MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Nathan Rabin first coined the term “manic pixie dream girl” in reference to Kirsten Dunst’s character, Claire, in the film Elizabethtown (2005). The term was initially used to refer to female characters whose only purpose within the narrative was to improve the lives of the male protagonist, such as Sam in Garden State (2004), Elizabethtown’s Claire, or Summer in (500) Days of Summer (2009). Rabin initially intended the term to call attention to these unrealistic, idealistic, and underdeveloped female characters and demand more well-written, diverse women in media. In recent years, the discussion has shifted away from the demand for better female characters and re-centered on the use of the term itself as misogynistic.

Many critics have labeled the character Margo Roth Spiegelman in both the original novel Paper Towns (2008) by John Green and its 2015 film adaptation a manic pixie dream girl, although Green and others have defended the character and the text. Green claims that Margo is not a manic pixie dream girl, and that the both the novel and the film deconstruct the trope.

Using the framework of feminist theory and criticism in tandem with popular cultural criticism of the manic pixie dream girl, I argue that, while the novel Paper Towns successfully deconstructs the trope, the film fails to do so. The difference lies in how the main protagonist, Quentin, comes to view Margo by the end of each text. Furthermore, I believe that the character Margo must, in some ways, behave like a manic pixie dream girl in order to highlight the dangers of the trope and the influence it has over young people who may view themselves or others as constructed ideas, rather than complex individuals.