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Part 2, Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paper Towns, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Perception vs. Reality
Authenticity and Artificiality
Human Connection
Leaving Home and Growing Up
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
As their trip begins, everyone in the car settles into a role: Lacey takes stock of the sparse food and supplies they have in the car, Radar plans their gas station stops and calculates the speed they’ll need to travel to reach Agloe before noon the next day, and Ben makes frequent remarks about needing to pee, which are ridiculed and dismissed by his traveling companions. Ben and Radar are still wearing nothing except their graduation robes. Quentin is driving 72 miles per hour, almost 20 miles over the speed limit. Everyone is in high spirits, laughing and having fun as they speed down the highway.
The high-energy beginning of the road trip shows both the group and every individual member of the group in their best possible light. The roles they fall into highlight their strengths — even Ben, whose need to pee could easily be obnoxious, embraces his role as comic relief. This cohesion replaces their graduation ceremony as a testament to what they have learned and achieved in high school.
Themes
