THE BOOK EARTHWORM LITERARY CIRCLE- Papertowns by john Green (Book 1)

Literary Circle – “THE BOOK EARTHWORM”

First Book – Papertowns by John Green

As the “Connector” of the group. I connected the novel Papertowns by John Green to the song Paper Roses by Marie Osmond.

Paper Roses by Marie Osmond

I realized the way your eyes deceived me
with tender looks that I mistook for love
So take away the flowers that you gave me
And send the kind that you remind me of
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation,
Like you imitation love for me
I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation like you imitation love for me

As the connector, I will use the song entitled “Paper Roses” by Marie Osmond to connect to the novel Paper Towns by John Green, it don’t actually connect to the whole story, but specifically to the two main characters,  Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quintin Jacobsen.

Let us imagine that the Paper Roses and in the song Paper Roses is Margo the girl who stated on the story that she is a “Paper Girl”. And when the song will be singing by someone, it would be Quintin, who is secretly in love with Margo. We all know that Paper Roses are not real, it’s fake and only an imitation. It’s just an artwork made to be a decoration. In the story Margo call herself a “Paper Girl” which can be seen in some ways. One is, she is a Paper Girl because she is not the real Margo in front of many people. She uses this kind of trick so no one can ever realize and know who really she is. She may not be her real self when she was around these people, but the person they would want to see. Like a Paper Roses, it may not be real, but to those who appreciate the beauty of it, they still call it a rose even if it’s not because it was all made by paper. Another one is, like a Paper Roses, even if it was made with thick or thin paper sheet, at the end of the day, when it was crumpled and tore it will never be a Paper Rose, it will never be perfect as it was newly made. Like Margo, she considered herself as a Paper Girl, that actually being so Paper thin, frail and easily tearing by other people which also she called paper people. When this song is to be sing by Quintin, it only gives a message that even he knew Margo since they were two, there’s still a part of Margo he doesn’t know. He thought Margo is Margo when she’s with her friends and family. Only to know that there were different Margos. Margo in front of her friend Lacey is different. Margo in front of her parents is different and Margo in front of him is different. He realized that Margo is not real, she became a different person depending on who she’s around or who she’s with.

Group mates Works

Ronald Surilla (Discussion Director)

As a Discussion Director Ronald gave us five questions to be discussed and answered.

1. What does Paper Town mean in the story?
The term, paper town was used in various ways but we have come up with one definition which is the falseness of a place because of fake people inhabiting it. We refer that place as Orlando, the place where Margo lives. Margo thinks that it’s a Paper Town because she thinks that people around her are fake.

Reaction: At first we all have our own definition of the word Papertowns because it was defined in the book many times and differently. But we just all agreed that Papertowne define as the fakeness of the place because of the fake people inhabiting it. We come up with this kind of answer because we just focus on the characters of the novel especially Margo who called herself a Papergirl.

2.Why do you think Margo picked Q as accomplice on her revenge?

After different point of views, we finally agreed that Margo picked Q as accomplice on her revenge because she used to think of Q as a coward , as she calls him in the novel, “Scary cat”. Before she left for Agloe, she wanted to “create in Quentin at least an echo of the kick-ass hero of her little kid story” she had been creating since she was ten. Therefore picking Q as a accomplice make sense because she planned it already in her Paper story and hoping someday it might come true.

Reaction: We have agreed that Margo picked Q as a accomplice because she used to think that Q as a coward, but also Margo picked him because he already knew Q since they were two and they were also chilhood friends and Margo is comfortable with him.

3. If you had to choose between Ben and Radar as a bestfriend, who would you choose and why?
We have decided that we would choose Radar. It’s not that we really wanted to let go of Ben but if there’s a need to choose between the two of them. Radar unlike Ben, would be a better choice because even when Radar has a girlfriend he still involved himself in searching for Margo or whenever Quentin needs help. Q and Radar also have a lot in common. Q may not be as geeky as Radar but he is also wise in finding clues. As for Ben his character as a friend to Q changed when he had Lacey as his girlfriend. It was just a slight changed but enough to make Q rethinks his personality in the story.

Reaction: If I were going tp choose between the two of my friends. I’ll not choose anyone, because at first the first place they are your friends and you friended them not because you eant thier help, but because you understand each other. But in the case of Q, Radar and Ben. Radar really had a big role in Q’s life and in finding Margo. I’m not saying that Ben didn’t do something he just prioritized his girlfriend that’s why he didn’t really focused himself in finding Margo.

4. Do you think Margo wants to be found? Do you think Margo wants to be found by Q?
Deep inside Margo, her ego tells her that she wants to be found by someone and that is Q. Margo purposely left her first clue outside Q’s window and put a another clue inside his room. This was all planned by Margo as in the story she admits in doing something, planning was the best part. Therefore Q finding Margo in Algoe was part of the design in her plans.  

