Clappers - Julia

I also found clappers to be very interesting. It took me a very long time to figure out exactly what a clapper was, in fact, I really didn't understand was a clapper was until the very end of the book.


"... Levi Jedidiah Calder is held in a cell designed for his very specific needs. The cell is padded. There is a steel blast door three inches thick. The room is kept at a constant forty-five degrees Fahrenheit to keep Lev's body temperature from rising too high. Lev is not cold, though- in fact he's hot. He's hot because he's wrapped in layer after layer of fire-resistent insulation. He looks like a mummy, suspended in midair- but unlike a mummy, his hands aren't crossed over his chest, they're held out to each side and lashed to a crossbeam so he cannot bring his hands together. The way Lev sees it, they didn't know whether to crucify him or mummify him, so they did both. This way, he can't clap, he can't fall, he can't inadvertently detonate himself- and if for some reason he does, the cell is designed to withstand the blast." (Shusterman 323)


This is when I really realized what a clapper was, it is a person who has some sort of explosive within his or her body, running through their blood. They set themselves off by clapping their hands together. Then they explode, killing themselves and others. I think that you can compare them to the suicide bombers you here about in Iraq. The main difference is that the suicide bombers have external explosives, whereas the clappers explosives are internal. It really surprised me that Lev was a clapper. He seemed so nice, why did he want to kill himself and others? It must have just been the circumstances. He figured this was actually helping people. Which it did, actually. His two "co-partners" clapped and blew up the Chop Shop, saving many people, including Connor from being unwound. I was glad that Lev didn't clap and die, though. He helped people instead, and became somewhat of a hero.