Partials Sparknotes

The dystopian novel Partials by Dan Wells is about humanity falling apart due to the RM virus created by Partials, and while some humans are fortunate enough to have resistance to the virus, all newborns continue to die to the virus less than a few days after birth. That's why Kira Walker, a seventeen-year-old girl, is determined to find a cure for the RM virus, put an end to the Hope Act, and possibly find and capture a Partial. Numerous themes are explored throughout the novel, with disease and death being two of the major ones. One major theme that the author demonstrates in this book is disease. To begin, Senator Hobb’s hologram stated, "When we discovered that RM would not stop killing children, we passed the Hope Act to maximize our

In the beginning of the novel, Kira says, "Newborn #485G18M died on June 30, 2076, at 6:07 in the morning. She was 3 days old. The average lifespan of a human child in the time since the break was fifty-six hours. They didn’t even name them anymore" (p. 1). Furthermore, many babies are dying as a result of the RM virus because they lack immunity to it. Which is why hospitals and parents cannot name them because it’s inevitable the children will die. Also at the start of the story, Nurse Hardy informs Kira, "You’ve been with us for three weeks, this is your tenth dead child. It’s my nine hundred eighty second" (p. 4). As you can see, many newborns have died in less than three weeks, so death is a very common part of Kira’s world. Last, Marcus attempts to console Kira about the deaths of all the newborns by saying, "RM killed those children, not Kira Walker." (p. 6). Also, Kira's life is full of people dying, and she feels guilty about it because the world she lives in is full of death, which is why her friend, Marcus, is attempting to console her because death is such a prominent theme in Kira's life. To sum up, death is another major theme explored throughout the novel because many newborns and humans die because of the RM