What does a poem have to do with anything? Well, a lot actually. The poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, is a clue Margo leaves behind so she can be found. Margo has been known to leave behind clues when she leaves. For example, when she ran away to Mississippi she left the letters of alphabet soup to spell the state. Q constantly returns to this poem for clues and it has helped him gain a lot of information on Margo's whereabouts. One quote from Whitman can be found on page 116. It quotes, "Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!" Q and his friends spent a while trying to decode this part of the poem. Eventually they come to the discovery that the poem literally means to unscrew the doors locks. Who would have thought? They eventually find an address in Q's door. This is another clue and the clues are always following each other. Using this allusion has made this book even more interesting and makes the mystery have even more of a suspenseful mood. "Song of Myself" is always leaving me at the edge of my seat trying to decode the poems meaning. Trust me, it makes the book more intense.
I like this allusion through out this piece of writing. The poem could be considered a well known craft of writing. I like how they constantly go back to the poem and give quotes from "Song of Myself". I feel like I am right next to Q trying to solve the case. I am always asking my self "Now what does this line mean?" I like how it's not a simple guess and how you usually have to go in depth and apply it to what you know about Margo. I know for sure that answer to Margo's location isn't black and white so I know that I won't have the correct prediction. Whenever Q discovers something new I always find my prediction changing. This allusion is a great part of Paper Towns; it makes the story more interesting and intense. If you love mystery books, read Paper Towns.
A picture of Walt Whitman, the author of "Song of Myself"
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/walt-whitman
