The book starts off being located in the city of Chicago, Illinois. Once Whirligig starts to progress, the main character, Brent, leaves his home on a Greyhound bus and travels to the different states of Washington, California, Florida, and Maine to create 4 whirligigs in honor of Lea.
Bellevue, Washington- This is where Brent creates his whirligig. This is also where Anthony stumbles across it.
Weeksboro, Maine- This is where the final whirligig was created, and later Stephanie and Alexandra find it.

San Diego, California- Where the second whirligig created and where Jenny and her grandmother discover it.
Chicago, Illinois- This is where the book begins and where Brent just moved to. Not just that, but this is also where Brent decided to attempt killing himself and ended up killing Lea.
Miami, Florida- Where the third whirligig was created.

Unlike many other books where the main character/characters have either an internal or external conflict, Brent Bishop has to face both throughout the entire book. An example of an external conflict that Brent had to face was in the beginning. When he first attended a party as “the new kid” from school,” he was being made fun of for his clothes and tried to flirt with a girl named Brianna that he had a crush on from school. When he finally

approached her and started to open up a conversation, she immediately …show more content…
Your hand is on the tiller of the sixteen-foot, all-wood, gaff-rigged sailboat your parents have bought you. Painted across the stern is the name you’ve chosen for it- Free Spirit.” -In this quote from the book, Alexandra is helping Steph find a boyfriend through the whirligig and is using visual imagery to do so. She is trying to paint a picture in Steph’s head for her to think about and use later on in her search by saying things that will give her confidence and an overall good state of