, and cracked paint. The sight shocks Quentin. It occurs to communicate feelings through symbols when words are
to him that this is the kind of place where a person comes to insufficient. Quentin understands her pain better by looking at this
die, rather than to live. The rancid smell that meets him when building than he could when she spoke to him.
he steps out of the car seems to confirm his fear that someone
has died in this place. He is terrified of what he might find
inside.
Quentin remembers Margo saying she did not want to be Quentin’s mature fear marks the beginning of a mature love for
found dead in Jefferson Park, the way Robert Joyner was. It Margo. Until this point, he has been interested in her for selfish
occurs to him that she might still have wanted to die. The smell reasons: she made him feel brave, she made his life interesting. At
of rot is overpowering. Radar calls Margo’s name, but there is this moment, he is invested in her wellbeing rather than his ego.
no answer. Quentin is afraid with a visceral intensity unlike
anything he has experienced. He is totally unprepared for this
moment.

Ben tells Quentin they should leave and bring the police. Radar Ben does in this moment what Quentin did on the day he and
insists they cannot leave until they have gotten into the Margo discovered Robert Joyner: urges his companions to leave and
building and found whatever Margo intended Quentin to bring in someone who knows how to handle the situation. Quentin’s
discover. Quentin looks at his friends, and their presence decision to go into the building revises his past cowardice. He
makes his fear bearable. He agrees that they have to go into the refuses to run from painful truths.
mall, realizing that he has to find Margo even though he no
longer knows who she is or was.
PART 2, CHAPTER 9
Quentin, Radar, and Ben walk around the back of the building Confronting the notion that Margo may have been suicidal
and discover the bloated corpse of a raccoon. They are relieved completely changes Quentin’s perspective on the things he has
to know that the stench has not been coming from Margo. Still, shared with her. Though he thought he was learning to understand
Quentin can’t help thinking about “Song of Myself,” with its her by following her clues, he now fears that he has misunderstood
many lines about the beauty of death, and wondering whether everything.
it might have been Margo’s suicide note.
Radar attempts to open a door, but has no success. Ben decides The struggle to get into the building is unglamorous and frustrating,
he is going to break through the particleboard covering the but it is ultimately successful. The mechanics of this search, like the
windows, and though Quentin urges him not to, he takes a emotions, have become messier as they have become more
running start and slams his body into the board, cracking it. The important.
boys pull the board away from the window and climb into the
building.
The room inside is filled with empty shelves, and the floor is Moving through the Troll Holes, the boys encounter the detritus of
littered with torn-off pages from old day-by-day calendars. The peoples’ past lives: things they saw and used every day but will
boys find a tunnel cut into a wall, with the words “Troll Hole” never use again. The human activity that once filled the building
painted in orange beside it. In the room beyond, there is and has now come to a permanent stop is, like Grovepoint Acres, a
another hole. Quentin, Ben, and Radar climb through both figure of the many things that people uproot and abandon as they
holes and emerge into what Ben recognizes as an abandoned go through their lives.
souvenir store. They crawl through a third hole and find an out-
of-use office. On every desk is a calendar turned to February
1986.
Poking around the room, it becomes clear that Margo is not Margo’s cryptic message represents a union of the many memories,
there. Ben notices a patch of wall that seems to have been assumptions, and fears about her that Quentin has cultivated. The
recently painted. Under the paint, Quentin can make out faint message may be a way of urging herself to escape Orlando before
red graffiti. Radar drops the small flashlight they have been she becomes trapped; it may be a farewell, confirming that she will
using, and the indirect light illuminates the graffitied letters “never come back”; or it may be a warning to Quentin, pushing him
clearly. They read, in what Quentin recognizes as Margo’s to save himself from their paper town just as Margo has saved
handwriting, the words: “YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER herself.
TOWNS AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK.” Ben panics
and urges his friends to get out of the building. All three boys
hurry back through the Troll Holes.

PART 2, CHAPTER 10
At home, Quentin reads “Song of Myself” and tries to Quentin reaches out to Warren in search of an adult who can ease
determine whether it is “a suicide-note kind of poem.” He soon his fears and manage the situation now that Quentin feels
becomes anxious, and calls Detective Warren to tell him about overwhelmed by it. When Warren proves unhelpful, it is the end of
Margo’s clues and their findings in the strip mall. He admits his Quentin’s childhood — he can no longer stand back and let adults
fear that Margo may have killed herself, but Warren deems that manage difficult things for him. He has to face this awful possibility
an unlikely possibility. Warren urges Quentin to stop searching alone.
for Margo, lest he lose himself in the process.
Frustrated by his conversation with Warren, Quentin begins Quentin assumes that “paper town” — like Whitman’s poem — is a
search for the phrase “paper town” online. He finds a comment borrowed term, rather than a metaphor Margo came up with on her
in a discussion forum about Kansas real estate that refers to an own. While her puzzles are supposed to bring him greater
abandoned subdivision—a pseudovision — as a “paper town.” understanding of her mind, they also obscure her by directing
He concludes that Margo has decided to take her life in one of Quentin to the ideas and words of others, and away from her own. It
the city’s pseudovisions, and has designated Quentin to find is worth noting how certain Quentin is that Margo has taken her
her body. He decides she has chosen him because they shared life. He seems afraid to entertain any other possibility, perhaps
the experience of finding Robert Joyner when they were because he believes losing false hope will be more painful than
children, and she believes this has prepared him to find her as accepting reality.
well.
Quentin sends an instant message to Radar, telling him his While Ben’s blasé reaction to Quentin’s theory is insensitive, it also
theory. Radar tells Quentin to calm down, though he admits highlights the fact that Quentin has invested in an unnecessarily
that the evidence doesn’t look good. Ben, whom Quentin calls melodramatic version of events. As Detective Warren pointed out,
after finishing his conversation with Radar, is dismissive. He no strong evidence exists to suggest that Margo has committed
believes Margo is alive and well, and assumes her clues are bids suicide, or plans to do so. Quentin perceives a tragedy where he
for attention. Quentin resents Ben’s cavalier attitude. They once saw a romance, but this interpretation is in many ways just as
hang up, and Quentin spends the rest of the evening searching baseless as the first.
for pseudovisions near Orlando. He finds five possible places,
then prints out a map of central Florida and hangs it on his wall,
using thumbtacks to mark each pseudovision. He resolves to
travel to all of them.
The next day, Quentin borrows RHAPAW and drives to Until this point, Quentin and Margo have been in a kind of dialogue
Grovepoint Acres. He finds himself talking aloud to Margo, with one another, her clues and his responses fitting together in a
promising he will not betray her trust. He finds this one-sided coherent way. Now, Quentin is literally and figuratively talking to
conversation comforting. In Grovepoint Acres, Quentin finds nobody. Margo has stopped leaving clues, and is more completely
neither Margo’s body nor any sign that someone has been vanished than ever before.
there. He leaves to explore another pseudovision, called Holly
Meadows, and finds it similarly desolate.

In Holly Meadows, Quentin sees an oak tree similar to the one Quentin has made references to being in love with Margo before,
under which Robert Joyner’s body was lying when he and but those have never been more than exaggerated statements about
Margo discovered it. He is certain Margo will be dead beneath his crush on her. Facing the idea of losing Margo forever, Quentin
the tree, and finds himself for the first time picturing what her reveals a sadder and more adult understanding of love. He is forced
body will look like. She is not beneath the tree, but the mental to recognize how love and loss are intertwined, and to feel how love
image upsets Quentin so much that he begins punching the dirt can make a person vulnerable.
with his fists. He thinks that Margo was wrong to assume
finding Robert Joyner would prepare him to find her, because
he didn’t love Robert Joyner.
PART 2, CHAPTER 11
The next day at school, Quentin tells his friends about his trip Quentin’s frustration has left him jaded, not only about the normal
to the pseudovisions, though he realizes there isn’t much to say. pleasures and troubles of high school, but about the serious needs
He finds he can no longer bear to listen to their conversations and feelings of the people around him. While losing Margo initially
about prom and other ordinary things. Lacey cries at the seemed to make him more thoughtful and compassionate, his anger
thought of Margo committing suicide, but Quentin keeps and frustration has reversed those developments, leaving him more
pushing her to think of places Margo might have gone until Ben selfish than ever.
tells him to leave Lacey alone.
That afternoon, listening to Dr. Holden lecture about Moby- As the world around Quentin becomes increasingly bleak and lonely,
Dick during English, it occurs to Quentin that she might have Dr. Holden offers him an alternative way of seeing the world, one
helpful insights about “Song of Myself.” After class, he brings defined by compassion and optimism. Whitman’s belief that all
Dr. Holden the poem and points out the morbid trend in people are connected to one another eradicates the possibility that
Margo’s annotations, explaining his fear that she may have anyone could ever be totally alone, or that anyone could be lost
intended it to be a suicide note. Dr. Holden is saddened to see forever. According to Whitman, Margo and Quentin are tied
such a pessimistic reading of the poem, which she assures together by the human experience, which also ties them to every
Quentin is fundamentally an optimistic celebration of human other person in the world — including the “paper people” they
interconnectedness. She believes the only logical conclusion of disparage.
the poem is that all life is sacred and valuable. However, she
admits that people project their own feelings onto the poetry
they read, and that Margo may not have seen the same life-
affirming message she does.
Dr. Holden asks Quentin what he thinks of the poem. Quentin Dr. Holden, like other adults in Quentin’s life, is pushing him to move
admits that he has mostly been reading the lines Margo past the unhappiness his obsession with Margo is causing him. She
highlighted, and that he is less interested in understanding wants Quentin to be receptive to the joy Whitman communicates,
Whitman than he is in understanding Margo. Dr. Holden tells and to develop a more grateful and generous attitude toward the
Quentin that Whitman would have been pleased to see his world than the one he has learned by reading the poem through
poem used as a means for one person to understand another, Margo.
but she encourages him to read “Song of Myself” all the way
through, saying a poem cannot “do its work” unless it’s read in
its entirety. Quentin leaves, feeling no better.

