Ship Breaker characters and conflict

For my sophomore summer reading assignment, I am reading the book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. The core character in my book is Nailer. Nailer is part of a unit of children who work under a strict boss to take metal and other supplies off of boats that have sunk. Nailer is the finest in his group at retrieving things from the boats. His group competes with other groups in order to acquire the most money. They are required to do this because it is the only way they can make money. However as they grow older they will not be allowed continue it because they will be too big to fit in the crevices of the boat. I predict that at some point in their search they will find something really valuable or magical or something of the sorts. The other characters in the crew are Sloth, who is Nailer’s best friend and Pima, who is really bossy.  There is also Moon Girl, Tick-Tock and Pearly who we don’t know a lot about yet. I am curious to know how these characters will serve in specific roles. A remarkable detail of the book is Nailer’s mom is dead and and the story of her death is sort of mysterious, and his dad is very abusive, increasing the mystery. Also, it is emphasized that Nailer’s past is unknown, so I predict we will learn more about that through the book. His past reminds me of Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series. Both characters don’t know at least one parent; live with some one now who doesn’t love them and it is a big mystery. The pictures are of the Titanic, which is the most famous sunken ship and shows some of the danger the characters may face.