Prologue
The book starts by introducing Quentin, who lives in Jefferson Park, Florida. He has a close friend named Margo. When Q and Margaret were nine, they saw a dead body beside a tree in a park. Even though Q is scared and wants to run away, Margo wants to explore the body.
The next day, Margo appears at Q`s window to tell him that she investigated the dead body: The man's name was Robert Joyner, and he had committed suicide after getting a divorce. Margo says that “all the strings inside of him broke" and that's why he died.
Part 1: The Strings
At 7:17 in the morning, Q goes to school in the minivan of his mother. His friends always arrive early, so it is late for him. He and his mom discuss prom (Q`s parents are therapists, so communication is open). They arrive.
Q is not excited about prom, but his best friend, Ben, is obsessed with figuring a hot girl. Radar, their other best friend, already has a date, Angela. Q gets distracted when he sees Margo with her boyfriend, Jase. Q and Ben meet up with Radar, who is working on Omnictionary.
Chuck Parson, an annoying guy, asks Q what he knows about Margo and Jase, and Q honestly tells him that he knows nothing. At lunch, Angela asks Q and Ben why Radar has never invited her to his house. They tell her that it is because of his parents, but in reality, his house is full of Black Santas all the year.
After school, at night, for the first time since they were nine, Margo shows up outside his bedroom window. She is wearing black face paint and a black hoodie. She tells Q she needs him to drive her around that night because she needs to do eleven things. While trying to convince Q, Margo`s dad yells at her to get back inside. She pleases him, but she tells Q to prepare the minivan. After a minute, they escape in the car.
They arrive at the grocery store, and Margo gives Q a shopping list for the grocery store. He buys all the weird things Margo included (including a catfish). After the grocery store, they go to Wal-Mart and buy a gadget called The Club that locks a car’s steering wheel into place.
At 1:07 am in the car, Margo tells Q that Jase has been sleeping with her best friend, Becca and that tonight, is for revenge. They stop at Jase’s car, which they find parked two blocks away from Becca’s house. Margo attaches The Club to the steering wheel of Jase's car. They drive to Becca`s house, call her dad and tell him that their daughter is having sex in the basement. Jase jumps out the window, and Q takes a picture of him running away naked.
Q and Margo sneak into Becca’s room and grab Jason’s clothes from the floor and leave a note wrapped in the catfish: “A message from Margo Roth Spiegelman: Your friendship with her – it sleeps with the fishes.” Margo hides the fish in Becca’s closet and then spray-paints the letter M on Becca’s wall.
As Margo and Q sneak out of the house, Becca’s father chases them with a gun, but they get to the van. Q’s heart is pounding intensely, either from excitement, anxiety, or both.
Margo and Q drive to Karin’s house and leave her flowers and an apology note. Karin had told Margo about Jase, but Margo exploded at her with insults, so Margo wants to apologize.
They drive to Jase’s house, a big mansion. She writes on a second fish, “MS’s love For you: it Sleeps With the Fishes.” As soon as Margo steps on the field, the alarm system starts blaring. She runs to the house, breaks a window, sprays-paints the letter M on the window, and runs back to the car. They escape.
The next stop is Lacey`s house. Lacey implies that Margo is fat and didn’t tell her about Jase and Becca. Margo writes “your Friendship with ms Sleeps with The fishes” on the final catfish, breaks into Lacey’s car, and squishes the fish underneath the backseat. They spray the M on the car.
Q and Margo drive to the SunTrust building. She’s friends with the security guard, Gus, who lets them in. They go to the twenty-fifth-floor and see the dark city from above, Margo says that it is a Paper Town.
When they get back in the minivan, it’s 3:51 am. Margo tells Q that it’s his turn to pick a victim for his revenge. Margo reminds Q when Chuck made him cry in sixth grade by getting every girl in their ballroom dance class to refuse to dance with him. Chuck is the next victim.