Quentin hangs out with Ben and Radar after school, but he The frustration and resentment Quentin has developed around
declines their invitation to come along to a pre-prom party, and prom seems to be less about the event itself and more about the
instead spends the night trying to read Whitman. The next endings and separations it symbolizes. Both Radar and Ben are
morning, Quentin invites Ben over to play “Resurrection,” and is planning to spend the evening with girls they care about, and have
furious when he learns that Ben has planned to devote the focused lots of attention on making those girls happy — an early
entire day to preparing for prom that evening. He complains to sign that they are both changing, and that their friendship with
Radar, but finds that Radar is also focused on prom. Radar tells Quentin will soon be changing as well.
Quentin that he will be happy to help hunt for Margo at any
point in the future, but that he wants to enjoy this one night
with Angela, and doesn’t intend to let Margo stop him from
having a nice time.
Quentin borrows his mother’s minivan, telling her that he has The contrast between the story Quentin tells his mother and the
decided to go to prom after all, and that he and Ben will be reality he lives illuminates how isolated he has become since
going stag together. Instead of going to pick out a tuxedo, as he Margo’s disappearance. While his friends enjoy one another’s
told his mother he was going to, Quentin drives to the next company and revel in the rituals and celebrations that mark the end
pseudovision on his list: Quail Hollow. The place is better of their time in high school, Quentin is completely alone. His
maintained than the other pseudovisions he has visited, question — whether it would be better for him never to find Margo
surrounded by finished subdivisions that have been populated — introduces the frightening possibility that he might find himself
with families — but Margo is nowhere to be seen. Quentin stuck in this search forever, either literally or figuratively.
considers the possibility that he might never find her, and
wonders whether he will be better off that way. Then, he leaves
Quail Hollow and drives west toward the strip mall.
PART 2, CHAPTER 12
Quentin arrives at the strip mall to find that someone has been When Quentin visited the strip mall for the first time, he fully
there since his last visit; the particleboard window-covering expected to find Margo dead, and was unable to see any of the
has been repaired where he and his friends broke it. He realizes telling signs of her presence that catch his eye this time: the changed
that the back doors have no hinges, and enters the building. calendar, the nail polish. Now, entering the building with different
Wandering among the desks in the abandoned office, he expectations — thinking, from the appearance of the tape on the
notices that one of the calendars is different from the others. window, that someone else has been there — he is able to see things
While all the other calendars are turned to February, this one is that confirm those expectations. Quentin sees what he is expecting
turned to June. Quentin inspects the desk more closely and to see in every situation, rather than seeing clearly what is in front of
discovers a bottle of red nail polish. The color is immediately him.
recognizable to him — this is the polish Margo used to paint her
nails during their adventure. Examining the bottle, he finds a
smudge of blue spray paint that he is sure came from Margo’s
fingers.
Quentin is convinced that Margo has been staying in the mall, Quentin is ruled by fear, and time and again has allowed his fear to
and resolves to stay there until she returns. The idea of prevent him from taking action. His decision to wait for Margo
sleeping in the rat-infested building disgusts him, and he is a despite his disgust and fear is a sign of his loyalty to her, and of her
scared by the creaking and darkness of the building, but he is impact on him.
thrilled by the knowledge that Margo has been alive in these
rooms.

Quentin pokes through the different rooms, and finds only one The image of Margo staying alone in an empty room strikes Quentin
that seems as though someone has been living in it, an empty as sad because it does not fit with his idea of her. He cannot imagine
room with a rolled-up carpet in the corner. He notices a happy scene of Margo in that room, but his failure to imagine it
thumbtack holes in the wall and finds an empty box that once does not mean Margo was never happy there. Though he is
contained nutrition bars. The thought of Margo, sitting alone developing a more complex understanding of her, Quentin still
on the rolled-up carpet and eating a nutrition bar, makes cannot dissolve his assumptions about who Margo was.
Quentin sad in how lonely and unlike Margo it seems. He finds
a blanket rolled in the carpet that still smells of Margo’s lotion
and shampoo.
Quentin realizes he cannot know why Margo chose to come to Though Quentin still cannot understand Margo, he is more humble
this place, or why she chose to leave. He sees that he cannot about his limitations than ever before. Recognizing that he does not
know these things, because he does not know who Margo know her is the first step to knowing her.
really is— he only knows how she acted in front of other people.
Quentin checks in with his father, telling him that he will be For Quentin, boredom creates an opportunity for him to think
spending the night at Ben’s house after prom. He lays on the deeply about something that the stress and distractions of ordinary
floor, looking at the sky through cracks in the ceiling, and thinks life have prevented him from really understanding. The constant
how strange it is that Margo, who seemed to hate being bored, stimulation and entertainment provided by things like television
should choose to be in a place where there was no internet, have kept him from concentration and reflection. Getting away from
television, or music. His boredom ultimately leads Quentin the paper world Margo talks about requires a willingness to
back to “Song of Myself,” which he has brought with him. For confront the serious thoughts that come with boredom.
the first time, he finds that he can read the poem and make
sense of it.
Quentin lingers over one part of “Song of Myself” in which a All of Whitman’s ideas about grass have some truth to them; it is
child asks the poet what grass is. Whitman gives many answers: possible for the grass to represent childhood, God, and death all at
that the grass is an image of his own hopefulness, of the the same time. In the same way, it is possible for Margo to be many
greatness of God, of the essential equality and connectedness things at once — some of which Quentin perceives, some of which
of people, and of death. Quentin cannot figure out which of he misses, all of which have some truth and some falsity in them.
these ideas is most important to Whitman’s message, and the
multiplicity of the metaphor leads him to think about the
different ways he has imagined and mis-imagined Margo.
Quentin realizes that the most important question is not what Quentin has grown entangled with Margo to the point where his
happened to Margo, but who she was. He commits himself to emotional wellbeing is totally dependent on his sense of connection
correcting his misperceptions about Margo, and begins hunting with her and his confidence in her safety. Quentin’s identity has
more carefully through the rooms around him to discover become totally fused with his search for Margo, just as the adults
things he might have missed on his first visit. He finds a stack of who urged him to move on from hunting for her feared would
travel books with dog-eared pages, and it occurs to him that happen.
Margo may have been planning to travel. He spends the night
reading these books. Though he has no idea where Margo
might have gone, the presence of these books makes Quentin
believe she is alive. This gives him comfort and a sense of
purpose.

PART 2, CHAPTER 13
Quentin falls asleep, but wakes up around 3 o’clock in the The relationship between Ben and Quentin has been strained since
morning to the sound of his phone ringing. Ben is calling from Margo’s disappearance, but Quentin still answers when Ben asks
an after-prom party at Becca’s house. He is extremely drunk, him for help. Though their friendship is changing, he is still loyal to
and tells Quentin that they need him to act as a designated Ben.
driver. Grudgingly, Quentin agrees.
Quentin arrives at Becca’s house and finds Ben doing a keg At Becca’s party, conventional social expectations have been erased,
stand while Jase holds him up. The scene seems trivial and and the long-suffering nerds like Ben have a chance for acceptance.
embarrassing. He commiserates with sober, annoyed Angela, Quentin, who has learned to see his outsider status as a mark of
and learns from a very drunk Radar that he and his friends have superior authenticity, refuses to see the positive side of this change.
become “like folk heroes” to the popular kids, who have taken a
particular liking to Ben.
Chuck approaches Quentin, looking intimidating, and asks Chuck has bullied Quentin for years, and this moment offers them
whether Quentin was the person who shaved his eyebrow. He both a chance to make amends and move forward to the next stage
laughs when Quentin admits that he was, and applauds of their lives with clean slates. Chuck is too clumsy, though, and
Quentin for his chutzpah. The sudden warmth and camaraderie Quentin is too bitter to take advantage of that chance for
feels painfully disingenuous to Quentin, and he imagines Margo reconciliation.
suffering through countless parties like this during her time in
school.
Quentin wanders downstairs, looking to get away from the It becomes clear here that everyone Quentin knows, even the most
noise and crowd. He sees Becca and Jase hooking up, and hears loathsome of the popular kids, is struggling in their own way. Jase
Jase accidentally call Becca by Margo’s name. He goes into the reveals that he is missing and thinking about Margo when he says
nearby bathroom and finds Lacey sitting in the empty bathtub. her name. Becca reveals her ugly insecurities when she turns against
She invites him to sit with her. She tells Quentin that Becca Lacey. All people may be superficial, as Quentin suggests, but
humiliated her earlier in the evening by interrupting the party alongside that superficiality there is always serious and sincere
to announce that Lacey had an STD. Quentin suggest that human pain.
Becca may be jealous of Lacey because people genuinely like
Lacey, but only appreciate Becca for her looks. Lacey asks
Quentin whether he thinks she is superficial. Quentin admits
that he does, but assures her that everyone, including him, is
superficial.
Lacey asks Quentin to take her to the strip mall, and Quentin Lacey obviously cares about Margo a great deal, and it becomes
tells her about discovering Margo’s blanket and nail polish. clear here that the fact that she has been paying attention to prom
Lacey is certain that Margo is dead, and disgusted by the idea doesn’t mean she is not feeling Margo’s absence. Quentin’s
that everyone is celebrating prom as though nothing has pessimism about his peers’ superficiality is confounded by Lacey,
happened. Quentin wonders whether Margo would have whose interest in things Quentin finds stupid does not stop her from
wanted for their lives to go on in her absence, and Lacey says being a deep-thinking person or a good friend.
that does not sound like the Margo she knew. Quentin thinks
about all the different versions of Margo that exist in the minds
of different people. Lacey falls asleep in the tub.

