Paper Towns: Archetypes

     I am in the middle of reading Paper Towns, by John Green.  Quentin, the main character, has always admired and loved his neighbor Margo.  She is adventurous, fun, beautiful, brave, and smart.  In Quentin's words, she is just awesome.  He says that if there were a Nobel Prize for awesomeness, she would easily win.  Quentin really admires her bravery, and all the amazing adventures she has taken.  For example, She has broken into Disney Land and Universal Studios, and does things like run away to Mississippi or travel with a circus only because she wants to and is not afraid to.  It seems like she really has a wide scale understanding of the world, and what's important to her.  Quentin has never been brave enough to do anything that even compares to her exciting adventures. 

     I think the journey in Paper Towns has elements of a quest, task, and a loss of innocence;  it seems like all stories do to some extent though.  I think it is a quest, because Quentin might be trying to find something within himself, or realize something about himself.  Maybe that he is also brave.  Or he is going to realize something about Margo.  The task part of it could be finding Margo, or accomplishing the job of realizing that he can also do great things.  Maybe Margo wants Quentin to realize that he can also be adventurous.  It could be a loss of innocence in that when Quentin has some important self realizations, or realizations involving Margo, he also grows up a bit.  I'm not far enough in the story to know for sure, but those are some of my ideas on the journey of the story.  

     I definitely think that Quentin is the Hero.  He is the one on the journey, and will probably be most changed by whatever the journey is; he has been so far.  He is the protagonist.  In a way, I think that some part of him might be the antagonist.  That he is resisting change within himself.  

     Quentin's two best friends, Radar and Ben are two minor mentors.  They will always be there for Quentin, and help him with whatever he needs.  

     I'm not entirely sure what Margo is.  She is a mentor in some way though.  She absolutely represents knowledge that Quentin does not have, and what he probably wants to be more like in general.  Just being around her changes him, makes him much more adventurous, and makes him willing to do things that he would have previously been unable to do.  She represents what he does not have.  I think she knows how she is changing him to some extent.  Margo also might be a shapeshifter. She unexpectedly goes on an adventure with Quentin one night.  This leads him to think that they will finally be friends, but she ends up disappearing the very next day.  This could be because she cannot make up her mind on Quentin, or be something more personal to her.  She did leave clues for Quentin to figure out where she is after all, so she certainly did not just leave him hanging.  But she does still represent some uncertainty to Quentin.  

     Overall, I am really enjoying the book and cannot wait to see what happens next; it can be sort of suspenseful.  I think that Quentin is the main character, but we might also be following a personal journey for Margo.