At first, Margo directs them to the wrong house, where there was an old man. They run away and Q calls Ben, who gives them Chuck’s address, and they sneak in. Margo applies the Veet to one of Chuck’s eyebrows, and then she and Q put Vaseline on all the doorknobs in the house. When Q wipes the Veet off his eyebrow, Chuck wakes up and calls for his parents, but Margo and Q escape. In the car, Margo announces that they will break into Sea World.
Q doesn't want to go, but Margo persuades him. Using satellite maps, Margo figured out a way to sneak into the park. She and Q arrive at a canal. Q gets across the moat, and Margo follows. A snake bites Margo’s ankle, and Q sucks the venom out until they realize it’s a harmless snake. They climb a fence, and they’re in Sea World. A security guard finds them almost immediately, but Margo tempts him with a 100 dollar bill, and the guard leaves. Music starts to play and Margo and Q dance together.
As they drive back home, Margo gives Q her camera to tell him to download the picture of Jase. They return to Jefferson Park at 5:42 am and clean the minivan. Margo whispers to Q that she will miss hanging out with him. Q offers Margo to hang out with his friends, but she says no. They both return to their houses.
Part 2: The grass
Q's mom wakes him up after half an hour of sleep. He goes down for breakfast. No one suspects Q’s wild night. That day, Margo doesn't go to school. That night Q expects that Margo will come to his window.
Margo is still missing the following day. Chuck and his friends destroy younger students’ bikes, and someone shoots squirt guns filled with urine at some freshmen. Q sends an email to Jase saying that he will publish the naked picture to the whole school unless he pays back to the kids. That night Jase and Chuck come over to Q’s house and apologize.
On Saturday, Margo’s parents, Q’s parents, and Detective Otis are all around Q’s dining room table when he wakes up. They talk about Margo, and Q lies about the adventures he had with her. The detective talks with Q alone, and he is honest. The detective says that Margo can do whatever she wanted to and that she was like a balloon. He assures Q that Margo will probably return.
When Margo’s parents and Detective Warren leave, Q’s family agrees that Margo’s family environment is unhealthy. Q suggests to his parents that Margo lives with them when she returns. They agree. Radar comes over, and he, Ben, and Q notice something they have never seen before on Margo’s window: a poster of Woody Guthrie holding a guitar painted with the words, “this machine kills fascists.” They agree that is a clue for Q.
Q, Ben, and Radar go over to Margo’s house. In her room, she has a collection of vinyl records. Q finds a Billy Bragg album that has the same photograph of Woody Guthrie on Margo’s window. The song title “Walt Whitman’s Niece” has been circled.
Q finds Margo’s copy of Walt Whitman’s poetry collection "Leaves of Grass". He takes it home and discovers that Margo has highlighted several lines. He spends the weekend analyzing the highlighted passages but comes with nothing.
The next day Lacey approaches Q and asks him questions about Margo. Lacey suspects that Margo may be in New York.
The trio keeps looking through Leaves of Grass, and they notice the lines: “Unscrew the locks from their doors! / Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!” Ben suggests that are instructions. In the door of Q, there is a little paper: “8328 Bartlesville Avenue,”
The trio agrees to skip class and go the next day.
The address is a “pseudovision.” Inside, they start to think Margo committed suicide. They go through a troll hole and find a message: “YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER TOWNS AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK.”
At home, Q calls the detective to tell him the clues. The detective suggests that Q should stop looking for her.
Q explores a couple of pseudovisions but finds nothing. He is desperate and under a tree, starts to cry.
At school on Friday, Q shows his English teacher, Dr. Holden, Margo’s copy of Leaves of Grass, and asks for her help analyzing what Margo highlighted. Dr. Holden tells him that the poem is about valuing life, not ending it and that it’s important to read the poem as a whole to understand that.
The prom night, Q goes to the abandoned minimall and finds red nail polish, which suggests that margo was there. While exploring, he finds Margo`s belongings and reads “Song of Myself” from Leaves of Grass.
