Paper Town' - an Example of Struggles to Find Your Real Self

Every teenager can probably relate to trying so hard to be popular and cool while trying to find yourself. I believe that a lot of people today are trying to pretend to be someone they’re not just to fit in, this is because they don’t have the confidence to be who they truly are. Quentin in the novel “Paper towns” shows a great example of what finding yourself while struggling with wanting to be popular is like, but in the end he finally realizes all he really wants is to have courage and confidence in who he is a person.

As many other people might think, I don't believe that the book is about Quentin's love for Margo rather the person he becomes when he is with her, a more exciting and adventurous self. Quentin is seen as a nerd or geek, he only has a few friends meanwhile Margo is the most popular girl at their school, she has a lot of friends and is invited to every party and her life is very appealing and thrilling. I think that Quentin wants to be part of this life that Margo lives because when they start hanging out again after ten years, they pull pranks on Margos fake friends witch gives him adrenaline. In the beginning he was scared and worried about the consequences from the pranks but after awhile he let loose and whetted his appetite. He became more and more comfortable and realized this is how he wants to be. He doesn’t want to be awkward and boring, instead he wants to be adventurous and fun. When Margo then disappears, at first he still feels proud and cool but then after a few days it fades away. So he feels that he will lose his pondus and then decides to look for Margo. During the trip to find her, he and his friends are exposed to things that leads Quentin to step up his game and gain a bit of backbone. Meanwhile his subconscious is telling him that he doesn’t need Margo to be his better self. In the end when he finally finds her, and she tells him that she didn’t want to be found, he realizes that he isn’t in love with Margo he is in love with finding his better self and becoming more courageous. He then returns back and continues living his life however now he is more confident and courageous.

I think the message of the book is to not obey other people, to find yourself and be happy with who you are. What I liked about the book is that it wasn’t like all the other teen love story books, it was more deep and was easy to relate to in today's society. I liked the way the author wrote the book, it was easy to read and understand but still had a few new word which I learned. What I didn’t like about the book was that there was a lot of parts which were irrelevant to the story and I think they could have skipped those parts.