Margo and Quentin as characters
- melbuhtoast
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Margo and Quentin as characters
When Margo and Quentin are nine they make a horrible discovery, and respond in very different ways. Quentin says, “As I took those two steps back, Margo took two equally small and quiet steps forward” (p.5). Do these descriptions still apply to the characters when they reach high school? When the story ends? What changes?
- bluemel4
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When the story ends I think Quentin and Margo learn a great deal about themselves and how in different situations they become different kinds of people. Quentin grows a lot through his obsessive search for Margo and finds himself to be braver and different than expected when shaken from his routine. Margo becomes more of a free spirit but can also see that she has wrongly judged people in her life. She admits that she only saw Quentin as two dimentional but that changed when she actually spent time with him.
Margo and Quentin have a clear the air discussion at the end of the novel where they realize they had feelings for each other all along but their preconceived notions of who the other was got in the way of them being together. Once all that is cleared away and the symbolic burial of the paper Margo and Quentin is accomplished they realize they care a great deal for each other but were heading in different directions.
- Cee-Jay Aurinko
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As for Quentin, Margo's disappearance and his obsession with finding her is proof that he is still the kid who "takes two steps back." And his lack of interest for prom and his reluctance to see his graduation ceremony to the end? Yeah, Quentin doesn't change at all.
- bluemel4
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But I have to disagree about Quentin. He does change through the story. He goes from being this self-centered guy who thinks everyone should live up to his expectations. He realizes that people are who they are and he needs to accept that. He sees that Margo the person and Margo the idealized version are two different people and that there is danger in pretending you know someone when you do not. He even has a break through about the way you see the world is important. It's either all strings and fatal wounds or everything is connected and eternal.
- Ashley3255
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I agree with this. Both do not change to me, they just grow older.Leon Durham wrote:I think Margo pretty much stays the same. She keeps on moving forward without ever looking back. This is clear when Quentin finally discovers Margo in Algoe. Margo has already moved on; she's not entirely pleased with the idea that she has been found. And to clarify this even further, she plans to move to New York.
As for Quentin, Margo's disappearance and his obsession with finding her is proof that he is still the kid who "takes two steps back." And his lack of interest for prom and his reluctance to see his graduation ceremony to the end? Yeah, Quentin doesn't change at all.
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However I feel Quentin changed quite a bit. When he saw the body and backed away, he went home and was sheltered by his parents. As a teen he was still as sheltered. He always followed the rules and did what was expected of him. It was after the night of revenge with Margo that Q started to change. He started breaking the rules, skipping school, lying to his parents and going places by himself. I think his experiences while trying to find Margo brought him out of his shell, his safe sheltered place, and made him must more adventurous. I think by the end of the book Q was in a must better place moving forward in life and Margo hadn't changed at all.
― Mae West
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