Paper Towns: Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

On Friday evening, Quentin drives to Collier Farms. The land is swampy and overgrown. Though he is full of hope after finding the subdivision’s brochure in the strip mall, he finds no sign that Margo has been there.

Driving to the last pseudovision on his list, Logan Pines, Quentin gets a call from Ben. Radar’s parents have left town — a black Santa collector in Pittsburgh has died suddenly, and they are flying to Pennsylvania to buy his Santas —and Radar is planning a party in their absence. Quentin declines to attend. Ben tells him that they are not asking him to abandon the search for Margo, and that they only want one evening of his time before graduation later that week. It bothers Quentin that Ben never seems to care about Margo unless searching for her involves an interesting adventure, but he thinks of Radar’s lecture about accepting people, and agrees to come to the party as soon as he searches Logan Pines.

There is nothing in Logan Pines to suggest anyone has been there. Quentin finds the concrete foundation of a house that was never built. He cannot understand why Margo would have wanted him to see these places. He has now exhausted his list of pseudovisions in Central Florida, but knows nothing more than when he began.

Quentin drives back to Jefferson Park. He arrives at Radar’s house to find Radar putting away the nicest of the black Santas to keep them from breaking during the party. Quentin is thinking that the Santas are more beautiful and interesting than Radar gives them credit for, when Ben appears in the bedroom. He tells them that Lacey has just kissed him, and that he’s afraid he isn’t very good at kissing. Quentin advises him to use his tongue sparingly and avoid biting. Lacey comes into the room at that inopportune moment, and begins affectionately teasing the boys.

The party is relaxed, with little drinking and lots of storytelling. Ben, Radar, and Quentin reaffirm their commitment to being naked under their robes at graduation, and some of their friends agree to join them. Quentin thinks that moments like this are what he likes most about his friend. The party is bittersweet and leaves Quentin feeling acutely both the happiness and sadness of the transition that awaits him. When he gets home that night, he finds his mother dozing on the couch. She wakes up to hug him and tells him that she really likes being his mom.

In bed, Quentin pages through “Song of Myself.” He looks at the map pinned to his wall, and thinks of how fruitless it is to attempt to understand Margo through a map. The enormous amount of space represented in the map only reminds him of how small Margo is, and how difficult it will be to find her when he has the entire world to search. He gets out of bed and pulls the map off the wall, along with the thumbtacks he used to mark locations of interest. Lying down again, he stares at the pattern of small holes in the wall left by the thumbtacks. The pattern reminds him of the one he saw on the wall of the strip mall. He realizes suddenly that the thing Margo hung up must have been a map with plotted points.