Around 5 o’clock, Quentin wakes Lacey. They go upstairs and Quentin still values his camaraderie with Radar and Ben, and
find Ben carrying a sword made of empty beer cans that have agreeing to go along with their prank — rather than condescending
been glued together. Ben tells Quentin that he and Radar have to them, as he has so often in the past weeks — shows some desire
made a pact to be naked under their robes at graduation, and to restore their friendship back to the way it was before Margo.
Quentin agrees to do the same. As they leave, Quentin and
Lacey discover that Ben has super-glued his sword to his hand.
Driving home with Ben sleeping in the backseat, Lacey admits Lacey introduces the idea that caring deeply about something that
to Quentin that Ben “tries too hard” — that he wants badly and is supposedly superficial can be a form of authenticity. Ben does not
obviously for other people to like him — but says she does not play cool or hide his desire for acceptance, and for that reason is
necessarily think that trying hard is a bad thing. Quentin drops more honest than many people.
her off at home, then wakes Ben and takes him home as well.
PART 2, CHAPTER 14
The next day, Quentin calls Ben. He wants to tell Ben about his Quentin is not only frustrated with Ben’s lack of interest in Margo —
discoveries in the strip mall the night before, but Ben is or his unwillingness to return the kindness Quentin showed in
extremely hung over and hangs up on him. Quentin is furious. picking him up from the after-prom party. He also feels hurt by the
He tells himself Ben never cared about their friendship, and idea that Ben would prefer the friendship of the popular kids to his.
that in all the years they have known each other, Ben has As they face changes in their lives and in their friendship, Quentin is
always been biding his time waiting for someone cooler to becoming defensive.
come along. He leaves Ben a message on his cell phone, calling
him a “shitbag.”
After leaving his message to Ben, Quentin calls Radar. Radar The cities marked in the travel book are unconventional road trip
arrives at Quentin’s house a few minutes later, and Quentin destinations, and Margo’s motivation for visiting them is unclear —
describes the things he found in the strip mall. Radar examines in fact, Quentin cannot even be sure the book belonged to her. Once
one of the travel books Quentin has brought back, and notes again, Quentin has information about Margo, but does not know
that the reader marked locations in Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, her well enough to understand it. A cross-country road trip fits his
Minnesota, and California. Radar uses an online map-making old image of Margo as a free-spirited adventurer — but that is only
program to plot the locations and the possible routes a person one of many possible versions of her.
could drive that would pass through all of them. He prints out a
map of the United States for Quentin, who hangs it on the wall
and plots the different points with thumbtacks.
Radar mentions he been monitoring Omnictionary for activity Quentin’s investigation has been seeming more and more like a solo
from Margo’s account and tracking the IP addresses of people effort: he drives to pseudovisions alone and stays alone in the strip
who search for the phrase “paper towns.” Quentin is surprised mall. Radar reminds him here that he has not been alone at all, and
to learn that Radar has been working so hard to find Margo. that he has failed to notice or understand the many subtle ways his
friends are supporting him.

Radar suggests inviting Ben to brainstorm and play video Radar advocates not only for greater understanding when a person
games. When Quentin refuses, Radar suggests he should be reveals their flaws, but for greater appreciation of the positive things
more accepting of other people. Quentin is as flawed as Ben, a person offers despite their flaws. Everyone can seem unworthy if
Radar reminds him: he is always late for things, he is never the person perceiving them is not willing to be compassionate with
interested in anything but Margo, and he never asks Radar how them; Radar encourages Quentin to choose compassion. In this
things are going with Angela. Still, he is a worthwhile friend. respect, he challenges Margo’s “paper people” idea, suggesting that
Radar insists Quentin and Ben both need to stop expecting the people should be given the benefit of the doubt rather than
other to think and feel the same way they do. Quentin agrees dismissed, that no one is in fact two-dimensional.
to call Ben, who agrees to come over.
Waiting for Ben to arrive, Quentin asks Radar about Angela. Quentin has largely refused to participate in conversation about
Radar says things are good between them, that they did not ordinary things (such as Radar’s love life) because they did not seem
have sex on prom night, and that they had their first fight that as important as the problems he was facing. In asking Radar about
morning over breakfast at the Waffle House — Angela thinks Angela, he shows greater humility and a desire to be a better friend.
his parents’ black Santa collection is fantastic, and Radar was
indignant. Ben arrives, and thanks Quentin for driving him
home the night before.
PART 2, CHAPTER 15
Quentin spends Monday afternoon reading Whitman. He Quentin wants to experience the world the way Margo did.
begins listening to the same album of Woody Guthrie covers he Immersing himself in the music that was important to her is a way
discovered in Margo’s room, and spends the rest of the evening of accessing her mind.
listening to her favorite music.
During dinner, Quentin’s mother tells him about meeting Quentin has been learning how to be compassionate with his
Chuck’s mother, Betty Parson, the previous day. She tells friends, but his mother challenges him, here, to expand that
Quentin that Chuck is going to the University of Georgia on a compassion to people who don’t seem sympathetic to him. Chuck
football scholarship. Quentin answers that Chuck is an asshole, has always seemed to Quentin like a caricature of a crude and
and Mrs. Jacobsen tells him that he will eventually learn to see stupid bully, but Mrs. Jacobsen promises Quentin that he will
his peers as human beings who struggle and need to be cared become more generous as he matures and learns how difficult life is
for, just as he does. She tells Quentin that Chuck has learning for everybody.
difficulties, and that his going to college is a positive thing.
Quentin insists he doesn’t care about Chuck.
Quentin’s father says working as a therapist has taught him Quentin has spent weeks working to understand Margo, but his
that human beings “lack good mirrors,” meaning they have a parents’ conversation raises the question of whether understanding
hard time knowing how their behavior makes them appear to is possible even in the best of circumstances. Mr. Jacobsen imagines
other people, and so can’t know what changes to that behavior people trying and failing to make themselves comprehensible to
will make their feelings easier for others to understand. Mrs. those around them. It seems possible that, even if Margo wanted
Jacobsen agrees, and adds that it can be difficult for a person to Quentin to understand her, wouldn’t have known how to
conceive of others as being human beings. It is easier to communicate with him in an effective way.
“idealize them as god or dismiss them as animals” than to
acknowledge their complexity.

Listening to his parents’ conversation, it occurs to Quentin that Quentin’s revelation is the final blow to his false idea of Margo, and
he has never thought about Margo as a person — all his it also highlights the crucial importance of openness and honesty in
attempts to imagine her have failed to recognize that basic fact. life and relationships. Margo did not open herself to anyone in a way
He suddenly realizes how empty Margo must have felt, that would have allowed them to see her as human, and others were
surrounded by people who admired her but who never able to idealize her because they discouraged her from being honest
acknowledged her as a human being with an inner life separate with them. Fear of honesty made mutual recognition and human
from the front everyone could see. He recognizes that Margo connection impossible.
had a hand in her own dehumanization — that she not only
allowed him to see her as a miracle rather than a girl, but
encouraged him to do so.
PART 2, CHAPTER 16
After school on Tuesday, Quentin and Lacey wait together for Quentin and Lacey spending time together alone shows a growing
Ben and Radar to finish band practice. The four of them have closeness between them. Though both of them know how
made plans to visit the strip mall. Quentin admits he is no incomplete their understanding of Margo has always been, they
longer sure that looking for Margo in pseudovisions is the right both hold onto certain convictions about who she is —they can’t
approach. He and Lacey agree that the thought of her living forget what she symbolized for them.
with the rats and dust in the strip mall sounds wrong, given the
elegance and flair for which she was known.
In the car, heading toward the strip mall, Radar states his belief Quentin has invented countless theories about Margo and her
that Margo has gone on a tour of America’s strangest roadside intentions, from deciding to pursue her through Orlando’s
attractions, like the world’s largest ball of twine in Minnesota. pseudovisions to assuming her disappearance was designed as an
Ben repeats his conviction that Margo is in Orlando, watching opportunity for him to prove his romantic worth. At this moment,
them look for her. Lacey defends the possibility of New York. however, he does not add to his friends’ list of theories. Quentin has
Quentin thinks about how each of them have formed their own become more suspicious of his version of Margo.
private version of Margo, each of which reflects more about
the person who constructed it than about Margo herself.
Inside the strip mall, Quentin and his friends encounter Gus makes it clear that the strip mall was not only a haven for
another group of people exploring the building. Lacey Margo after she ran away, but was an important fixture in her life
recognizes Gus, the security guard from the SunTrust Building, for years before. The parts of her life almost nobody knew about
among them. Gus confirms that Margo used to spend a lot of keep multiplying, and every new detail creates mystery as much as it
time in the strip mall, and his friend Ace tells Lacey that they does understanding.
visited the building shorty after Margo ran away to look for her.
Gus explains that he and his friends are explorers, who break Margo was famous for her adventures, but the explorers’ stories
into abandoned buildings and photograph them as a hobby. Ace suggest that adventure itself was not what she sought out in those
tells them Margo used to explore with them while she was in experiences. Her reasons for sitting with her notebook instead of
school, but Gus says she never had much interest in looking exploring are not yet clear, but Margo seems to have been looking
around — she wanted to get into the buildings and then stay for something besides excitement in these abandoned buildings.
there. Another of Gus’s friends, the Carpenter, remembers
how Margo would sit in corners and write in a black notebook
while the rest of them explored.

