Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Rebirth
Falling Under the Shadow of the Dark Power
The five characters who form the first version of the gestalt—Lone, Janie, the twins Bonnie and Beanie, and Baby—come together and live in the hidden shelter. They've got a pretty decent thing going until Baby rather bluntly informs the head that he, Lone, is too stupid for their life to evolve further. What's a lonely gestalt life form to do? They are falling under the shadow of isolation, the opposite of the belonging vibe that forms when they're doing well and bleshing (see "Symbols" if you forgot what that means).
The Threat Seems to Recede
Conveniently, Lone gets killed by a falling tree in a flash flood. With Gerry as the new head honcho, the second version of the gestalt moves in with Miss Kew for the security a dead Lone can't provide. Despite a few setbacks, everyone is happy and wearing clean clothes for the first time in forever. They're not isolated anymore, right? Everything seems swell.
Imprisonment in a State of Living Death
But Miss Kew's house is just too orderly for the gestalt organism to thrive. Her rules begin to destroy it, so rather than, say, make a compromise, Gerry ups and murders her. He talks with a psychotherapist about it, but decides morality is for losers less evolved than he and the rest of his gestalt. That's why he puts mental blocks on Hip the hero, imprisoning him in a state of living death. The poor guy can't remember who he is or what he was looking for. He's completely isolated. He's even literally imprisoned in a jail cell. Can't get more imprisoned than that.
The Dark Power Almost Triumphs
Janie helps Hip remember who he is, but not fast enough. Gerry locates them before Hip can recall enough about his life to be prepared to confront him. Hip and Janie have no choice but to try anyway. Their plan to keep Gerry in check by threatening to sabotage his parts fails when Gerry reveals he knows his parts can be replaced. The immortal Gerry, his commanding eyes spinning, moves toward Hip to destroy his mind. Yikes!
Miraculous Redemption
A twin suddenly tackles Gerry. Hip ties up the head of the gestalt and blindfolds him. He develops an ethic in his mind, then removes the blindfold and tells Gerry to probe his brain. Gerry reads the ethic and converts to the belief that he should help humanity instead of all that other stuff he was doing—you know, murdering Miss Kew, hurting other people such as Hip. Miracles arrive in the form of Hip getting to join the gestalt—seriously, how does that even work?—and the other Homo Gestalt show up telepathically to invite Gerry's crew into their wonderful society.