Paper Towns.
In the author’s note, John writes about how
paper towns were not real places, but names of places on maps, “…created to protect against copyright infringement,” (p.
307). It’s the thought of creating something that other people want to make real, which resembles
Margo so well. As she said, “It’s great being an idea that everybody likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way. And
Algoe is a place where paper creation became real… I thought the paper
cutout of a girl could become real here also,” (p.
294). Maybe life is not about belonging to anything or anyone. Maybe it’s not about being anything at all. Maybe it’s just about being one’s own Margo.
…All the houses that were built to
fall apart… All the things paper-thin and paper frail
From a distance… You can’t see the rust or
the weeds or
the paint cracking. You see the place as someone once imagined it
“You will go to the Paper Towns.
And you will never come back.”