Gus remarks that Margo “seemed pretty depressed.” This That Gus never asked Margo what was troubling her shows how
makes Lacey furious, and she screams at him, cursing him for easy it is for people to overlook the signals other are giving them
never asking Margo why she seemed so depressed. In when they try to communicate their feelings. Lacey’s fury at the
response, the Carpenter insults Lacey, and Ben gets involved, explorers may in fact reflect her anger at herself for never asking
tackling and punching the Carpenter. Gus and his friends leave Margo these questions.
quickly.
With the explorers gone, Quentin and his friends look around The interior of the strip mall is constantly yielding new clues, but
the rooms. Lacey says she remembers Margo’s black these clues emerge slowly and in tiny pieces — no great mysteries
notebook, though she never saw Margo writing in it. She feels are solved all at once. This frustrating process mimics the difficult
terrible for never asking Margo about it, or about anything else work of trying to understand another person, or to become close to
that now seems important. Ben speculates that the holes in the them. Quentin’s desire to find Margo alone shows that he is still
wall must be places where Margo hung up postcards or hoping that something monumental will happen when they are
pictures. After an hour of exploring, Quentin happens upon a reunited — perhaps that they will share some special moment of
pile of brochures advertising subdivisions. Grovepoint Acres is connection.
among them, and Quentin, thrilled by this new development,
writes down the names of the others. He recognizes the name
Collier Farms on one of the brochures; it is one of the
pseudovisions from his list that he has not yet visited. Quentin
does not tell his friends about his discovery. He still hopes to be
alone when he finds Margo.
PART 2, CHAPTER 17
On Friday evening, Quentin drives to Collier Farms. The land is Quentin is trapped in a cycle, visiting pseudovisions and leaving
swampy and overgrown. Though he is full of hope after finding disappointed. He is not ready to give up on Margo, but his search
the subdivision’s brochure in the strip mall, he finds no sign that now seems hopeless.
Margo has been there.
Driving to the last pseudovision on his list, Logan Pines, Ben and Quentin are more compassionate with each other here
Quentin gets a call from Ben. Radar’s parents have left town — than they have been at other points, and they are also better at
a black Santa collector in Pittsburgh has died suddenly, and communicating their thoughts. Ben is understanding of Quentin’s
they are flying to Pennsylvania to buy his Santas —and Radar is need to search for Margo, and he makes his request gently, letting
planning a party in their absence. Quentin declines to attend. Quentin know that he values this party because it is one of the
Ben tells him that they are not asking him to abandon the rituals that will make finishing high school easier. Though he still
search for Margo, and that they only want one evening of his does not see things from Ben’s point of view, Quentin accepts that
time before graduation later that week. It bothers Quentin that Ben has different priorities than him and agrees to be the friend Ben
Ben never seems to care about Margo unless searching for her needs him to be.
involves an interesting adventure, but he thinks of Radar’s
lecture about accepting people, and agrees to come to the
party as soon as he searches Logan Pines.
There is nothing in Logan Pines to suggest anyone has been Quentin has been confident in his theory that “paper towns”
there. Quentin finds the concrete foundation of a house that referred to pseudovisions, but he is forced to accept that his
was never built. He cannot understand why Margo would have hypothesis was wrong. Just when the truth of a situation seems
wanted him to see these places. He has now exhausted his list completely obvious, he realizes he has misunderstood once again.
of pseudovisions in Central Florida, but knows nothing more
than when he began.

Quentin drives back to Jefferson Park. He arrives at Radar’s Quentin and his friends often act more serious and adult than their
house to find Radar putting away the nicest of the black Santas classmates, but in this moment they are just teenagers. They worry
to keep them from breaking during the party. Quentin is about kissing and breaking their parents’ things, and they joke as
thinking that the Santas are more beautiful and interesting though they don’t have big adult problems to think about. They
than Radar gives them credit for, when Ben appears in the have paused the rapid process of growing up and are using this
bedroom. He tells them that Lacey has just kissed him, and that opportunity to enjoy being teenagers while they still can.
he’s afraid he isn’t very good at kissing. Quentin advises him to
use his tongue sparingly and avoid biting. Lacey comes into the
room at that inopportune moment, and begins affectionately
teasing the boys.
The party is relaxed, with little drinking and lots of storytelling. Because Quentin has skipped so many of the normal end-of-high-
Ben, Radar, and Quentin reaffirm their commitment to being school rituals, like prom and parties before this one, he has not had
naked under their robes at graduation, and some of their the opportunity to reflect on the transition he is about to make, or
friends agree to join them. Quentin thinks that moments like really even acknowledge that this transition is going to happen.
this are what he likes most about his friend. The party is Here, he appreciates the people who have shared his childhood with
bittersweet and leaves Quentin feeling acutely both the him and begins to remember the positive parts of an experience he
happiness and sadness of the transition that awaits him. When tends to think of as being unhappy.
he gets home that night, he finds his mother dozing on the
couch. She wakes up to hug him and tells him that she really
likes being his mom.
In bed, Quentin pages through “Song of Myself.” He looks at Quentin’s breakthrough comes at precisely the moment when he
the map pinned to his wall, and thinks of how fruitless it is to acknowledges, through the symbolic gesture of ripping down his
attempt to understand Margo through a map. The enormous map, that Margo is not someone who can be understood through
amount of space represented in the map only reminds him of logic and puzzles. That realization, in some ways, produces his new
how small Margo is, and how difficult it will be to find her when idea. This illustrates how a person can become trapped in their
he has the entire world to search. He gets out of bed and pulls tired, outdated ways of thinking about other people, and how seeing
the map off the wall, along with the thumbtacks he used to someone clearly often requires the total abandonment of
mark locations of interest. Lying down again, he stares at the preexisting ideas about them.
pattern of small holes in the wall left by the thumbtacks. The
pattern reminds him of the one he saw on the wall of the strip
mall. He realizes suddenly that the thing Margo hung up must
have been a map with plotted points.
PART 2, CHAPTER 18
Early the next morning, Quentin tells Radar about his new Radar’s relationship with Angela highlights some of the strangest
hypothesis — that the holes in the wall at the strip mall show parts about the shift from adolescence to adulthood (or high school
the place where a map had been hung and a route plotted with to college). Their maturity allows them to bond with each other in a
thumbtacks — and they agree to go over. Quentin picks Radar deep way, but is also the thing that motivates them to strike out into
up a few hours later, but they fail to convince Ben to get out of world on their own, which will force them to be apart. Maturation
bed and join them. Driving to the strip mall, Radar talks about both creates great experiences and ends them.
Angela and how strange it feels to fall in love with her so soon
before leaving for different colleges.

Searching through a box of maps and brochures in the strip Quentin and Radar do a thorough and accurate job of recreating
mall, Quentin and Radar discover a map called “Five Thousand Margo’s marks on the map, but things beyond their control— like
American Cities.” Quentin sees pinholes in the corners and rips in the paper and the density of the city names — make it
know they have found the right map. There are rips in the map impossible for them to know exactly what Margo was thinking when
as though it has been torn off the wall, and Quentin knows she plotted her points. This is an image of all Quentin has learned
Margo did not intend for them to use this as a clue. They hang it from his search for Margo: that even patient, thoughtful efforts to
on the wall and match holes in the paper with holes in the wall. access another person’s mind are sometimes met with failure.
There are so many cities listed on the map, however, that most
of the pins touch more than one location, making it hard to
know exactly which places Margo meant to mark. They find
holes near Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and
Washington D.C., and in a small cluster of towns in upstate
New York, near the Catskill Mountains. They cannot determine
any precise location.
At home, Quentin studies for his Latin final and talks with Lacey The search for Margo was creating great tension between Quentin
over instant messenger about Margo’s black notebook. They and his friends just a few days earlier, but now they are united in the
agree that Margo must have used it to plan her schemes and search; they collaborate harmoniously. As Quentin has become
dramatic gestures. Radar and Ben sign on, and Radar more grounded and compassionate, the people around him have
announces his new theory: that Margo will return in time for become better allies.
graduation day, and will show up at the ceremony sitting in the
audience. The four of them discuss their new and old theories
about Margo while Quentin uses the map-making program
Radar showed him to plot different routes between the places
marked on Margo’s map.
PART 2, CHAPTER 19
At school the next day, Radar tells Quentin that he has built a This moment represents a convergence of information. Radar’s
new program for Omnictionary, which allows users to search a program makes it possible to parse an enormous database of
broad category, such as a geographic location, and then view information in a short period of time, and the map-making program
the first sentences of up to one hundred Omnictionary articles Ben and Lacey use to plot routes for Margo inundates them with
related to the category. Ben arrives, saying that he and Lacey information about the huge number of places she could be or road
spent the night plotting different possible routes Margo could she could be traveling. Everyone is trying to harness the information
have taken between the five points on her map. He tells them available to them to solve their problems, but more knowledge only
that every version of the trip lasts almost exactly twenty-three serves to emphasize how much remains to be known. Reality—and
days —the amount of time between the day Margo disappeared Margo—has become increasingly hard to grasp.
and graduation. Ben is now convinced that Radar’s theory is
right: Margo will be in the audience at graduation. Quentin is
skeptical of the idea. He knows enough about Margo to trust
that she has not been playing a prank all this time.
Reading “Song of Myself” that night, Quentin pauses over one Whitman champions radical empathy and connection between
line: “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels … I myself people, but Quentin’s ongoing struggle to access Margo raises
become the wounded person.” He sees that all his efforts to questions as to whether such enormous empathy is even possible —
connect with Margo, he has never been able to become her — whether one can ever fully understand another person.
to experience the world as she experienced it, exactly.

