Friday, September 26, 2014

Narrator of Paper Towns

For his novel Paper Towns, John Green has made the narrator the main character: Quentin Jacobson. Quentin seems to be like many fictional high school students: not very involved, has a group of friends but still doesn't really fit in, and still can't seem to win over the girl of his dreams.  All of his reactions so far seem very believable: afraid when he and his friend discovered a dead body at a young age, distaste for prom and the boyfriend of his love interest, and surprise when his love interest reaches out to him again through a window after years of silence between them.  Quentin only has a limited perspective, so I have yet to discover that actual reasoning behind Margo Roth Spiegelman's decision to reconnect with Quentin and this will add a great deal of suspense as the adventures between them promised on the jacket of the book occur.  So far, Quentin's perspective has made me hate his high school as much as he does.  I have no interest in being around the bullies or the cool kids or watching Margo talk to her boyfriend who is obviously not as good for her as Quentin.  Also, I can't wait to find out what Margo has to say to him after all this time because I don't understand why the close bond between them Quentin described has just fallen between the cracks.  Even though the narrator has insisted that prom is the last thing we want (he wants), I'm not going to lie...I really want him to end up going to prom with her.  With that, Quentin's being the narrator has established that high school is bad, but Margo Roth Spiegelman is the bright spot in that hell hole and now I'm left to wonder what effect she is going to have on him in the end.