Last week I finished Paper Towns by John Green. In Paper Towns, Quentin and his group of friends try to find their friend Margo Roth Spiegleman after she leaves their town of Orlando, Florida leaving behind a series of clues in poems. *Spoilers*, they find her at the end of the book.
Paper Towns is a good example of a coming of age book, though only the first part. When Margo and Quentin were little they found a man dead in the park. Not long after this scene is a jump in time where Margo and Quentin are now older and go on a night long excursion to take revenge on the people in Margo's life who have hurt her. When reading this, I saw immediately how Margo had changed from the beginning of the book in her state of innocence to her new, matured self. I saw Margo's immediate thrust into realization turn her into a much more adult like character. I think Margo's coming of age was much more noticeable, and therefore seemed much more drastic versus Quentin who became an adult much quieter. Quentin throughout the entire book has been much quieter and more reserved in contrast to Margo, who grew up much faster and louder, versus Quentin who didn't have a major personality change or a sudden realization like Margo did when they stumbled upon the dead man in the park (who's name I forgot since I don't have the book with me anymore). I think Margo felt like the world was a mean place where people die which explains her massive one night revenge strike on all of the people at school who had hurt her. I think after Margo's realization, all of her accumulated anger towards the world and its cruelty built up until her and Quentin went out all night seeking revenge. I think the realization that people can really die started the accumulation of anger inside of Margo and over time this could only build if not vented, and all of Margo's anger was vented in one long night with Quentin. Quentin though didn't change externally. Quentin became different in his thoughts, and even though throughout the book I was unable to tell what Quentin was thinking, by seeing how he responded to Margo's actions and what he thought about her revenge. I think Quentin knew too that the world can be a bad place, but learned to accept it. Quentin went from action, and loving the world, to apathy, just accepting the world for what it is, whereas margo went from apathy, and just being a kid, to taking action against those she believed had wronged her.
I think that in the real world, people change, like Margo and Quentin. A lot the kids at 51 who went to my elementary school have changed since 5th grade and we aren't really friends any more. I think a lot of these friendships aren't still active not because we've grown up, but just from natural personality changes and the new opinions about life that people discover as they grow up. In Paper Towns, the realizations that Margo and Quentin have initially change their personalities and bring them together, though later Margo's personality takes her away from Quentin, who's personality brings him back to Margo.