Quentin struggles through the rest of his final exams, and Quentin has begun to realize that places and people are never
arrives at his last-ever day of school. He is filled with surprising intrinsically “paper,” as Margo’s blanket dismissal of her town and
nostalgia as he thinks about how many things he will never do her peers might have suggested. Rather, it is the task of each
again: loiter outside the band room, eat pizza in the cafeteria. individual person to create an authentic experience for themselves,
He thinks that Margo must have felt some sadness leaving, just reaching out to others to form connections and memories that give
as he does, because she made a life for herself at Winter Park meaning to life.
High School just as he did. It occurs to him that these memories
are authentic and meaningful, though the school itself has
often felt artificial and dissatisfying.
After school, Quentin decides to clean out his locker while Quentin has been cavalier about finishing high school, but it seems
Radar and Ben attend band practice to rehearse the graduation here that he does not actually feel prepared to leave. He allows
concert. He soon grows overwhelmed by the thought of himself one souvenir — the photograph — but throws out everything
everything he will never do again, and throws away everything else because he does not know how to cope with the sadness and
in his locker without looking at it, except one photograph of nostalgia it creates.
himself, Radar, and Ben. He walks out of the building, leaving his
now-empty locker open behind him.
Walking home, Quentin discovers that though the process of It occurs to Quentin earlier while reading Whitman that he has
leaving is difficult, the actual act of leaving feels wonderful. He never really become Margo, but here, he empathizes with her so
realizes that Margo is never going to come back to Orlando, perfectly that he does seem to become her. Quentin finally
that she wouldn’t want to, because leaving feels so good. He is understands some part of Margo on a visceral, rather than an
unsure of what to do with his own exhilaration, whether he intellectual, level. And yet it is ironic that the fundamental and
must keep leaving place and place for the rest of his life in order almost universal human experience of leaving home, and by
to recreate this feeling. extension leaving each other, brings them closer than ever.
PART 2, CHAPTER 20
Quentin spends that afternoon and the next day trying to Having his own car represents independence for Quentin, and his
uncover some new insight into Margo’s plan. On the morning of enthusiasm shows how he has craved that independence. That his
graduation, his parents present him with a gift: a car of his own. parents would choose to give Quentin a minivan is a comic example
Quentin is ecstatic, although some of his excitement fades of the kind of benevolent misunderstandings that Quentin has dealt
when he learns that the new car is a minivan. (His parents with time and again throughout his journey to find Margo. While
incorrectly assumed that Quentin loved his mother’s minivan.) many such misunderstandings are serious and dehumanizing, the
His parents leave for the high school, intending to meet him at Jacobsens’ flop shows that they can also be a natural part of life,
the graduation ceremony. and should be accepted.

Quentin tells Radar about the minivan. He agrees to let Radar Quentin’s new, empathetic understanding of Margo helps him see
store a cooler full of beer in the trunk, so they can take it to beyond the things she might have hated about Orlando, to the
Lacey’s graduation party that night. In the shower, it occurs to things she might have loved about it. As he did in Holly Meadows,
him that he can go looking for Margo now, tracking her to the when he feared he would find her body under the oak tree, Quentin
cities on her map. He thinks that she cannot have left to wander sees the inextricable connections between loving something and
from place to place forever, because the exhilaration of leaving losing it — and he sees how willingly letting a loved thing go can feel
is partly a product of attachment — he knows now that the freeing, because the prospect of losing it can no longer be
thing that makes leaving feel good is the sadness of leaving devastating once the loved thing has been surrendered.
behind precious connections and memories.
After getting out of the shower, Quentin turns on the program Agloe is an odd example of a paper town: while most paper towns
Radar created a few days earlier, that collects the first exist only in maps, and serve their function only as long as they
sentences of all the articles related to a broad topic. He remain limited to the world of the map, Agloe has transcended its
searches an area code near the Catskills. Among the results “paper town” status and become real. Quentin’s project has been to
that appear, an article on the village of Agloe, New York catches do the same thing for Margo, eradicating the fictional version of her
his attention. Agloe, he reads, is a fictitious town created by from his mind and building a new, real version of her to replace it.
cartographers from the Esso company and inserted into maps
as a tool to guard their work against plagiarism by other
mapmakers —also known as a copyright trap, or a paper town.
Though the town did not really exist when it first appeared on a
map, the article says that a resident of the area built “The Agloe
General Store” at the location where it was supposed to exist,
thus making the fictitious town a real place.
The article claims Agloe has a population of zero, but in the Margo is still recognizable by some of her signature quirks: her odd
comments section, Quentin discovers a recent message from capitalization and her flair for drama, embodied in her clever but
an anonymous user, which claims that there will, in fact, be one unnecessary announcement. Despite his much-improved
person living in Agloe until noon on May 29. Quentin understanding of Margo, Quentin still relies on her persona to
recognizes Margo’s unusual capitalization: words in the middle identify her. To some extent, her persona is still the real her — just an
of the sentence are capitalized, just as they were on the incomplete version of her.
shopping list she once gave him. He is certain the comment is
hers.
Quentin discovers online that driving from Orlando to Agloe Quentin’s weeks of searching for Margo have been a slow parade of
will take 19 hours and four minutes. He has 21 hours and 45 disappointments, each breakthrough coming with great difficulty
minutes until, according to the comment, Margo is scheduled to and then leading nowhere. Now that he seems to have found her,
leave Agloe. He calls Radar and Ben, who are at school waiting everything moves swiftly, and immediate action is necessary.
for graduation to begin. Radar is amazed by what Quentin tells Quentin has no time to second guess himself or allow fear to inform
him, but assures Quentin that the drive to Agloe will take him at his decision — he acts boldly, as Margo taught him.
least 23 hours when he accounts for traffic. Quentin realizes
that he has to leave immediately.

Radar and Ben convince Quentin to stop by the school on his In joining Quentin on his trip (and missing their graduation in the
way out of town, to explain to his parents what is happening. He process), Radar, Lacey, and Ben show their loyalty to Quentin, even
does so, hastily. When he returns to his car, Quentin finds Ben, more than their investment in finding Margo. Unlike Margo,
Radar, and Lacey waiting for him. They have decided to skip Quentin will not have to make this long journey alone. Also worth
graduation as well, and go with him to Agloe. noting as that Quentin tells his parents about their road trip. First,
this marks his relationship to his parents as very different from that
between Margo and her parents. But it also shows a new level of
maturity in that Quentin is explaining his “rule-breaking” and his
reasons for it with authority figures, who understand.
PART 3, THE FIRST HOUR

As their trip begins, everyone in the car settles into a role: The high-energy beginning of the road trip shows both the group
Lacey takes stock of the sparse food and supplies they have in and every individual member of the group in their best possible
the car, Radar plans their gas station stops and calculates the light. The roles they fall into highlight their strengths — even Ben,
speed they’ll need to travel to reach Agloe before noon the next whose need to pee could easily be obnoxious, embraces his role as
day, and Ben makes frequent remarks about needing to pee, comic relief. This cohesion replaces their graduation ceremony as a
which are ridiculed and dismissed by his traveling companions. testament to what they have learned and achieved in high school.
Ben and Radar are still wearing nothing except their graduation
robes. Quentin is driving 72 miles per hour, almost 20 miles
over the speed limit. Everyone is in high spirits, laughing and
having fun as they speed down the highway.
PART 3, HOUR 2
Quentin and his friends begin playing a variation on I Spy, in That Quentin defies an authority figure with impunity — when, just
which they are only allowed to “spy” abstract concepts, rather a few weeks ago, he slowed for a stop sign while fleeing Jase’s house
than physical objects. Radar spies something “tragically hip.” — shows his changed relationship with fear. Whereas he used to fear
Quentin suggests a road trip in a minivan would fit the the consequences of breaking even minor rules, he now feels
description. The correct answer turns out to be “failing to turn empowered to assert his own priorities when necessary.
in your rented graduation robes on time.” Quentin speeds past
a cop, and feels grateful when the cop doesn’t pull him over.
PART 3, HOUR 3
Lacey makes a detailed shopping list in preparation for their Ben establishes a lighthearted and unpretentious tone for the road
first gas station stop, which according to Radar’s itinerary is still trip by embracing the embarrassing task of peeing in front of his
two hours away. Ben is now desperate to pee, and since they friends without shame or hesitation.
cannot stop, Radar empties two of the beers from the cooler
and gives them to Ben.

