Sinking Ships

     Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world going through something rough. But then I realize there are so many people going through the same thing as me. In John Green’s Paper Towns Q, the protagonist, is a senior who has loved Margo his whole life. When she runs away, she leaves clues and as he finds her he realizes she’s not the girl he thought the loved. John Green uses the characters rough times as teens and compares them to sinking ships. This is important because it taught me about being able to understand others through the hardships we face as humans. 

In the beginning of Q and Margo’s friendship, Q doesn’t seem to know the true Margo. Only “ideas” of her like her beauty. It’s like looking at a window shade but never seeing inside. Nothing truly bad or exciting has ever happened to him. He is like a new, watertight ship. As they grow up and Margo runs away, Q begins to see the real Margo. Complicated things start happening in their lives. Q gets bullied and Margo gets cheated on. So like a sinking ships they being to get cracks every time something hurts them.

When Q finally finds Margo they completely understand each other. There’s so many cracks in their ships that they just fall apart. In other words, they’ve made so many mistakes, had so many issues, that they can relate to one another. Because as John Green puts it, “we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs.” Even though their problems were different they could still understand how the other person felt.

In second grade my friends hamster died. She was traumatized. Of course I comforted her but in my head I was just thinking, “it’s just a stupid hamster,” and “can’t she just get over it?” But then in sixth grade I had to give my bunny away I felt the same way. Even though it was a completely different situation. Then I began to feel bad for the way I had treated my friend. It was only until something similar happened to me that I could then relate to her. 

What I’m really trying to say is we feel bad for people, as humans, because we have been through the same things as them. Or at least something similar. I think John Green did a great job using the ships as a metaphor for life and the relationships we have during it. As a teen, this book helped me realize it’s important to try and understand why a person is acting a certain way. Because chances are you have or will go through the same things their dealing with.