Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss racism, violence, alcoholism, and self-harm.



Paperboy takes place in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1959 and takes the form of a typed confession. The protagonist, Victor Vollmer, is an 11-year-old kid with a stutter. At the beginning of the story, he reveals that someone has been stabbed with his yellow-handled knife, and his nanny made him promise not to talk about the incident.

In school, Victor is bullied for the way he talks, and so he writes the confession to express himself more easily. Victor’s nanny, Miss Nellie Avent (who Victor calls “Mam”), moved from Mississippi to Memphis when Victor was five to help take care of him. Victor also has a best friend by the name of Rat; both boys are members of a baseball team. Victor shares that on the last day of sixth grade, he threw a baseball that hit Rat in the mouth and injured him; out of guilt, Victor agreed to take over Rat’s paper route for the month of July. Victor is nervous about the new job because his stutter causes him to feel embarrassed when speaking to strangers.