Previous
Terms
Terrorists who engage in what is essentially suicide bombing against harvest camps that perform the unwinding procedure. Their name comes from the way that their bombers’ blood is replaced with an explosive compound that explodes when the bomber claps.
Clappers Quotes in Unwind
The Unwind quotes below are all either spoken by Clappers or refer to Clappers. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 21
Quotes
Lev had agreed to go with him because he knew the two filled a need in each other. CyFi was like a preacher with no flock. He couldn’t exist without an audience, and Lev needed someone who could fill his head with ideas, to replace the lifetime of ideas that had been taken from him.
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Chapter 35
Quotes
He could join them just out of spite, but that’s not enough—not this time. There must be more. Yet, as he stands there, Lev realizes that there is more. It’s invisible, but it’s there, like the deadly charge lurking in a downed power line. Anger, but not just anger: a will to act on it as well.
“All right, I’m in.” Back at home Lev always felt part of something larger than himself. Until now, he hadn’t realized how much he missed that feeling.
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Chapter 57
Quotes
Lev was terrified of these people, and yet he felt a kinship with them. They understood the misery of being betrayed by life. They understood what it felt like to have less than nothing inside you. And when they told Lev how important he was in the scheme of things, Lev felt, for the first time in a long time, truly important.
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Chapter 65
Quotes
It is only when a clapper brings his hands together that the lie reveals itself, abandoning the clapper in that final instant so that he exits this world utterly alone, without so much as a lie to accompany him into oblivion.
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Chapter 68
Quotes
“You may be responsible for your actions,” Pastor Dan says, “but it’s not your fault you weren’t emotionally prepared for life out there in the real world. This was my fault—and the fault of everyone who raised you to be a tithe. We’re as guilty as the people who pumped that poison into your blood.”
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Get the entire Unwind LitChart as a printable PDF.
Clappers Term Timeline in Unwind
The timeline below shows where the term Clappers appears in Unwind. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Connor gets home and greets his dad, who’s watching the news. The clappers blew up an Old Navy. Connor makes a joke about this, but Connor’s dad doesn’t...
(full context)
Chapter 17
...Risa stops him and they both begin to clap. Thinking that Risa and Connor are clappers, Kids look at them in horror, scream, and run away in a panic. Hannah finds...
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Chapter 18
...he knows it’s too late: they hate him. Kids trample over him and scream about clappers. Lev wants to explain himself to his only friends, but he can’t move until the...
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Chapter 19
...he knows that it’s his fault. In town, he hears kids talking anxiously about the clappers. He congratulates Risa on suggesting they pretend to be clappers, and they praise each other...
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...says they’re looking for Sonia. The woman says that she’s Sonia and asks if they’re clappers. In response, Connor punches the wall and points out that he didn’t explode. Sonia stops...
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Chapter 57
...Lev knows that soon the world will suffer just like him the minute he starts clapping.
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Chapter 62
...insists they have to “do it today.” He lies that the staffers know there are clappers here, and soon they’ll be found out. Blaine curses and says he’s not ready, but...
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Chapter 65
The narrator says that nobody knows what goes through a clapper’s mind in the moments before they detonate. Whatever the thoughts are, they’re seductive lies. For...
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...meanwhile, waits in a hallway. He decided to not use his detonators since a “hardcore” clapper can detonate without them, and he wants to be hardcore like his brother was. He...
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...with a tranquilizer. Blaine explodes immediately. Mai hears the explosion, tries not to think, and claps. It takes three tries. Risa notices Lev as the first explosion goes off. Dalton shouts...
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Chapter 67
...Lev carried her out too. Risa realizes that Connor doesn’t know that Lev was a clapper and is the one who didn’t clap. As they talk, Risa notices that Connor’s right...
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Chapter 68
...of what’s going on outside and asks if Lev knows Cyrus Finch. Lev starts to panic—clappers’ friends and families usually become suspects. Lev insists that CyFi is innocent, but Pastor Dan...
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...also been wondering why he did what he did. Lev uncomfortably points out that all clappers make the news, but Pastor Dan says their actions do, not the clappers themselves. Lev...
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...happen for a reason, and he has to believe that Lev’s kidnapping and becoming a clapper happened to “put a face on unwinding.” Lev asks what happens now. Pastor Dan says...
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