Shipbreaker Summary

Shipbreaker Summary Set in a terrifying dystopian America where fossil fuels have run out and cities have been drowned, Shipbreaker takes place along the US Gulf Coast and centers around the life of a seventeen year old boy named Nailer, who is just one of the numerous teens working in crews to disassemble grounded oil tankers for their parts. Living a life of complete and utter poverty, Nailer works on the light crew scavenging for copper wiring and other light metals from the ships, working hard just to make quota each day and not get cut off the crew by his heartless boss. Each day, Nailer crawls into the mess of wrecked oil tankers with an overused dust mask and LED paint on his forehead while he scavenges for copper wiring in their humid and tight tunnels. One day, a brutal storm tears apart his city and Nailer and his friend Pima stumble across a wrecked clipper ship on
the shore, full of scavenge and worth more than anything he could ever imagine. As he and Pima debate over how to keep this wealth hidden from Nailers abusive, alcoholic, and drug-addicted father Richard, they discover a beautiful and dying girl on the ship named Nita; the lone survivor and owner of the ship. She tells them that she is the daughter of a very wealthy company owner and promises them a reward of wealth like no other if they help her survive. Nailer is soon faced with the decision of whether to kill the girl and keep the scavenge like nothing ever happened, or help the girl in prospects of gaining a better life. In listening to his conscience, Nailer decides to help the girl even if it means abandoning all of the wealth he could’ve easily obtained. Soon after, Nailer is catapulted into a series of catastrophies as his father discovers about the girl and the ship, and is he forced to run away with the girl to New Orleans to escape his father and to help Nita become reunited with her people. Along the way, one of Richard’s old crew members, Tool, decides to join Nailer and help him on his journey. Upon their arrival in New Orleans, Nailer and Nita find one of Nitas people, a Captain named Candless. However, as Nailer goes to the ship, he soon realizes that Nita has been captured by Richard. Nailer decides to team up with Candless, and together they chase after the ship in which Nita is held hostage in. Just as they think they’ve reached the right ship, they are surprise attacked from behind by a ship named the Pole Star. However, Nailer and the Captain counter attack by tricking the ship into crashing into the underwater buildings in New Orleans. Afterwards, they board the Pole Star to find Nita, and Nailer is confronted by his father who is holding a knife to Nitas throat. Nailer ends up killing his father in order to save himself and Nita, but is also left fatally wounded. After that, Nita helps him to get back to their ship. Later, Nailer thinks about how he killed his father and how he feels guilty about it, but is comforted by Pimas mom, Sadna. Afterwards, as the Captains ship, Dauntless is getting ready to set sail on a voyage, Nailer decides to go on the voyage as well to find work. In the end, he is able to make a new life and forget about the past on the new ship.

Discussion/ Analysis of Most Significant Themes One of the most prevalent themes in this novel is the importance of loyalty in the face of adversities. This theme is clearly displayed in the story by Sloth’s actions towards Nailer when she finds him on the edge of death. Even though Sloth had sworn by blood oath to stay loyal to her crew, including Nailer, when she sees the opportunity of becoming rich or saving her fellow crewmate, she immediately chooses the wealth for her own selfish benefits. From this, one can see how loyalty can easily be abandoned when it is faced with temptations. If it weren’t for Nailers luck, he would’ve been long dead because of Sloths lack of loyalty. This shows how loyalty between people is very important and that it could make the difference between life and death. However, breaking promises of loyalty also has severe punishments. For Sloth, her felony led to be cut off from the crew and abandoned, left to die in a world where traitors had no place. With no crew to work for, she had no source of sustaining her self and no chances of being hired by other crews because of the stain she left. As a result of her selfishness, Sloth had to bear the unfortunate consequences. Like Sloth, breaking an oath of loyalty can render severe consequences. For this reason, it is important to stay loyal to people and one’s promises. Another example of the theme can be seen in the story through Nailer’s whole and complete accompaniment of Nita to New Orleans. Throughout the story, Nailer is thrown many troubles and choices to make as a result of his decision to help Nita. He stuck with her through the whole way even though he didn’t have to and even though it was the hardest route for him. This is because he stayed true to his promise of loyalty to Nita, and because he made a blood oath with her. Nailer chose to keep his promises even when challenges arose and even when the world was against him. Nailers loyalty is essential to the outcome of the story because it plays a key role in moving the story forward. Without his help and guidance, Nita never would’ve made it out of her wrecked ship alive, and she never would’ve made it to New Orleans. Nailer’s unwavering loyalty and willingness to help others, has allowed Nita to escape displeasing fates on numerous occasions. On the other hand, helping Nita also allowed Nailer a chance to run away from his past and escape from the overbearing grasps of his father. Running away to New Orleans was a chance for Nailer to learn about the outside world and start a new life. In addition, as a benefit of helping Nita, Nailer was able to find new and better work on the Captains ship, the Dauntless.

