The film adaptation of John Green’s third novel, "Paper Towns," was released in US theaters July 24. The novel has received a great deal of praise from both critics and its intended audience, young adults. While reviews for the film are still rolling in, the novel has been on shelves since 2008 and many of Green’s fans were eager to hear that it was being adapted for the silver screen. However, as a former fan of John Green, I take issue with "Paper Towns" and the women of the novel. More specifically, I take issue with the character of Margo.
Margo Roth Spiegelman is the childhood best friend and next door neighbor of "Paper Towns’" leading man, the nerdy Quentin Jacobsen. The two friends lost contact once they reached high school, Margo becoming a “popular” girl and Q, as he’s called, staying nerdy and always dreaming of Margo. The two spend a night together their senior year pulling pranks on Margo’s supposed friends, who readers learn are not the kindest bunch. After that night, Margo disappears and leaves behind a series of clues meant for Q to follow, all of which lead to her location.
The manic pixie dream girl trope, first coined by Nathan Rabin in an article on Kirsten Dunst’s character in "Elizabethtown," “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures”. In the novel, Margo takes Q along with her on their night full of adventures. Q, who readers know is an average teenage boy in every aspect, is selected by Margo perhaps because of their closeness in childhood. Margo, zooms in on Q when no one else does despite their weakened bond.
A magical and bright girl who seems to be made of concentrated sunshine helping a dark brooding man find his way out of his personal angst. While it may not be a seemingly sinister image, it cannot be forgotten that in these stories, the woman exists only to “help” this man. Her only reason for existence is to show this man the brighter side of life. She has no goals or substantial personality traits of her own. She is a laundry list of quirks that he finds endearing: playing the ukulele, crocheting, only listening to vinyl, and wearing ModCloth’s latest spring arrivals.
After reading "Paper Towns," I was left with many questions. What’s Margo’s favorite color? What are her dreams, her aspirations? What else does she have to her besides desperately wanting to leave her Florida town behind and, for whatever reason, teach Q important life lessons?
The theme of "Paper Towns," Green has claimed, is that the idea of the manic pixie dream girl is just that: an idea. However, it is hard to buy into Green’s arguments when Margo’s sole purpose is to teach Q a lesson, albeit a very valuable one; her purpose in the story is to teach Q that men cannot make women up to be something they are not to benefit themselves. On the very first page of the novel, Q calls Margo a “miracle”. She isn’t a person, she is merely something that has proved beneficial to Q and his growth as a character.
“The dominant theme….of 'Paper Towns,'" writes New York Times critic Roger Sutton, “is that getting the girl in the conceptual sense might be more important than getting the girl in the romantic sense.” Despite all of Green’s intentions with "Paper Towns," we cannot accept sub par representation. While he labels the novel a deconstruction of the manic pixie dream girl trope, the actual material within the novel says otherwise. Green writes women that I consider to be paper: easily tossed aside and recycled again and again once the men in their lives have gained something from them. As long as female characters exist solely for the benefit of men, we cannot label a work -- whether it be in fiction, in film, or in television -- as a deconstruction of tropes that harm women, when they depend on using those tropes to send that message.