PART 3, HOUR 4
As they prepare to make their first gas station stop, Lacey Though the process of losing and searching for Margo has forced
choreographs an elaborate scheme to ensure that they will be Quentin to mature in a number of ways, he and his friends are still
able to get everything they need — food, gas, and clothes for young, and most of the major challenges and pleasures of their lives
Ben and Radar, among other things — in the six minutes Radar are still ahead of them. Given that, the most telling sign of how
has allotted for the stop. When they reach the station, all four Quentin has matured may be his willingness to embrace the
of them fly out of the minivan. Radar fills the gas tank while the goofiness of this moment and simply appreciate being young. He
others race through the store collecting provisions. As they run has gained humility that allows him to take himself less seriously. He
back to the car with their arms full, Quentin feels elated: young, and these friends have connected in a way that has let them all be
goofy, and infinite. They high five one another as they merge their goofy selves with each other.
back onto the interstate, four seconds ahead of schedule.
PART 3, HOUR 5
Sorting through their new provisions as they continue on their As Quentin and his friends get further into their road trip, the
drive, Lacey is frustrated to find that Quentin forgot the minivan becomes a kind of alternate universe, in which
healthy food she instructed him to buy. She remarks that she circumstances for people to do things they would never do in their
cannot eat the junk food he bought for himself, Radar, and Ben, normal lives. In Lacey’s case, her willingness to let go of
because it will make her fat. Quentin finally coaxes her into conventional standards of beauty and enjoy food without anxiety
trying a chocolate- flavored nutrition bar, and she cannot hide illustrates how her friends have made her feel safer and more
her delight. Unpacking the last bag, Radar discovers that the comfortable than she typically does. In Radar’s case, as an African
shirts Ben bought are emblazoned with the Confederate flag American he is facing a part of American history—Confederate
and the slogan, “Heritage Not Hate” — an accident, and an slavery—that treated an entire race like “paper people,” like two
ironic one given Radar is African-American. Radar curses Ben, dimensional beings who were unworthy even of freedom. In a novel
but laughs nevertheless. focused on recognizing the common humanity of others Green, the
novelist, is here recognizing the awful consequences of not doing so.
PART 3, HOUR 6
Stuck in traffic in South Carolina, Quentin and Radar invent a The story Quentin constructs about the woman in the next car, in
game in which they take turns imagining the lives of people in addition to being cliché and melodramatic, is based on stereotypes
neighboring cars. Observing a Hispanic woman in a beat-up car, of Hispanic people prevalent in the United States. This moment
Quentin guesses she is an undocumented immigrant who left shows how whole cultures can promote the mis-imagination of
her family to move to the United States, and whose husband is certain people within them, and highlights possible social
gone for most of the year as a migrant worker. Radar tells consequences of that phenomenon — like racial stereotyping — that
Quentin he’s being melodramatic. He guesses, based on the are even more dangerous than the interpersonal consequences. It’s
woman’s nice clothes, that she is a secretary in a law firm, worth noting that it is Radar, who is African American, who points
studying for a law degree of her own. out Quentin’s stereotyping here.

Radar’s alternative version of the woman’s life story makes Quentin has received a valuable education in empathy from reading
Quentin think of all the ways human beings fail to imagine one Whitman, but his ability to question Whitman is the greatest
another accurately. Radar remarks that this game reveals more evidence of his growth. He is more aware of the limitations of his
about the person playing than about the subject in the empathy and imagination, and so more prepared to acknowledge
neighboring car. Quentin thinks of Whitman’s radical empathy, how people might deviate from his expectations.
and silently questions whether it is possible for one person
ever to move past imagination and fully become another.
PART 3, HOUR 7
Quentin and his friends have agreed to sleep in shifts, so Ben Quentin’s sudden appreciation of his minivan, which seemed like a
and Lacey are lying across the two back seats with seatbelts cruel joke when he first received it, shows how the company of
strapped around them. Quentin thinks that the minivan has people one cares for can transform places and experiences into
become like a small house: the back seats are bedrooms, the something much greater than the sum of their parts, and even how
driver’s seat is the living room, the passenger’s seat is the den, keeping an open mind about things you originally don’t like can lead
and the pile of food sitting between him and Radar is the to liking those things down the line.
kitchen. He thinks this little house has many wonderful
qualities.
PART 3, HOUR 8
Quentin remarks on all the new things he has learned about As their trip crawls forward, Quentin is losing his last, most basic
himself while driving: that he is willing to pee into a mostly- pretentions, peeing into bottles as he mocked Ben (even if in a
empty bottle of Bluefin energy drink, which he and Radar have friendly way) for doing just hours earlier. In a trivial sense, he has
been drinking to stay awake, and that he appreciates the even mis-imagined himself — he never expected to be doing all this.
turquoise color urine makes when combined with trace
amounts of Bluefin.
PART 3, HOUR 9
Quentin and Radar discover, as the hour approaches when they Quentin has often failed to appreciate his friends, but he sees now
are supposed to trade places with the still-sleeping Ben and how his happiness is tied up in them. Although he acknowledges
Lacey, that they have consumed too much Bluefin to imagine that Margo may not have needed or wanted companions for this
falling asleep. They agree to let Ben and Lacey continue journey, the thought of her driving this route by herself seems lonely
sleeping. Driving on the empty interstate feels easy and and sad when compared to the boisterous camaraderie of the
pleasurable to Quentin, but it occurs to him that, while Margo minivan.
may have been able to enjoy this drive in solitude, he could
never feel so happy and peaceful if he were traveling alone.
PART 3, HOUR 10
As they prepare for their next gas station stop, Radar and Though the atmosphere on the trip has been lighthearted and
Quentin wake Lacey and Ben. Quentin buys pants and a new t- easygoing up to this point, small setbacks are beginning to
shirt for Radar, which has the slogan “World’s Best Grandma” accumulate, along with the exhaustion and stress that comes with
printed on it. Lacey takes over driving. They have lost five making such an ambitious journey. The sober tone of the second gas
minutes more than they planned on this stop, are already station stop, which contrasts with the exuberance of the first,
behind schedule because of earlier traffic, and Radar highlights these changes. And yet their determination to complete
anticipates that they will lose more time in the upcoming hour this quest is also still evident.
as they drive through a construction zone.

PART 3, HOUR 11
Quentin and his friends pass through the construction zone, Quentin feels a personal responsibility for this trip, and recognizes
where it is impossible to drive faster than 35 miles per hour. that his friends are there for his purposes, rather than their own. It is
Lacey requests an unscheduled stop so she can use the interesting how this mirrors the car trip he went on with Margo at
bathroom. They find a gas station, and Quentin volunteers to the beginning of the novel, when he was there for her rather than for
take over driving. It seems only fair, since tracking Margo is his himself. Now, Quentin puts Lacey above himself by volunteering to
personal mission. Lacey allows Quentin to take the wheel, and drive, just as she puts him above herself by volunteering to come
lies down in the back. with him on the trip.
PART 3, HOUR 12
It is 2:40 a.m. and Quentin is driving while Radar and Lacey For Quentin, learning to look past perceptions into complex realities
sleep. Ben sits in the passenger seat. He admits that he is has been an intensely private, introspective project. Ben has also
worried about how Quentin might feel if the reunion with been developing this new understanding, he reveals in this
Margo fails to meet his expectations. He talks about the conversation, but the process has been part of his relationship with
strange experience of learning to like Lacey for the flawed Lacey rather than a product of extraordinary circumstances, as it
person she is, rather than the idealized beauty queen he was for Quentin. It becomes clear during their conversation that
imagined her to be before they were together. learning to differentiate between fantasy and reality is essential to
all adult relationships.
Quentin is annoyed at Ben for lecturing him. He is about to Quentin has a more clear-headed vision of his priorities at this
respond when two massive cows suddenly appear in the middle moment than he has at any other point since Margo’s
of the road. Quentin realizes at once that he cannot swerve disappearance. He sees the value of his own life, which at times he
around the cows, or stop in time to avoid hitting them. He has been happy to lay aside for Margo’s sake; of his friends, whose
knows that hitting the cow will be a disaster, and realizes that value he has only just begun to recognize; and he sees how strong
he and his friends will probably die in this accident. Frozen with these attachments are compared to his one-sided relationship with
panic, he takes his hands off the wheel. His can only think about Margo.
how much he wants to live and grow up, how sorry he is for
endangering his friends, and how he blames Margo for leading
them all on this chase.
As Quentin releases the steering wheel, Ben reaches over and Quentin has been determined to accept total responsibility for this
swerves onto the shoulder of the road. The car is spinning as road trip. In this dire moment, however, he finds himself unable to
Ben turns the wheel in the opposite direction of the cow. handle that burden, and is forced to rely on Ben to keep them all
Finally, they stop. Quentin is bleeding from a cut on his cheek, alive. This is a dramatic illustration of the fact that no one person
and both of them are overwhelmed by the fear of what they can handle all life’s problems on their own. Everyone needs the
have just experienced, but otherwise they are both unharmed. occasional support of others, especially in times of crisis.
Lacey and Radar are awake, and are both unharmed as well.
Lacey climbs into the front seat to check Quentin’s bleeding
cheek; her maternal attention makes him start sobbing.