At 3:18 am, Ben calls Q to ask him if he could drive them home. He goes, and after a wild night, he drives everyone safe home.
Q starts to listen to “Song of Myself,” only pausing to eat turkey burgers with his parents. As his parents psychoanalyze Chuck Parson, Q realizes that he has been idolizing Margo. She is just a human girl.
On Tuesday, Lacey and the trio go to the minimall again.
Q finds another clue, names of the subdivisions and pinholes in the wall. He takes notes so that he can check them out at home.
On Friday night, Q goes to the subdivisions but finds nothing. He receives a call from Radar, saying that he is having a party because his parents are going to be out of town. They are going to Pittsburgh to buy the world’s second-largest collection of black Santas since the man who held this collection died. When Q arrives, they start putting the most valuable black Santas away so they are not destroyed. After the party, Q goes home. At home, he has a mental breakdown and tears out the maps in the wall. As he stares at the pattern of holes in the wall, he realizes that Margo must have had a map pinned, as that would explain the pattern of pinholes they had found in the wall at the minimall.
The next day, Radar and Q go to the minimall and analyze the pinholes. they conclude that it is almost impossible to tell the places on the map.
During finals, the group comes up with a theory that Margo will return on graduation day. Q doesn't believe that.
On graduation morning, Q receives a gift from his parents. A minivan.
Q tells his friends about his new car. Radar asks if he can put a cooler in the back containing the leftover beer from his party. Q searches in Omnictionary and discovers an entry for Agloe, New York, a fake town. On the discussion page for Agloe, an anonymous user has posted, “fyi, whoever Edits this––the Population of agloe Will be One until May 29th at Noon.” The comment is from Margo fifteen days ago. Q has 24 hours to go to Agloe.
Q goes to school in his new car and tells his parents that he’s going to find Margo in New York. Lacey, Ben, Radar, and Q all jump in Q’s minivan, and they take off for Agloe.
3rd part: The Vessel
1st hour:
Everyone calls to explain what they’re all doing. They set roles:
Lacey- provisions, Q-driver, Ben- pee, and Radar- logistics.
2nd hour:
Q exceeds the speed limit but luckily does not get pulled over.
3rd hour:
Ben pees in 2 Beer cans. Gross.
4th hour:
Lacey gives everyone a list of supplies to buy, and they have only 6 minutes to buy everything, pee, and fill up the gas.
5th hour:
After the little adventure, Q forgot to grab healthy snacks, and Lacey is angry. The t-shirts that Q grabbed are printed with large Confederate flags.
6ht hour:
They get stuck in traffic and play a game called “That Guy Is a Gigolo.”
7th hour:
Q imagines the minivan as a small house, in which every part of the car is a room and has a distinct function.
8th hour:
Q manages to take over driving from Radar without stopping the van and then pee into an energy drink bottle.
9th hour:
Q and Radar are feeling tired and sick.
10th hour:
At 12:13 they stop and buy new t-shirts and pants.
11th hour:
Lacey starts to drive. They stop to pee. Q takes over the driving.
12th hour:
Q and Ben are the only ones awake. Ben tries to manage Quentin’s expectations about Margo, saying that maybe she is different from what he believes. Q gets angry and suddenly they see a cow in the road. Ben grabs the wheel and saves everyone, including the cow. The car is fine, too but the beer bottles are broken. Ben takes over the driving.
13th hour:
They all talk about how Ben just saved their lives.
14th hour:
They talk about some adjustments they have to do to the car.
15th hour:
Q thinks about how much he’s enjoying this road trip.
16th, 17th, 18th hour:
Quentin sleeps.
19th hour:
Q names the car The Dreidel.
20th hour:
They all play metaphysical I Spy and sing along to the radio.