Reaction: We come up with that answer, because it really stated in the novel that Margo used to left clues but she never wanted someone to follow the clues and find her. Actually at the end when Q found her, she got mad. I think it’s also Q’s willingness to find Margo.

5. If you’re in the place of Q, will you spend your last weeks in high school enjoying it, or will you find Margo the rest of the weeks?
If we’re in the shoes of Q, we would do our best to find Margo rather than enjoying our last weeks in high school. For Q, Margo is probably the most important person to him (excluding his parents of course) he admires her and he wants to be with her. How we are going to enjoy our last few weeks in high school, when the girl that gives color to our high school life is nowhere to be found.            

Reaction: If I were Q and I’m ilove with Margo. I would also do the same thing and I and my groupmates agreed that we’ll gonna do the same thing.

Ryan Mark Catanio (Passage Picker)

“What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”

-          Quentin, Paper Towns –

In the page 278, when Q (Quentin) saw Margo for the first time after she leave her house, he realized that he didn’t know Margo yet; that there is something he needs to see; that he was expecting too much to Margo; that there is a difference between “just Margo” (present and real) and “Margo Roth Spiegelman” (past and fake). And by that, Q was pissed to Margo for being vague, but the most importantly; he was pissed to himself, having the idea of him in-love with Margo Roth Spiegelman without seeing who the real Margo is. As Margo walks toward Q, Q taught to himself that it is a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person. And that is for him was unfair and inhuman to Margo’s side.

In my opinion, the quote “What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person” signifies that it is a betrayal to our humanity when we think that we are more human. That makes sense for me, as if it free us from hanging to pretend to live up to the impossible expectation which is our society is throwing at us. Pretending to walk on water was pain.

This also applies in education, when some teachers is expecting too much from their students catching up to their unreachable standards of learning, which will make their students to become a computer than a being human.

Reaction: Ryan as a passage picker picked a very good passage. Sometimes, a person needs to hide his or her real personality. And for Margo’s place. She hides her real personality to everyone so no one can know who really she is. I think there’s nothing wrong in hiding your true personality to everybody as long as you do have a reason why are you doing that kind of thing. In Q’s side, I think theirs is also nothing wrong with what he have done. Yes he expect too much from Margo, and at the end of the day he was disappointed. And I think even if he was disappointed his feelings towards Margo never changed.

Jermaine Dela Cruz (Caharcter Captain)       

Quentin “Q” Jacobsen- The protagonist and narrator of the story. Has had a crush on his neighbor Margo since they were kids, however that crush develops and before long Q realizes he's in love with Margo. Throughout the story he follows clues he thinks Margo, who has gone missing, left behind for him to help him find her. He soon becomes obsessed with finding these clues and recruits his friends to help him find Margo.

Q, a typical high school student who belongs to the group of teens in school who are often the subject of bullying and mostly left out, can be described as milquetoast, inquisitive and faithful.

            • Milquetoast is somebody regarded as timid or submissive, especially a man.

            Q is a milquetoast because when Margo asked him to become her accomplice in seeking revenge to those she thought to have offended her, he agreed to do and whatever Margo told him to do, he couldn't complain and obeyed her instead.

            • Q's inquisitiveness developed when he discovered that every time Margo disappears, she leaves clues which no one could decipher. He soon tried to find clues on her latest vanishing and when he had found one, he pursued it which followed a series of clues which later on led him to Margo.

            • Q is faithful to his friends. It very obvious that among the three of them, Q is the one closest to normal. Despite the weirdness of his friends, Q remained loyal to their friendship which eventually helped him in his pursuit of his one great love.

Margo Roth Spiegelman- Margo is a self described Paper Girl who runs away from home only to be pursued by her childhood friend, Q. Her pet dog, Myrna Mountweazel, is a reference to Lillian Virginia Mountweazel,[5] a woman who never existed, but was listed in the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia.

Margo can be best describe as mysterious, clever, and ungrateful.

            • Margo is undeniably mysterious. Her strangeness is incomparable. In other words, it isn't easy to understand her.

            • For me clever is the best word to describe Margo. She is clever in many ways. There wouldn't be a story without her shrewdness.

            • Margo is ungrateful. After driving from Orlando, Florida to Agloe, New York in twenty-four hours, Q and his friends  found Margo living in an old dilapidated barn. But instead of being grateful for them finding her, she reacted negatively. Margo had not intended for them to find her.

Ben Starling- He is one of Quentin's best friends. He is in the school band and also helps Quentin find Margo, and in the process, becomes Lacey's boyfriend. Towards the beginning of the book, Ben has an obsession with prom and refers to girls as "honeybunnies". Ben is pervert, funny and like Q, he is loyal to their friendship.

