Paper Towns

Ben and Radar drop Quentin at home and head to band practice. He spends the rest of the night reading “Song of Myself” and trying to determine if it could be a suicide-note. Increasingly anxious about the possibility, he calls Detective Warren to tell him all about the clues they have found and breaking into the abandoned building. Detective Warren understands Quentin’s fear, though he does not think that Margo has killed herself. He does, however, urge Quentin to stop looking for Margo, saying that if he obsesses too much about her, “you’ll look back down and see that you floated away, too” (151).

His conversation with Detective Warren upsets Quentin, and he begins searching online for the phrase “paper town.” He comes across a discussion forum about Kansas real estate that refers to an abandoned subdivision as a “paper town.” With its connection to pseudovisions, Quentin assumes that Margo has taken her life in one of the city’s abandoned subdivisions and that she has chosen Quentin to find her body because of their shared experience of finding Robert Joyner’s body, which has apparently prepared him to find hers.

Quentin discusses this theory with Radar over instant message. Though Radar agrees that things do not look good, he tells Quentin to try and calm down. Next, Quentin calls Ben with the news, but finds Ben to be dismissive of the whole thing. Ben not only believes that Margo is alive, but that she has done all of this simply to get attention. Quentin hangs up the phone, angered by Ben’s attitude, and spends the rest of the evening searching for pseudovisions. He comes up with five possible places, and tacks the list onto his wall along with a map of central Florida, vowing to visit them all in search for Margo.

The next day at school, Quentin borrows Ben’s car and drives out to Grovepoint Acres to search for Margo. He talks to her out loud, promising to find her and not betray her trust. However, he finds neither Margo’s body nor any evidence that she has actually been at Grovepoint Acres. He then leaves for Holly Meadows, another of the five pseudovisions he has found, but finds it similarly desolate and without any trace of Margo. He does, however, find an oak tree at Holly Meadows that reminds him of the oak tree he and Margo found Robert Joyner’s body propped against. When he sees it, he thinks that Margo will certainly be dead beneath the tree and imagines what the scene will look like. Though she is not in fact beneath the tree, the image of Margo’s body upsets Quentin so much that he starts punching the ground. He misses her deeply, and stays there under the oak tree until dusk.

Quentin tells his friends about his trip out to the pseudovisions, but realizes that he does not have much to say. However, he feels that he can no longer listen to all of their talk about prom and other everyday matters. Lacey begins to cry at the thought of Margo committing suicide and Quentin urges her to remember anything she can, which upsets Ben. Ben tells Quentin to leave Lacey alone, and the conversation once again turns to prom.

As Quentin listens to his English teacher talk about Moby Dick in class, he realizes that she might actually have some insight into Whitman’s poem. When class is over, he presents the poem and his theory about Margo and the “suicide note” to Dr. Holden. Dr. Holden says that it is a great poem, and that she is saddened that Margo might have interpreted it so negatively. She tells Quentin that the poem is in fact about celebrating the connections between human beings. Though the poem asserts that all life is valuable, she also admits that people interpret the poem based on their own projected feelings, and that Margo might not have recognized the overall message if she only focused on parts of it.

Dr. Holden then asks Quentin what he thinks the poem means. Quentin admits that he has mostly been reading the poem, not to understand Whitman, but to understand Margo. Though Dr. Holden says Whitman would have been proud that he was using the poem to connect to another person, she thinks he would benefit more by reading the poem in its entirety, not just the highlighted portions that Margo found interesting.

When Quentin tries to hang out with Ben and Radar after school, he is annoyed to find that both of his friends are attempting to get him to go to a pre-prom party. As a result, Quentin chooses to spend the night reading “Song of Myself.” The next day, he calls Ben to invite him over to play “Resurrection,” but finds that he is planning to spend the entire day preparing for prom. Quentin complains to Radar about this and Radar tells him that, while he is perfectly happy to help Quentin search for Margo, she will not ruin prom for him, and he is going to spend the day preparing for it as well. Feeling dejected, Quentin lies to his mother, telling her he plans to go to prom after all—which she is elated about—and that he is going to pick out a tuxedo. Instead, he drives out to the next pseudovision, Quail Hollow. Though the place has been well maintained, he finds no trace of Margo. Quentin thinks about the possibility that he might never find Margo and wonders if he might be better off this way. He then returns to the abandoned strip mall.

When Quentin arrives at the strip mall, he notices that someone has been there since the last time he visited, as the boards that he and his friends broke down have been placed back over the windows. Returning to the back doors, he realizes that they have no hinges, and when he pushes them they open effortlessly. He thinks about how hard he and his friends had been pulling on the doors. Inside, one of the calendars in the abandoned office has been turned to June, something they had missed the last time as well. All of the other calendars still say February, except this one, so he decides to inspect the desk more closely. Doing so, he finds a bottle of red nail polish, which he immediately recognizes as the polish Margo used to paint her nails with during their wild night of righting wrongs. As he examines the bottle closely, he finds a smudge of blue spray paint and is certain that the smudge is from Margo’s fingers. 

Quentin convinces himself that Margo is staying in the building, and decides to remain there until she returns. Though the place is disgusting, he is thrilled at the thought that Margo has been in the building. He looks around the rooms again, and finds one that appears to have been lived in. He finds a rolled-up carpet in the corner, and thumbtack holes in the wall. These items, as well as an empty box of nutrition bars, make him think of how lonely Margo must have been there. He also finds a blanket inside the rolled-up carpet that smells of Margo’s shampoo.

Waiting for Margo to return, Quentin realizes that he does not know who Margo really is. As such, he cannot fathom why she chose to come to such a desolate place or why she chose to run away in the first place. He remembers to check-in with his father, as he promised to do, and says that he will spend the night at Ben’s house. His thoughts return to Margo as he lies on the floor staring up at the cracks in the ceiling. He thinks about to the fact that she has chosen a place with no TV or music. He begins reading “Song of Myself” again, finding that in the stillness of the abandoned strip mall, he can make sense of it. He thinks about the implications of what the “grass” might represent in the poem, about all the definitions that Whitman gives, such as God’s greatness, and death. Realizing how many concepts the grass can symbolize, Quentin considers the various ways he has imagined Margo, and all the ways he has imagined her incorrectly.

Most importantly, Quentin realizes that what he can learn from all of this is not what happened to Margo, but who she was. With this newfound resolve, he dedicates himself to knowing the real Margo, and begins searching the various rooms again. He comes across a stack of old travel books, and realizes that Margo might have been planning to travel. The books give Quentin a sense of purpose, as he realizes that she might still be alive and perhaps just traveling indefinitely.