Paper Towns Belonging Analysis

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Pages: 6

Belonging is the term used when the individual becomes involved in something. It is the feeling of security where members may feel included, accepted, related and conformed. This enhances their wellbeing with the feeling of home. The novel Paper Towns by John Green and the related text All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury thoroughly illustrates this concept of belonging. Throughout these texts, relationships and experiences will be discussed to explore how they can shape the focus character's sense of existence. Quentin Jacobson is getting ready to graduate high school, but on his last days this is disturbed when his crush since young and neighbour Margo Roth Spiegelman disappears. This makes Quentin mentally worried and preoccupied by thoughts …show more content…
‘Paper Towns’ relates to the houses being frail including the people who live inside as they only care about things that concern them blocking out everything else, this can refer to Margo’s family where she lacks attention and is always on close watch for her behaviours. Margo desires to escape to somewhere without limits based on her need for freedom, this is represented with her mysteriousness and odd perception. A strong metaphor has been displayed in the quote “I can almost imagine a happiness without her, the ability to let go, to feel our roots are connected even if I never see that leaf of grass again” (Pg 317), this is when they are fifteen hours into the road trip and Quentin is considering how he would feel without seeing Margo one last time. The effect of this quote shows that Quentin is so set on finding Margo that he can only just imagine if he would be happy without her in his life. However Quentin describes Margo as a “leaf of grass” and wanting their “roots” to join again, which can symbolise that he needs to confirm her safety to reinsure she is well and isn't in waiting for him. In the process of finding a state of belonging you have to experience events that you can look back upon, and remember how you felt in the moment and how it made the person …show more content…
Margrot is portrayed as an outcast and finds it difficult to fit into her new surroundings, this has been shown in the quotation “Margrot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair…she was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass”. This extended metaphor shows the extent of how disconnected and lonely Margrot feels, “washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair” explores her as having no colour from the lack of sunlight and happiness. The word “ghost” further creates a feeling of sadness and how little her peers take notice of her when she rarely did speak. Smile is displayed in the quote “Margrot! She’s still in the closet where we locked her. Margrot. They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes into the floor”. The use of smile creates a powerful image of how no one is willing to solve the situation and retrieve Margrot from the cupboard, because they have realised how bad it is what they have done. This experience would make Margrot feel so much more