Marcus “Radar”- One of Q’s best friends. In the novel he is constantly editing pages on a website called Omnictionary (which is very similar to Wikipedia). He was nicknamed by Quentin and Ben after the character from M*A*S*H. His parents own the world's largest collection of black Santas. He is in the school band. He assists Quentin in finding Margo. Radar is geeky (from the word geek which means somebody who is a proud or enthusiastic user of computers or other technology, sometimes to an excessive degree), reliable and loyal to their friendship.

Reaction: Jermaine as the character captain really did a good job in  characterizing the main characters in the novel. She also gave and put the charateristics of the main characters, she also used the words that best decribes the characters.

John Demdam (Artistic Adventure)

A Paper Poem by a Paper boy and a Poetic girl

I don't mind, living in a world full of paper clips,

 Where paper people with paper houses talk with their paper lips.

 Real may they seem in the eyes of many,

Looking inside them, they're all half-empty.

                                        

I've known a princess from a paper castle,

 A paper maiden with a paper battle.

 To paper enemies she sought for vengeance,

She did it all because of grievance.

In some ways paper people made some mistakes

 That will let themeselves to be fake

But paper people may also be real people

They may haughty, arrogant but meek and humble.

It's time to end this paper poem,

 Written on a paper in a paper home.

 Paper poems are made by paper people,

And read by the readers either it's bare or ample.

Reaction: In John’s part he gave a perfect poem that really suits to the novel Papertowns.

Hara Vessa Escabarte (Vocabulary Enricher)

Reading John Green’s “Papertowns”, is fulfilling yet there are also instances meeting some words that are not familiar to me, so while reading I marked and jotted some of these words that I find puzzling or unfamiliar, listed below are the words with their definitions and relevance in the story.

Chapter and Paragraph Number	Word		Definition	Importance or Relevance to the Story
Ch. 1, Paragraph 5	Morosely		[muh-rohs] (adv.) very serious, unhappy and quiet	Describes the way Radar inform Q about he was going on the prom.
Ch. 1, Paragraph 43	Sluggishness		[sluhg-ish] (n.) moving slowly or lazily	The way that Q describes the clocks, when he gets bored.
Ch. 2, Paragraph 1	Swiveled		[swiv-uhl] (v.) to turn around	Q’s movement, when he heard the window open and saw Margo.
Ch. 3,  Paragraph 10	Felonies		[fel-uh-nee] (n.) a serious crime	Q’s interpretation on Margo when she enters through the window of Q’s room.
Ch. 3, Paragraph 25	Honk		[hongk, hawngk] (n.) to make a loud sound	Q’s interpretation in Margo blowing the horn excruciatingly.
Chapters; 2, 3, 26	Aneurysm		[an-yuh-riz-uhm] (n.) an abnormal blood-filled bulge of a blood vessel and especially an artery resulting from weakening (as from disease) of the vessel wall.	A term used by John Green in the book referring to someone’s common characteristic.
Chapter; 2 and 4	Somersault		[suhm-er-sawlt] (n.) a forward or backward movement of your body on the ground or in the air that is made by bringing your feet over your head.	Used in the passage as a movement or a motion acted by Q.
Chapters; 4, 18 and 21		Labyrinth	[lab-uh-rinth] (n.) something that is extremely complicated or difficult to understand; a place that has many confusing paths or passages		Used to describe an appearance of the ff: Place (C. 4) Book’s arrangement (C. 18) Shelves (C. 21 “Labyrinthine”)
Chapters; 4 and 41		Jugular	[juhg-yuh-ler, joo-gyuh-] (adj.) relating to the throat		Referring to Q’s specific part of the body.
Chapters; 5. 19		Skunk	[skuhngk] (n.) an obnoxious or disliked person		Used to describe obnoxious something.
Chapter 5, Paragraph 19		Monstrosity	[mon-stros-i-tee] (n.) something (such as a building) that is very large and ugly		Q’s word for the house structure of Jase.
Chapter 5, Paragraph 30		Deign	[deyn] (v.) to do something that you think you should not have to do because you are too important.		Q’s in silent interaction with Margo about what lacey would do to him.
Chapter 5, Paragraph 44		Jimmy	(v.) to force (something such as a lock, door or window) open with a metal bar or a similartool		The term used by Q describing what Margo did on the front door of Lacey’s car.
Chapters; 6 and 19		Cul-de-sacs	(n.) a street that is designed to another street only at one end		Used to describes a pathway appearance
Chapter 6, Paragraph 34		Bum	(n.) a drinking spree		Margo’s term for the paper kids drinking stuff.
Chapters 7		Wrath	(n.) strong vengeful anger or indignation		A feeling of angriness used by Margo and Q
Chapter 7, Paragraph 8		Czarist	(n.) Government of Russia, autocratic rule		Q used to describe Russian government.
Chapter 7, Paragraph 8		Yodeling	(v.) to sing loudly whole changing your voice back and forth between a natural pitch and higher pitch
Chapters; 1, and 7		Faggot	(n.) a male homosexual		Margo’s terminology name for Q regarding his vocabulary.
Chapter 7, Paragraph 22		Usurped	(v.) to take and keep something, such as power in a forceful or violent way and especially without the right to do so		Margo’s argumentative-conversation-term with Q.
Chapter 7, Hour Four		Torso	(n.) the main part of the human body not including the head, arms and legs		Part of the body.
Chapter 7, Paragraph 37		Undulation	(n.) a wavy appearance		Q’s terminology for his describing his torso.
Chapter. 8 Paragraph 6		Chauffeur	(v.) drive (a car or a passenger in a car), typically as part of one's job		Margo’s statement unto Q when they were in argument.
Chapter. 8, Paragraph 7		Miscreant	/ˈmiskrēənt/ (adj.) (of a person) behaving badly or in a way that breaks a law or rule.		Q’s point of view in his manner dwelling with Margo towards the SeaWorld, he might be called for university.
Chapter. 8, Paragraph 22		Shamu	Shamu was the first orca to survive more than 13 months in captivity and was the star of a very popular killer whale show at SeaWorld San Diego in the mid–late 1960s. She was the fourth killer whale (orca) ever captured (the second female).		Margo’s citation to Q about the SeaWorld’s most intrigue issue.
Chapter 8, Paragraph 28		Ditch	/diCH/ (n.) a narrow channel dug in the ground, typically used for drainage alongside a road or the edge of a field.		The drainage that could be found on the third side of the SeaWater.
Chapter 8, Paragraph 40		Moccasin	/ˈmäkəsən/ (n.) a venomous American pit viper.		Q’s prediction when Margo threw in the moat and was bitten by some creature she doesn’t know. “What was it? Was it a moccasin?” said Q.
Chapter 9, Paragraph 7		Helluva	/’heləvə/ Non standard spelling for *hell of a*		Q’s statement, describing the night he had with Margo. “Well, it was a helluva night”, Q stated.
Chapter 10, Paragraph 51		Cacophony	/kəˈkäfənē/ (n.) a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.		Q was resting, when suddenly a cacophony sound was coming from inside.
Chapter 11, Paragraph 1		Anarchic	/aˈnärkik/ (adj.) with no controlling rules or principles to give order		Q’s fantasizing thought about their high school status.