21st hour:
They arrive in the Catskills, close to Margo’s alleged location. They arrive at Agloe General Store, and Margo’s car is parked out front. They go inside and see her writing. They approach her and call out her name. Margo is dirty and with dead eyes. She stares at them and asks for 5 minutes.
After these five minutes, she stops writing and asks them how they are doing. She makes fun of Ben and Lacey, and they go away angry along with Radar, annoyed. They go to a motel and will go the next morning, with or without Q. Q is angry and yells at Margo, who says that she didn’t want to be found.
Margo starts to explain her living situation and how it all started with a detective novel she wrote when she was ten. In the novel, she is the protagonist along with Q and they both investigate the death of Robert Joyner. Since then, she did small escapes, and she had a final escape to Agloe that was supposed to happen on graduation night, but it changed when she found out Jase was cheating on her.
Margo confesses that she wanted to include Q in the plan, but she founded out that he was not a “paperboy.” She left the clues to avoid worrying Q and to make him explore.
Margo says that she’s always felt like a paper girl, which was why she was obsessed with going to Agloe, a paper town. Q tells her that he thought she was dead, and she says she thought about it but couldn't do it.
They lay down in the grass and Margo confesses she sees Q as a hero. They fall asleep and when they wake up they bury Margo`s diary to symbolically bury the past.
They talk about how complicated life is and they kiss. Margo asks Q to come with her to New York. He says he has a whole life to live behind.
They carry all of Margo’s belongings from the Agloe General Store to her car.
Margo drives Q to the motel where their friends are staying, and they get out of the car to say goodbye. She promises to stay in touch. They kiss again and stare into each other’s eyes.
THE END
Paper Towns oral assembly questions
1- How did this book make you feel? What did you learn?
I didn't enjoy the book. For me, it was more like a silly book and not interesting at all. The whole book was just about how indecisive and frustrating Q was. Also, I hated the character's personality. Margo is just so pretentious and unrealistic. Q is obsessive, a bad friend, egocentric, and a little creepy. I just feel Ben is disgusting.
The whole plot is so predictable and common.
The only thing I learned from this book is the term pseudovision, which I find really interesting.
2- Did you have any realizations about human nature, childhood and coming of age, or romantic and friend relationships? Point to any particularly crucial moments in the text.
I think this book makes a trip through the mind of a teenager. Q is hormonal, full of questions, and also curious about what love is. Also, shows how complicated yet simple friendships can be. For example, Q was feeling frustrated and angry because none of his friends were interested in Margo's investigation, he felt they were being bad friends. But he was the one wrong, he was being egocentric and didn't think in the interests his friends had. Radar makes him aware of that by asking him if he ever asks him how everything was going with Angela.
Another important thing to point out is the analysis his parents make of Margo's family environment. She wanted attention, love and respect because of the bad relationship she had with her parents. She wanted to be understood, but none of her parents care. They just wanted Margo to disappear.
Another interesting analysis was the one Qs parents made with Chuck. They said that maybe Chuck had family problems or ADHD, and that's why he had bad grades and that type of behavior. He was just a human. That made Q realize that Margo was just a human, and he was idolizing her.
3- The last sentences of the book read: "And it is dark as I kiss her, but I have my eyes open, and so does Margo. She is close enough to me that I can see her, because even now there is the outward sign of the invisible light, even at night in this parking lot on the outskirts of Agloe. After we kiss, our foreheads touch as we stare at each other. Yes, I can see her almost perfectly in this cracked darkness"
How does it relate to the rest of the story? What does it say about Margo and Quentin's relationship?
The whole book is about Q trying to understand Margo, but these last sentences imply that we are humans. Q is only a human, and so is Margo. He can only see what Margo wants Q to see, not more. He can only see the cover of the book, but he cannot read the book. It is impossible. Also, Q only knows how to love the good things, but he cannot accept the flaws.
As well, describes the future relationship Margo and Q are going to have. They are going through separate ways and living their own life.
