Exploring Societys Flaws In John Green's Paper Towns

Exploring Society’s flaws through John Green’s Paper Towns If we continue to model ourselves and our lives based on trying to be “normal”, society will eventually collapse into an endless abyss of endlessly growing judgment of others, as more and more people begin to adopt the idea of differences being detrimental to the person. Or, from John Green’s point of view, everything will turn into “Paper towns and paper people,” where everything looks okay from afar, but looking closely allows you to observe the true deprivation and physical strain that these people, who have spent all of their time working hard to try to be normal and successful from society’s eye, really face. John Green reveals the true consequences that a person can face if they

Quentin has been worried sick the entire time that he’s been on his journey searching for Margo. He’s also been worried about her security. He was willing to sacrifice his own mental sanity and physical health in order to “save” her and to bring her back home. He came out of his cage and explored the world outside of his familiar neighborhood; he’d experienced real adventure and a new way to live.“You didn’t come here to make sure I was okay. You came here because you wanted to save poor little Margo from her troubled self, so that I’d be o-so-grateful to my Knight in shining armour…” (285). Green is very clever in how he shows that the reality of the situation may be completely reversed, and that Margo may have been sacrificing her well-being and safety so that Quentin can learn that when one capitulates to society and its deceitfulness, they devoid themselves of all the adventure and entertainment in their lives. She is trying to show Quentin that the life he has planned out can very possibly be his own demise. Basing your life on what society expects isn’t always a requisite plan of action. This scene teaches the reader that sometimes, when you try to adhere to these (society’s) expectations, you may very well end up falling into a downward spiral of being

Quentin has almost finished Margo’s ten step plan, of the night that she showed up outside of his window. They have gotten past security and into Sea World, sitting and admiring the bright, starry night. “I felt tired for the first time, and we were lying down on some grassy patch of Sea World together, me on my back and she on her side with her arm draped against me, her head on my shoulder, facing me. Not doing anything—just lying there together beneath the sky, the night here so well lit that it drowns out the stars. And maybe I could feel her breathe against my neck, and maybe we could just stay there until morning and then the people would walk past as they came into the park, and they would see us and think that we were tourists, too, and we could just disappear into them,” (76). There are many different ways to describe the symbolism throughout this quote, but one thing that is clearly shown in the text is how they wanted to blend in with the crowd. This means that even though they were different than the tourists, and maybe people didn’t understand why they were this way. Just because someone is different and thinks differently or acts differently than others doesn’t mean that they should be recognized as a strange, naive person. I think that John Green symbolizes society through this bright night, with a big moon drowning out most of the