Reaction: On Hara’s work. She gave some of the unfamiliar words that you may read in the novel Papertowns, she also have her own style in giving the meaning of these words.

Arjun Dango (Summarizer)

The Book-Earthworm’s Summary of John Green’s Paper Towns

The story started at a young age of Quentin Jacobson and Margo Roth Spiegelman. While walking in the park, they found the dead body of Robert Joyner that he and Margo shared a discovery that will change their lives forever. Since that night, Margo had a separate way while good fortune led Q to a better life but with twists and turns and a lot of travel.

One night, few weeks before their graduation, Margo asked Q to come with her for a night till near dawn adventure and full or revenge. Leaving pranks on her ex-boyfriend’s house, her ex-best friends, and the school bully; including breaking into Sea World. Q thinks that this adventure will lead him back to Margo but he was wrong. Later that morning, Margo disappeared.

Q together with his friends, Ben and Radar, and Margo’s friend―Lacey, they searched for clues where Margo can be found just like what she always does when she leaves. There were clues that lead him to an abandoned mini mall where he thinks Margo has spent time recently; they found a map with marks that ends on Agloe. They did some research and discovered that Agloe was actually a copyright trap created by Esso. When they search for it on “Omnictionary”, they discover that someone has posted stating the population of Agloe “Will actually be One until may 29th at Noon.” There raised Q’s red flag that there’s only one person can write with that kind of capitalization. And because of it, they skipped their graduation to travel to another country that will take them 21 hours. Technically, the travel took them 24 hours with a near death experience.

Eventually, they arrived in Agloe. And discover Margo in yet another abandoned building. Yet she is not the same person they all thought they knew. They find her furious that they found her and they’re upset that she’s not the Margo they knew before she left. In the end, they realize that they don’t need to be who everyone wants them to be. The story ends with a kiss but not to our satisfaction. Q’s relationship with Margo will never be anything more than friends

Reaction: The summarizer gave the plot of the story correctly, somehow, but his work will be more comprehensible when he used the plot structure in sequencing the story.