Paper Towns: Prologue Summary & Analysis

Quentin Jacobsen, reflecting on his childhood, considers the possibility that every person will experience one incredible and unlikely event in their life: one “miracle.” Some people win Nobel Prizes or survive months at sea, but Quentin believes his “miracle” was living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo and Quentin grew up together in Jefferson Park, one of the many subdivisions in Orlando, Florida. Jefferson Park is named after the rich and powerful orange juice salesman who once owned the land, Dr. Jefferson Jefferson. Quentin found Margo beautiful even when they were children, and remembers getting nervous every time they played together.

Quentin remembers an experience he shared with Margo when they were nine years old. In the memory he describes, he and Margo bike to a park at the center of their subdivision. Upon arriving at the park, they discover a dead man lying under an oak tree, covered in blood. Margo, fascinated, approaches the man and examines his body, wondering aloud about the circumstances of his death. Quentin is terrified and urges her to come home with him. Biking home behind her, Quentin notices the man’s blood on her sneakers.

That night, after Quentin has gone to bed following a comforting conversation with his therapist mother, Margo appears at his bedroom window. Through the screen, she tells him she has done an investigation about the dead man, whose name was Robert Joyner. She talks about her conversation with Juanita Alvarez, Joyner’s neighbor, to whom Margo gained access by claiming she needed to borrow a cup of sugar. Alvarez told Margo that Joyner shot himself because he was getting divorced. Quentin reminds Margo that many people get divorced without committing suicide, and Margo suggests that Joyner may actually have died because “all the strings inside him broke.”

Quentin, at a loss for words, removes the window screen. He seems to assume Margo will come into his bedroom, but Margo does not move and tells him to shut the window. He does, and she remains outside, staring at him. He waves and smiles at her, but notices that her gaze is fixed on something behind him, and that she looks afraid. They stand in silence, looking at each other. Quentin claims that he does not remember how the encounter ended, and says that in his memory, they continue to look at each other through the window forever.

Quentin concludes, narrating once again from the present, that Margo always loved mysteries, and he wonders whether she loved mysteries so much that she eventually became one.