4- The book is divided into three sections: The Strings, The Grass, and The Vessel. What is the connection between the sections/titles and the content within those sections? How do the sections/titles connect to the themes of the book?
The Strings combines the main idea of the prologue and the first part. How each one of our strings can break someday. Is also related to the strings of the dead body Margo and Q found under the tree.
The grass is related to the book mentioned in Paper towns, Leaves of Grass, and the connection to "Song of Myself".
The third part is called The Vessel because it focuses on the trip the trio and Lacey had.
5- The definition of a "paper town" changes many times in the book. Describe the evolution of its meaning. How does it relate to the mystery and the themes of the book?
Pseudovisions begun and never completed, traps created by mapmakers, and towns that are boring.
6- Who is the "true" Margo? Which character comes closest to understanding who Margo really is? Do you think Margo understands herself? Point to a moment in the text where she seems to understand herself or lack understanding.
If Margo cannot understand herself, how can the reader really know who Margo is? We never get to see the true Margo.
Margo doesn't understand herself. She thinks she is mature and that she can handle everything by herself, but no.
I think the moment she realized that the world is not what she thinks it was and that the world doesn't rotate towards her, is in the end. She finally understands she cannot come back home and that she has to handle her life more maturely.
7- Let's talk about the road trip to find Margo. What are the most important events along the way? How does this adventure mirror the one Margo and Quentin had at the beginning of the book? Compare and contrast the two.
The most important events are: How they almost die because of a cow, and how each one enjoyed the trip inside the car.
In both adventures, they encounter an almost-death situation. In the first one a parent with a gun, and in the second a cow that almost made them crash. Also, the people involved in the trip learn more about each other.
But in the first adventure, the stops were more important while in the second, the time spent in the car was more valuable.
8- Why does Quentin begin to believe that Margo may have committed suicide? What clues make this seem like a viable solution to the mystery of her whereabouts? What clues make this seem not viable?
They first think Margo committed suicide because they smelled something awful and deadly-like inside the mini-mall. It was just a dead raccoon, but anyway they continued to search for Margo's dead body against a tree.
Q implies that maybe because she was so fascinated by the dead body they found when they were children, she committed suicide. Also, she said goodbye to Q the night at SeaWorld and she cut ties with her best friends.
But the fact that she always left clues behind, makes the option of being dead unrealistic.
Nevertheless, we are not sure until they found her in Agloe, because the message she left in the omnictionary implied that she was going to reduce the population to zero by killing herself.
9- When Margo disappears after her outing with Quentin, it's not the first time she's seemingly vanished for a long period. Describe Margo's other adventures and note any common threads between the trips. What makes her disappearance after her night with Quentin different from the others?
She has escaped to Mississippi and a concert. In each adventure, she left clues behind for her parents to follow her because she had no intention to stay in those places. But in her last adventure, she didn't leave clues for her parents, but Q. She said that she didn't want to be found, but why did she leave those clues? I suppose that it was a way of saying goodbye to Q.
10- What do Quentin and his friends decide to do on graduation day as their form of rebellion?
Be naked under the graduation clothes.
11-Is it true or false Quentin spends prom night with Margo?
False
12- Where does Quentin want to go if he doesn’t find Margo with his friends in Hour Fifteen?
He says he will go to Catskill, find a place to lay down in the grass, talk, and enjoy the time with Lacey, Ben, and Radar.
Paper Towns 10 questions
Does John Green's style truly capture the way teenagers act?
How has emotionally changed Q by the time he finds Margo?
Were you shocked at the ending?
What is the meaning of each part's title?
What importance do the minivans have in the novel?
What does Ben superglue to his hand during prom night?
What do Ben and Radar do every day after school that Quentin does not do?
What do Margo and Quentin do to Chuck Parson to take revenge?
What image does the detective use to describe Margo to Quentin?
How did Chuck humiliate Q when they were both in sixth grade?
