Paper Towns; An Analysis Of A Teen Movie
Many teen genre movies deal with the intricacies of love, or rather, puppy love. The kind of love that’s flighty and whimsical, but intense enough to make it feel like real love. Paper Towns by John Green is the story of high school senior Quentin Jacobson and his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. When they were kids, Quentin and Margo were inseparable, but then they started high school. When Margo suddenly disappears after a night out with Quintin, he embarks on a journey up the entire east coast to find her. While the initial setting and characters act like what a typical teen film portray, the development, the actions and conclusions make Paper Towns stand out.
Like most all teen movies, drama is a major playing card. The same tropes as usual, unrequited love, young romance, perfect hair, an incredible prom night, the end of the world that is high school, the “lastness” as Quentin calls it.
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The cliques are often a dividing force that prevents the protagonist from interacting with the love interest. Margo became the Quarterback Jock’s dream and Quentin became the band nerd with a minivan. Quintin, though childhood friends with Margo, is scared of her, due to her position in the high school hierarchy. When she suddenly needs Quintin to help exact revenge on her cheating boyfriend, the spend the whole night doing things Quintin never dreamed of, saran wrapping cars, and dancing on a top of a skyscraper. The next morning, Margo disappears. Quentin decides to skips school and follow the “clues” Margo left for him to help find her. He concludes she is in a particular “paper town”, a town made up by cartographers to prevent replication, in New