Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Anytown, USAJefferson Park is "a massive subdivision, because that's what Florida does with land" (Prologue.2). There doesn't seem to be anything remarkable about it at all. When Quentin and Margo...
Narrator Point of View
Green chose Quentin as a narrator for a very specific reason: He "wanted the reader to be conscious that s/he is only seeing Margo through Q's eyes, and that Q—at least for much of the novel—kn...
What's Up With the Title?
Margo Roth Spiegelman calls Orlando (and most of Florida) a paper town early in the book. When she and Quentin look out over the city from the top of the SunTrust Building, Margo Roth Spiegelman ma...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
And after, whenWe went outside to look at her finished lanternfrom the road, I said I liked the way her lightshone through the face that flickered in the dark.—"Jack O'Lantern," Katrina Vande...
What's Up With the Ending?
Quentin spends most of the novel looking for Alaska… oops, we mean looking for Margo Roth Spiegelman. He finds her… but she says she doesn't want to be found. Well that's a letdown. When he ask...
Tough-o-Meter
Reading Paper Towns is easier than planning a cross-country road trip. But throw out your GPS, because this is a book for those who like to go about road trips the old-fashioned way. You have the d...