44 pages • 1 hour read
Vince VawterPaperboy
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Victor Vollmer
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, violence, and alcoholism.
The protagonist of Paperboy is an 11-year-old boy named Victor. Victor has a stutter, which impacts his day-to-day ability to interact with people. At the beginning of the novel, Victor feels embarrassed about his stutter, believing that most people he interacts with are judging him for it. In order to alleviate his anxiety around the stutter, Victor often says things in roundabout ways, only using words that are comparatively easier to pronounce. By the end of the novel, Victor’s stutter hasn’t decreased in severity; however, Victor has learned to accept it as a fact about himself and to not be embarrassed about it.
Victor’s two closest relationships are with his nanny, Mam, and his best friend, Rat. Victor feels distant from his parents, both of whom struggle to connect with him. These feelings are heightened by the discovery that his father is not actually his biological father, which becomes a source of confusion for Victor. Throughout the course of Paperboy, Victor makes another close friendship with neighbor Mr. Spiro, whom Victor likes because he intellectually stimulates him and treats him like an adult. Victor tries to get to know Mrs. Worthington, another neighbor, but he is put off by her drinking and instability. These latter two relationships represent possible ways of living for Victor: thinking deeply about the world around him or ignoring it.
Victor is defined by both his insecurity and his bravery. Despite being insecure about his speech, Victor is highly intelligent and willing to break the rules when he sees fit, such as when he breaks into Ara T.’s shack or follows Mam into the lounge at the end of the novel. These impulsive habits eventually get Victor into trouble because it turns Ara T. against him. However, at the end of the book, Victor seems to be ready to face life’s challenges in a way that he wasn’t before, and he’s chosen a path in life: that of a reporter, a role that he practices as narrator of the novel.
Mam
Victor’s nanny is a Black woman named Miss Nellie Avent, whom Victor calls Mam. Through the novel, Mam represents the most consistent and supportive source of stability for Victor. Mam and Victor spend a lot of time together since Victor’s parents are busy at all hours. The two of them enjoy each other’s company, such as when they go to a zoo together on a free day. Mam cares for Victor and frequently tries to protect him from danger. Mam warns Victor away from Ara T., which turns out to be a well-judged move, as Ara T. confesses to murder and attacks Mam at the end of the novel.
Through Mam, Paperboy explores racial tensions in the southern United States on the cusp of school integration. As Mam is the only Black person whom Victor knows well, she’s the person to which he directs his questions about the segregation and oppression that he sees around him every day. As Victor’s protector and mentor, Mam takes on a parental role in his life and is the impetus for Victor’s stance toward racial integration, contrary to his family, at the end of the novel.
Mr. Spiro
Victor meets Mr. Spiro early on in his paper route, and he immediately likes him. Unlike other adults, Victor perceives Mr. Spiro to be treating him with respect and kindness. Over the course of the novel, Mr. Spiro hands Victor four pieces of a single dollar bill, each with a separate word on it: “student,” “servant,” “seller,” and “seeker.” This dollar bill forms a major symbol in the novel of Victor’s increasing maturity and independence. A major function of Mr. Spiro to Victor is helping him understand what he truly desires. Since Mr. Spiro takes Victor seriously, Victor takes himself seriously; the dollar bill, therefore, takes on significant meaning in terms of representing the entirety of Victor’s personality and growth.
Mr. Spiro also introduces Victor to a love of reading and writing. Mr. Spiro is characterized as a voracious reader, with his house full of books stacked from floor to ceiling. In one of his conversations with Mr. Spiro, Victor learns that it is easier for him to communicate in writing than speaking, which forms the basis for his decision to become a reporter. Mr. Spiro’s enormous influence on Victor is a major part of the novel, and by the end, Victor feels a deep sadness that Mr. Spiro will be leaving for a few months. As with Mam, Mr. Spiro takes on a parental role in Victor’s life, a role that his parents struggle themselves to fulfill.
Mrs. Worthington
Mrs. Worthington is another adult whom Victor meets early on in his paper route. Victor is immediately fascinated by Mrs. Worthington, but Mrs. Worthington makes very little effort to understand Victor and constantly misinterprets what he says. For instance, on their first meeting, Mrs. Worthington believes that Victor calls her a slur due to his stutter. This positions her as the foil to Mr. Spiro—Mrs. Worthington, by contrast, while fascinating to Victor, also is a stand-in for all of the adults who don’t make the effort to understand him or his speech disorder.
Mrs. Worthington is characterized in the novel as unstable, drinking at all hours of the day and constantly getting into fights with her husband. The reality of her situation is never resolved since it is presented through a child’s eyes. While Victor looks forward to talking to her due to his fascination, Mrs. Worthington blows him off consistently and doesn’t pay for her paper. The one time that Victor enters her home, she asks him personal questions before passing out on the couch. By the end of the novel, Victor seems to feel more relieved that Mrs. Worthington has canceled her newspaper description rather than anything else.
The relationship between Mrs. Worthington and Victor demonstrates Victor’s compassion and helpful personality. He frequently defends and helps Mrs. Worthington, despite her lack of recognition. Victor’s worries about Mrs. Worthington, and his treatment of her demonstrates his maturity, a characteristic that will help him handle the adult situations he finds himself in throughout the novel. His worry makes her a partly sympathetic figure.
Ara T.
The antagonist of Paperboy is a “junkman” named Ara T. Early on in the novel, Victor has a congenial relationship with Ara T., even giving him his favorite knife to sharpen. However, as the novel goes on, Ara T. becomes increasingly malevolent, eventually stealing Victor’s saved money and attacking Mam when she goes to retrieve it. The novel also reveals that Ara T. most likely murdered Mam’s brother decades before, which resulted in Mama’s lifelong grudge against him.
While Ara T. is not a sympathetic figure and is portrayed as malicious, the narrative also contains compassion for him. Ara T. is portrayed as someone who is a victim of circumstance, and part of his attitude toward the world is due to his own lack of power and agency in his life. Stealing things from Victor is a chance for him to reclaim his own power, despite the damage that it does. At the end of the novel, however, this dynamic is flipped. Ara T. uses Mam’s unwillingness to contact the police—due to their racism—to attack her without severe consequences. Ara T. does not get off totally scot-free, however, as Mam stabs him in the arm to rescue Victor from his attack.