Quentin turns off the engine, and all four of them hear liquid Their near-collision with the cow tests Quentin and his friends’
pouring out from some unknown place near the back of the car. resilience. Their decision to go forward with the journey shows their
Afraid it might be gas, they abandon the car, but Radar soon continued confidence in one another and their commitment to
discovers it is beer, leaking from the broken bottles in the finishing what they have started by finding Margo, even if they are
cooler. They inspect the car and determine that, except for a now more aware of the potential risks. The pause also gives Quentin
gash in the sliding door, everything is fine. Quentin commends a chance to reorganize his priorities. He is still loyal to Margo, but by
Ben on his heroism, and Ben assures Quentin that he was only waiting to vote, he gives his friends a chance to change their minds
trying to save himself. The four of them take a vote about and so puts them ahead of Margo and himself.
whether to go forward with their trip. Quentin waits to vote
until everyone else has affirmed that they want to go on. They
continue toward Agloe.
PART 3, HOUR 13
As they continue driving, Radar, Lacey, and Quentin marvel Ben, used to his role as comic relief, is clearly uncomfortable being
aloud at what has just happened. They praise Ben lavishly for lauded as a hero. His friends accept this discomfort and turn their
his heroism. Ben, embarrassed, again insists he was only gratitude into jokes, but it is clear that Ben is capable of more than
thinking of himself. Seeing how uncomfortable their praise his role suggests.
makes him, the other three exaggerate their compliments even
more.
PART 3, HOUR 14
As they resume driving, Quentin and his friends clean the That Quentin stays calm facing the mess and damage caused by the
broken glass and spilled soda from the floor of the minivan as accident illustrates how much stronger and more stable he has
best they can. Radar estimates that the cost of replacing the become. Whereas small transgressions like missing school once
sliding door will be more than $300. For Quentin, the money is seemed like major issues to him, he now absorbs the chaos around
nothing compared to the relief and happiness he will feel if they him with a clear sense of what really matters.
find Margo. Outside, the sun is rising.
PART 3, HOUR 15-18

Quentin finds comfort in the consistency created by fast food Quentin has grown and changed an enormous amount due to
restaurants and gas station chains. He likes that the country Margo’s influence. Recognizing that he can hold onto her by living
looks exactly the same no matter where they travel. Lacey the lessons she taught him — relishing the time he has with his
straps Quentin in the back and encourages him to sleep. As he friends, appreciating his connection to her and other people, and
dozes off, Quentin hears his friends laughing. He decides that, if enjoying his life without fear — is the culmination of those lessons.
they don’t find Margo in Agloe, they will drive around the In working so hard to retrieve Margo, Quentin has prepared himself
Catskills and find a place to sit, enjoying themselves and to live a life without her.
laughing together. He imagines the possibility of letting Margo
go. It occurs to him that he could be happy without her, and
that he could feel connected to her even if he never saw her
again — they are tied together, like the leaves of grass Whitman
imagines. For the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteen hours of
the journey, Quentin sleeps.

PART 3, HOUR 19
Quentin wakes up to find Radar and Ben evaluating possible Lacey provides Quentin with a reminder of all the fulfilling
names for the minivan. Ben wants to name it Muhammad Ali, connections he has made and will make as his life goes on,
and Radar wants to name it Lurlene. Lacey informs Quentin regardless of whether things in Agloe end up the way he hopes they
that they are in New York. Quentin tells Lacey he is scared. She will. The disappointments of his search, combined with his growing
admits to being scared as well, and tells Quentin that she hopes humility with regard to his understanding of Margo, make it
they will stay friends over the summer. Quentin finds this impossible for Quentin to put his faith in the idea of Margo as fully
comforting. He leans forward and suggests a winning name for as he has in the past. But this search for Margo has also given him a
the minivan: The Dreidel, after the spinning top used for broader base of friends, including Lacey with whom he can now talk
children’s games at Hanukkah, in honor of its excellent about serious things such as their mutual anxieties about their
performance while spinning them away from the cow. upcoming meeting with Margo.
PART 3, HOUR 20
As they drive through upstate New York, Quentin starts a game Margo was always famous for the amazing stories of her adventures
of Metaphysical I Spy. Ben’s first clue is: “I spy with my little eye that circulated around school. Now, Quentin and his friends have
something I really like.” The answer turns out to be “Lacey.” lived a story of their own — they have become the kind of people at
Radar mocks Ben for his sappiness, and decides they will all be whom they could only marvel a few weeks ago.
happier if they sing “Blister in the Sun.” When the song ends,
Quentin takes his turn at Metaphysical I Spy. He spies a “great
story.” Ben realizes that answer is their trip.
PART 3, HOUR 21
As they get close to Agloe, Lacey and Quentin begin listing Quentin knows his ideas about Margo may soon dissolve, and
everything they know about Margo, from the make of her car talking through his memories and perceptions of her is a way of
to the color of her hair. Ben points out that they already know reconciling himself to that possibility rather than denying it. He is
this information, but Quentin does not care. He wants to preparing himself to accept whatever he finds in Agloe, regardless of
remember Margo now, while he is still hopeful that he will see whether it is what he hopes to find.
her again.
PART 3, AGLOE
Driving on highway outside Roscoe, a town near the Margo’s emotionless response to the arrival of Quentin and his
intersection where Agloe General Store supposedly stands, friends makes a startling contrast with the exuberance and intimacy
Quentin and his friend spot a crumbling barn in the field beside of the road trip that has just ended. This contrast is an early sign
a dirt road. Lacey recognizes Margo’s car parked outside the that Margo does not belong in the world Quentin and his friends
barn, and Quentin leaps out of the car and runs to investigate. have created for themselves.
Ben, Radar, and Lacey follow him into the barn. Inside, they find
Margo writing in her notebook. She seems completely
unsurprised to see them. She stares at Quentin and he thinks
that her eyes look silent and dead; she reminds him of Robert
Joyner, staring through his blank eyes.

Margo asks for five minutes to finish writing. When she closes Margo’s blasé attitude is her tool for pushing Lacey and the others
her notebook, she offers each of them a tepid hug or away. The road trip among the friends in the car was marked by its
handshake. She seems at a loss for what to say, and Quentin is honesty and camaraderie. But Margo refuses to be honest about
disappointed that there is not more drama in this moment — no what she feels at that moment, masking truth with her obviously
tears or embraces. She asks what they are doing in Agloe, and false cheer. Her saccharine happiness is also a way of insulting
when Lacey says how worried they have been, Margo brushes Lacey and the others for their worry. Her “A-OK” comment implies
her off with chipper comments about being “A-OK.” Her they were stupid for being so afraid, but also has a tinge of irony
cavalier attitude infuriates Lacey, who calls Margo a bitch and that implies they could not possibly understand how unwell she
storms out of the barn. Ben and Radar follow her, but Quentin really is.
stays behind.
With the others gone, Margo and Quentin launch into a Many people worried Quentin would lose himself in his obsession
massive fight. Margo is angry at Quentin for coming to Agloe, with finding Margo, and for the first time Quentin sees the extent to
telling him she intended to break from every connection she which this did happen — how he could not “move on” because he
had. She accuses him of using her to play the hero and felt so tied to her. Margo is aware of the ways Quentin has idealized
expecting her gratitude as a prize for discovering her. Quentin her in the past, and shows this awareness when she accuses him of
accuses Margo of being selfish, not thinking about how her having ulterior motives for coming after her.
disappearance would affect Ruthie, or her friends. He tells her
he couldn’t move on from losing her because he thought she
had killed herself.
Quentin’s criticisms send Margo into a fit of temper, which has Margo’s fear of being brought back into her old life in Orlando
the odd effect of calming Quentin down. She asks Quentin how shows that she still feels connected to the people and places she left
he found her, and he explains the trail of clues. He tells Margo behind. Though things she has said in the past have made her seem
about his theory that she had killed herself in a pseudovision totally disenchanted with Orlando and everyone in it, her real
and wanted him to find her body. Margo apologizes for her feelings are much more complicated.
anger, and tells Quentin she has been thinking about him — and
her family — a lot since she left. She tells him she was afraid to
maintain ties to anyone in Orlando, because those ties might
eventually compel her to go back.
Lacey calls Quentin’s cell phone, asking to speak to Margo. In reaching out to Margo and offering forgiveness (as implied by the
While they talk, apparently amiably, Quentin explores the barn. tone of the conversation), Lacey shows her compassion and
He finds Margo’s books: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Kurt enduring loyalty to her friend. The revelation that Margo had been
Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Fiv
Slaughterhouse-Fivee. When Margo finishes her call planning her departure from Orlando long before Jase began
with Lacey, she tells Quentin that his friends are staying at a cheating on her illuminates how long and painful her unhappiness
nearby motel, and will be leaving in the morning with or must have been, and hints at how planning elaborate escapades —
without him. She tells Quentin she has made plans to leave for something she long ago admitted to enjoying — has helped her take
New York City that day. She adds that her original plan was to refuge from a painful reality over the years.
leave Orlando on graduation night rather than three weeks
before, as she did, but that she made last-minute adjustments
when she found out Jase was cheating on her.

