How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I wrote a little bit about The Great Gatsby for English. I read some of The Federalist Papers as early prep for my government final. (1.2.89)
Quentin is a good student, and Green lets us see his academic nature before he finds Margo Roth Spiegelman's copy of Walt Whitman's poems (Margo Roth Whitspiegelman), so we understand that his studying of it doesn't come unnaturally to him.
Quote #2
I sat alone with "Song of Myself" for a long time, and for about the tenth time I tried to read the entire poem starting at the beginning, but the problem was that it's like eighty pages long and weird and repetitive, and although I could understand each word of it, I couldn't understand anything about it as a whole. (2.10.1)
What, has Quentin never been to Shmoop? We could have explained this poem to him in minutes.
Quote #3
"I hate to see it reduced to such a literal reading." (2.11.18)
Quentin's teacher, Dr. Holden, encourages him to dig deeper into "Song of Myself," but do you think Margo would have done so, or does she just do a superficial and literal reading herself?
Quote #4
"She seems to have responded very darkly to what is finally a very optimistic poem. The poem is about our connectedness—each of us sharing the same root system like leaves of grass." (2.11.18)
Dr. Holden explains that Leaves of Grass is probably the exact opposite of how Margo Roth Spiegelman interprets it. Ms. MRS seems to want to be anything but a part of society, so of course she takes Walt Whitman's meaning and twists it around to fit her own personal ideology.
Quote #5
"I do think there are some interesting connections between the poet in 'Song of Myself' and Margo Roth Spiegelman—all that wild charisma and wanderlust." (2.11.28)
At the end of the book, Margo says she didn't choose this poem specifically, but maybe something in it spoke to her subconsciously.
Quote #6
It was the lack of alternative stimuli that led me back to "Song of Myself." […] And for some reason, finally, I could read it. (2.12.30)
It can be hard to concentrate on reading and writing, what with cable TV, text messaging, Instagram… oh BRB we just got a Snapchat from John Green…
Quote #7
So grass is a metaphor for life, and for death, and for equality, and for connectedness, and for children, and for God, and for hope. (2.12.35)
That's some impressive grass. By looking into the poem's deeper meaning, Quentin finds deeper meaning in life itself, beyond just searching for Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Quote #8
I had reached a weird part of the poem—after all this time listening and hearing people, and then traveling alongside them, Whitman stops hearing and he stops visiting, and he starts to become other people. Like, actually inhabit them. (2.19.12)
This metaphysical possession is something Quentin tries to do with Margo. He tries to put himself not just in her shoes, but inside her brain, tracing her every step and motivation.
Quote #9
Those items sit atop two books: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. (3.22.64)
It looks like Margo Roth Spiegelman has taken advantage of her solitude to expand her literary horizons. This is quite a development for her. In Part 1, she seems disappointed that Quentin quotes poetry, as though she thinks there's no use for literary knowledge.
Quote #10
"I started writing a story in this notebook. It was kind of a detective story." (3.22.71)
When Margo was a girl, she wrote a mystery story because she thought life would be more interesting that way. At eighteen years old, she decides to make her life a mystery story instead of just writing about it.