Analysis of Conflict/ Resolution The conflict of the story begins when Nailer decides to save Nita. In this part of the story, the author sets up a scene for disasters to occur. This results in a conflict because Richard finds out about the girl and wants the reward for himself. However, for fear of getting killed by Richard, Nita and Nailer run away. In this part of the story, the author lends hope to the reader, making the reader think that Nailer is safe. However, soon, more conflicts are thrown in, which complicate the story and cause the reader to root for Nailer in his escape. After Nailer and Nita escape to New Orleans, and just when they think they are safe, they discover that Richard is following them. This creates suspense and uncertainty in the story, causing the reader to feel scared for Nailer and Nita, and wonder what will happen next. The conflict intensifies when Nita is captured by Richard, and Nailer must confront his terrifying father once and for all. This point is the climax of the story because Nailer must choose to kill his father, or let Nita be taken away. Nailer chooses to kill his father and saves Nita. After that, the story slowly transitions into the resolution. The resolution is much more laid back compared to the rising action and climax. In the end, Nailer talks with Pimas mother about death, the future, and family. Nailer realizes that families are made of love, which he never had. Finally, he decides to find work on the Dauntless. In the resolution, the author provides a satisfying ending and ties up all of the loose end and solves the internal conflicts of Nailer. All in all, the author does a good job of contrasting the intensity of the conflicts, and the peacefulness of the resolution, while providing a satisfying conclusion.

Discussion/ Analysis of Main Character

The main character in this story is Nailer. Although Nailer exudes many exquisite traits, his most overpowering and notable trait is his firm sense of morality. Nailer’s moral character is exhibited several times in the story and an example of this are his feelings towards killing. After killing a person for the first time in his life, Nailer feels an overwhelming sense of shame and disgust at himself, almost to the point of vomiting. From Nailer’s reactions towards killing, one can clearly see how he is a pure and moral person who dislikes harming people. Living life in the slums, it is not uncommon for people to kill others without a thought, for the sake of survival. However, the fact that Nailer is sensitive to this killing and reactive to it, shows how he has a stronger sense of morality than those around him. Furthermore, although Nailers dad is a well known killer and although all the people around him are constantly killing others, he is not affected by their apathetic behavior towards killing. Instead, he stays firm in his moral belief that killing is wrong. Another example of Nailers strong moral beliefs are shown when he chooses to rescue Nita when he finds her in the ship. It wasn’t necessary for him to save her, and he would’ve been been better off not helping her. He could’ve chosen to simply cut off her fingers and scavenge all of the gold she had and become rich, just like his friend had suggested, but he didn’t do any of that. Despite the fact that it was inconvenient and less beneficial to himself, he chose to save Nita because he couldn’t bear the thought of killing her, and because he knew that it would be wrong to kill her. He chose to save her because he believed that that was the right thing to do. Many of Nailers actions are fueled by his strong belief in doing what it right, not what benefits himself. Overall, one can see through these several examples how it is definitely Nailers strong sense of morality which defines him as a person and makes him stand out from the people around him.

Personal Reaction/ Response to the Book

Personally, this book definitely took me by surprise and opened by eyes to the fact that there are people who live in extreme poverty. Before reading this book, I was aware that there are poor people in the world, but I never really knew how they lived or what they went through. I never knew what life was truly life for those who lived in extreme poverty. However, in the story, Paolo Bacigalupi does an excellent job of conveying the harsh reality that many kids face, describing in vivid detail their lack of food and constant starvation, and how they are deprived of many of the things we take for granted today. I realized that a regular meal for me would be a feast to them, and that a little bit of money to me was worth a whole months earning for them. Their quality of living, in comparison to mine, led me to rethink all of the struggles that I’d ever had. Compared to the characters in the story, my struggles were superficial and minor, much less severe than they, who struggled just to get by each day and make it out alive. This novel really changed my perspective of the world, making me realize that my own life is already considered luxurious and I shouldn’t complain or take for granted the things I have. Overall, the author did an excellent job of portraying life in the slums, and the barbaric human nature that comes with deprivation. I really enjoyed reading this book because Paolo Bacigalupi demonstrates an amazing word choice, leaving the reader with heart-pounding and suspenseful experiences. I felt terrified for Nailer throughout the whole story, as he went through near-death experiences several times. I would definitely recommend this story to more mature audiences because of the amount of violence and vulgar language, and as well as the very dark themes portrayed. However, overall, this is a great book for anyone looking to learn more about what life is like for the people who have nothing, or for people who are just looking for a thrilling and suspenseful science fiction novel to read.

Symbol Analysis:

Train: The train symbolizes Nailers freedom and breakthrough. His escape to New Orleans helped him to find himself and start a new life. The train is very important in the story because it symbolizes how Nailer chose to break away from his past, leaving everything behind to start a new life. He left behind his abusive father and friends, in hopes of gaining a better life. This train also symbolizes hope because it is shows that even those who live the worst of lives can have opportunities to reach better lives. The train in the story plays a central role in showing how Nailer has character development, first attached to his family and friends, but then tries to run away from it all. In a sense, the train also symbolizes adventure and taking chances, because he almost fell off the train and got run over when he first tried to jump onto it. That jump onto the train symbolizes letting go and taking a chance, even when there are consequences. This demonstrates how, sometimes in life, one must take chances to reach a goal or destination. As you can see, the train holds much significance to the story and Nailers character development.

Ship: The ship represents Nailers past and old life.
It represents how he used to work taking apart ships every day and scavenging for metal, a life which he hated and wanted to get away from. Furthermore, it also represents how he used to work for the sake of supporting his father, and how his father was abusive and terrifying. Nailers entire life was centered around breaking down ships for their parts but he didn’t want to live like that. The ship brings back many memories for Nailer, such as suffering and pain. As a result, Nailer changes as a person to escape these memories. The ship represents the spur that led Nailer to change and pursue what he wanted to, not what he was bounded to do. The ship is also a representation of when his life reaches a turning point when he saves Nita. From the minute he saved Nita, his life started to go down a different road, which eventually led him to where he wanted to be. In conclusion, although the ship represents bad memories of a life Nailer wanted to forget, it also represents the change in his life that led him to where he wanted to
be.