Quentin asks Margo to explain her plan, to help him Margo’s story represents her dream of living in a happier world,
understand what was and wasn’t intentional, and what where she feels loved (both by Quentin and by her parents) and
everything meant. Margo begins by showing him her where she never has to confront the scary reality of depression that
notebook. She explains that, when she was ten years old, she she discovered much too young. That this story is literally written
began writing a detective story in which she and Quentin, underneath the plans she imagined as an adult is a symbol of the
together with a talking version of Myrna Mountweazel, way these essential desires for love and peace of mind have
investigate the death of Robert Joyner, who in her version of motivated her actions throughout her life and pushed her to
the story is murdered by his demon-possessed brother-in-law become the person she is.
rather than taking his own life. Quentin is a heroic love interest
for Margo in this mystery, and the Spiegelmans are doting
parents who shower her with presents. After finishing the story
in fifth grade, Margo explains, she used the notebook to plan
her pranks and schemes, writing new ideas on top of the pages
that she had already filled with her mystery.
Margo tells Quentin that she began planning her final night in Margo admits here to having transformed Quentin into an idea in
Orlando during their junior year of high school, and that she the same way he did to her, which emphasizes both how easy it is to
always intended to bring him along as her partner. She hoped reduce people to concepts, and how many opportunities for
that she could liberate Quentin through a night of adventure, connection are lost when people refuse to see one another’s
and inspire him to become the hero she imagined him to be in complexity. Her revelation that the strip mall was supposed to be a
her childhood story. When they finally had their night together, gift that would make Quentin happy rather than a clue that would
Margo tells him, she was surprised to find how much she loved terrify him recalls Mr. Jacobsen’s remark about humans lacking
being with him — after imagining him as a two-dimensional boy good mirrors — because Margo could not see how her behavior and
for years, she was amazed to see him as a real person. She tells her gift would appear to Quentin, she failed to communicate the
him the clues that lead him to the strip mall — whose real name, affectionate, encouraging message she wanted to leave for him.
she reveals, is The Osprey —were thrown together hastily. She
wanted to give him the place, where she spent so much time
during high school, as a gift to help him become a braver
person. She tells Quentin she never meant to worry him, and
that she tried to paint over the troubling graffiti about going to
the paper towns and never coming back.
Quentin asks Margo why she would come to Agloe, of all Margo’s notion that being a paper girl made her easier for others to
places. Margo explains that she has always felt like a “paper love is evidence that she fears her authentic self — the struggling
girl,” more flimsy and artificial even than the people who person whom she wishes she could “kill” — is not worthy of love. As
surrounded her. She says she loved being reduced to a cool and collected as she’s always seemed, it is clear that Margo
beautiful idea, and encouraged others to see her that way craves approval and is afraid of being rejected by people who are
because it made them love her. Still, she knew she had to force not willing to accept the more complicated parts of her personality.
herself to become a real person. She tells Quentin she was
drawn to Agloe because it was a place where something
fictitious —the copyright trap that existed only in the world of
the map — became real. Quentin tells her again how he feared
she was dead, and Margo reads him a passage from The Bell Jar
about how fruitless it would be to kill a body when the thing
one wants to kill is much deeper —for Margo, the parts of
herself that feel painfully empty and false.

Quentin encourages Margo to come home with him, telling her Margo and Quentin have different aspirations for their lives that
she can stay with his family until she starts college. Margo reflect their different values and needs. Neither can understand the
insists she cannot go back to Orlando, claiming it will be to easy other’s reason for choosing the path they do, and their attempts to
for her to begin believing in superficial things — not just persuade each other to reconsider their values are fruitless. There is
popularity, but college and the other trappings of a successful a sense that neither Quentin nor Margo has chosen the wrong path
life she has chosen to reject. Quentin acknowledges to himself — that both conventional and unconventional ways of approaching
that he still believes in the value of things like family and adulthood are legitimate. As they learn to see each other more
education. He tries to convince Margo that going to college, at clearly and with greater humility, they will need to learn to respect
least, is important, but she scoffs. He asks what she plans to do each other’s choices, even those they don’t understand.
in the long term, and Margo quotes Emily Dickinson: “Forever
is composed of nows.”
Margo borrows Quentin’s phone and calls her family. She has a Margo is committed to forging her own path through adulthood
tense conversation with her mother, then talks briefly with without feeling tied down by the expectations of her parents. Still,
Ruthie, apologizing for not calling her and promising to call she is very vulnerable and craves the love and approval of her
every Tuesday from then on. When she hangs up, she screams. family, so Mrs. Spiegelman’s rejection is extremely painful. Their
Her mother has told her about having changed the locks, and exchange is a reminder of the fact that becoming an adult does not
Margo is hurt by that gesture. She also feels guilty for having mean abandoning every connection or ridding oneself of every
gone so long without speaking to Ruthie. vulnerability — like children, adults need to feel cared for and
supported.
Margo and Quentin walk through the fields outside the barn, Though Quentin has learned greater humility, and has begun to
and he tells her everything that has happened since her question his capacity to understand other people, he has also
disappearance. Quentin takes Margo’s hand. They lie down in developed a sincere optimism about the ability of human beings to
the field, and Margo talks about how surprising it was to find, make nourishing, substantial connections. Although he was wrong
on the night before she left, how similar Quentin was to the about what Margo felt and intended, he has reached out to her with
hero she imagined in her story. She tells him nothing ever compassion, and made a sincere effort to understand her. That
happens like you imagine it will, and Quentin answers that, if gesture of love and openness is valuable in itself, even if the
you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens. He understands that, understanding it yields is imperfect.
as impossible as it is to imagine the mind of another person— or
another vision for the world, or anything at all — the act of
imagination is the only way for a person to reach outside
themselves. Margo rests her head on Quentin’s shoulder, and
they fall asleep.
Quentin wakes around sunset, and sees Margo digging a few The people Margo hopes to bury are both characters from her story
feet from him. He kneels next to her and begins to dig as well. and real people (and animals) who impacted her when she was
She tells him they are “digging graves for Little Margo and Little young. Margo wants not only to put the past behind her, but to
Quentin and puppy Myrna Mountweazel and poor dead Robert reconcile herself to the things that have made her who she is.
Joyner.” They make the grave carefully, though they only have Burying them ceremonially, rather than simply trying to forget
their hands to dig with. about them, is a way of acknowledging those influences with
respect, even as she tries to move on.

Margo tells Quentin that she never thought of Robert Joyner Quentin has spent a great deal of time trying to understand and
as a real person, and instead thought of him as a minor apply metaphors crafted by other people: Margo’s strings,
character in the drama of her life. Quentin realizes he has done Whitman’s grass, his father’s mirrors and windows, Detective
the same thing. He tells Margo he has always found her Warren’s balloons. The metaphor he creates for himself is the
metaphor — of strings breaking inside Joyner —compelling, but product of all the new insight he has gained, and shows how he has
that there are other ways of thinking about life and death and come into his own through the process of searching for Margo. He
brokenness. The metaphor of string implies that a person can can assert his own philosophy of human connection — one that
be broken beyond repair, while Whitman’s metaphor of grass embraces pain without losing hope — and express himself in his own
implies that people are tied together and can live through one words rather than borrowing others’ language.
another. Quentin suggests an alternative metaphor: that
people are vessels who start out perfect but become cracked
over time, and that it is only by looking through the cracks that
people begin to see one another clearly.
Quentin kisses Margo. Margo asks Quentin to come to New As much, and as sincerely, as Quentin has come to love Margo,
York with her, but they both understand that it will not happen. searching for her has also taught him to appreciate the connections
Quentin tries to explain the reasons he can’t go with her, telling and attachments that make up his life in Orlando. Quentin’s choice
her that he has a life in Orlando, but she stops his explanation is an incredibly hard one to make, but he makes it with full
with another kiss. They bury the notebook, saying “Godspeed” knowledge of what he is giving up and what he is gaining — he has a
to their childhood selves, and to Robert Joyner. Back in the new sense of agency in his own life, and he is able to live with
barn, Quentin helps Margo pack her car. purpose in a way he has never been before.
Margo takes Quentin to the motel where Lacey, Radar, and Ben Quentin accepts the uncertainty that comes with separating from
are staying. They promise to call and write, and Quentin says he Margo, seeing that he cannot control her actions or make her want
will try to visit her later in the summer. He does not know the same things he does. When they come back together after
whether any of these things will happen, but knows they have walking away from each other, though, there is a strong sense that
to imagine them to keep themselves from falling apart. Staying their connection will endure their separation in some way, as they
behind while she goes on without him is the hardest thing he are now tied together by bond of loyalty, love, and compassionate
has ever done. Before getting into her car, Margo turns back to understanding.
face Quentin. Her eyes are soaked with tears, and Quentin
embraces her. They kiss, and he thinks he can see her almost
perfectly.

To cite any of the quotes from Paper Towns covered in the Quotes
HOW T
TO
O CITE section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Green, John. Paper Towns. Speak. 2009.
Jensen, Carlee. "Paper Towns." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 24 Jul CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
2015. Web. 21 Apr 2020.
Green, John. Paper Towns. New York: Speak. 2009.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Jensen, Carlee. "Paper Towns." LitCharts LLC, July 24, 2015.
Retrieved April 21, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/paper-
towns.

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AUTHENTICITY AND ARTIFICIALITY

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Part 1, Chapter 1 Quotes

Part 1, Chapter 3 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

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Related Characters: Margo Roth Spiegelman (speaker), Page Number: 70

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Part 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

Part 2, Chapter 4 Quotes Explanation and Analysis

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Part 2, Chapter 15 Quotes

Related Characters: Connie Jacobsen (speaker), Quentin

Page Number: 198

Explanation and Analysis

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Part 2, Chapter 16 Quotes

Explanation and Analysis

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Explanation and Analysis

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Explanation and Analysis

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

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