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Unwind Theme

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman Book Analysis Essay Example

When it comes to my life things get a little crazy but do they get as crazy as Unwind by Neal Shusterman? In the novel Unwind, The author Neal Shusterman describes that the setting is after World War II. Abortions are banned so instead of aborting their kid they can unwind them at the age of 13 and the oldest of 18.  

Firstly, when a mother gives birth the baby is tracked to see if the baby is a good kid or a bad kid. If the mother finds out that the kid is bad that kid has a higher chance of getting unwound. When the unwound’s 13th birthday comes up their mom has an opportunity to schedule an unwound date. The kids mostly get a more significant birthday if they are good or their parents' favorite child. Secondly, when your mother gives birth to you in the real world she gets a certificate with your name, weight, and birthdate. Nothing really bad happens when you grow up. The most significant birthday party in our world for Hispanics is that when a female turns 15 they are transitioning into a woman which means they get a really big party and a traditional dress. It is much better and cooler to have a big party when you turn 15 than to get unwound at the age of 13. 

Furthermore in the book Unwind health care isn't a thing. They do have a couple of programs for runaways, unwinds, and for tithes; however, the programs are not as good as they seem to be, it’s like living in a dusty old basement with no doors, no shower, and a little bit of food that's not even enough to feed everyone, unless you're a tithe, of course. Adding on to that the government barely cares about the people's health, women aren't even allowed to have abortions which means they are forced to give birth! Moving on, in the real world the people over the age of 65 and the low-income citizens get access to medicare. Although the other citizens have to pay the cost for health care it is pretty advanced which can save their life. Not to mention but they also have pretty good programs and rehabs for people that need it. I always look forward to not having to pay a lot to stay healthy. 

Adding on, the elderly are treated with much respect knowing how much that they’ve gone through. Even if they were a good kid they can still get unwound, these types of people are called a tithe. Being a tithe is something religiously related but it is also when a family has more than 10 kids. Lev’s parents have 10 kids; therefore, they are unwinding him. Although he’s getting unwound he gets to pick his schedule to be unwound and he also has a great place to live until his unwinding date; he’s living a luxurious life because he’s a tithe. The end of life is very different for everyone. If they are scheduled to get unwound they go into the “chop shop” where they get their body, and brain dismantled while they are awake. Most teens try to hide and escape until their 18th birthday. Unlike the unwinds/ unwound kids the “good” or “lucky” kids get to die just of old age.  Similarly, the elderly in the real world are also treated with lots and lots of respect. We have to be respectful to elders because they have been in this world longer than us and it is also just a way to show respect. In the real world, funerals can be set whenever. Even when you are young you can set your funeral. Most people plan funerals for loved ones, they have a choice to plan their own funeral. Funerals are set so when people get to the end of their life you kind of have a little celebration to celebrate or honor them. There are also many different things to do at the end of your life like donating the body to science, mummification, space burial resomation, and many more.  

To sum it up, in our world, there are not a lot of crazy deaths and chaos like in Unwind so I would like to keep it that way. I prefer the world I live in now because if I was in the book Unwind I would be pretty scared for myself and for the other kids.

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Summary and Study Guide

Unwind (2007) is a young adult novel by Neal Shusterman. The first title in the Unwind Dystology, the dystopian narrative takes place in a future United States where citizens fought the Second Civil War over abortion. As a result, parents can now opt to have children between the ages of 13 and 18 “unwound” in special harvest camps, meaning they authorize the dismemberment of their children. Because the majority of body parts find use in other things, the government doesn’t view these dismemberments as murder as the individual body parts still “live.” Unwind addresses themes of nurture versus nature, the effects of betrayal , role models and friendships, and other sociological touchpoints, including abortion, abuse, and individual liberties.

This guide refers to the 2009 paperback reprint edition by Simon & Schuster.

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Plot Summary

Three teenagers—Connor, Risa , and Lev—prepare themselves for the most terrifying experience of their life—they are going to be unwound: taken apart piece by piece by order of their parents. For Connor and Risa, the idea is new to them. Lev , on the other hand, has prepared for this moment all his life. Lev is a tithe, a child given to the unwinding process as a religious sacrifice. While Lev is prepared for the process, Connor and Risa are not. Connor runs away from home and from the cops, making a mad dash across a highway, causing a terrible accident. In the commotion, Risa escapes and Connor kidnaps Lev, much to Lev’s annoyance.

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On their journey, Connor insists on picking up a “storked” baby, a baby left on someone’s doorstep. The baby offers a perfect disguise when all three kids get onto a school bus. They tell people they are new and that the baby is Risa and Connor’s. Meanwhile, Lev quietly tries to get someone to help him, without success. Lev ditches Risa and Connor at the school and tells someone at the front office that he has been kidnapped. He calls his pastor, who tells him this is his chance at a new beginning and not to mess it up. Lev is crestfallen. Later, Connor and Risa run for their lives with the help of a teacher, who tells them to go to a nearby antique shop.

The antique shop turns out to be a hideaway for runaway Unwinds. Connor and Risa meet Roland, a bully who manipulates others to follow his rules. Together, they move from hideaway to hideaway until they arrive at a large warehouse to await the final leg of their journey. While there, Roland corners Risa and tries to force himself on her. Connor intervenes and Risa starts to see him as a hero. Meanwhile, Lev travels with a boy named CyFi . CyFi turns out to be a regular boy with part of an Unwind’s brain transplanted into his. The brain transplant is causing CyFi problems as he has flashbacks and arguments with himself. Due to the connection with Unwind’s brain transplanted into his, CyFi’s goal becomes reaching the Unwind’s hometown.

Connor and Risa make it to the infamous “Graveyard,” a safe haven run by the Admiral for Unwinds hiding from the authorities. Lev eventually makes it there, too, after he witnesses CyFi’s confrontation with the unknown Unwind’s parents. The event changes Lev. It makes him angry. Things at the Graveyard become more complicated when the Admiral’s five most trusted kids go missing. The Admiral reveals that someone killed the five—suffocated them in a crate—and asks Connor to find the perpetrator. Connor suspects Roland. However, unbeknownst to all of them, CyFi is the real culprit. Regardless, people soon suspect that the Admiral is guilty. Connor calms the mob and helps the Admiral get to safety. However, when the Admiral has a heart attack, they must return to civilization—flown there by the only person who can help them: Roland.

Roland asks a resident to call the cops and rats out Connor, Risa, and the others. The cops arrest the three, and are particularly interested in Connor and his previous escapades. The three of them are brought to a harvest camp to be unwound. Risa is spared, at least for a while, when she proves useful as a musician. Connor, however, is targeted because of his fame. While Lev poses as a tithe reunited with his purpose, his intentions are more sinister. His friends from the Graveyard join him as regular Unwinds awaiting their time. When Lev learns that Connor is due to be unwound, he realizes he needs to save him. As Connor is led to the tent where he will be dismembered, Lev puts his plan into motion. Just as Connor enters the tent, the whole area explodes.

Connor is battered, but alive, and Lev helps him escape. Around them, the other kids rise up against the guards. A full revolt erupts. Later, Connor wakes up in a hospital with a new identity and a new arm. The arm is Roland’s. Risa was injured in the explosion, too. She is paralyzed and refuses a transplant. Both of them escape being unwound—one through a new identity and the other through disability. Lev also escapes being unwound. It is revealed that he was full of an explosive concoction. He sits in a holding cell where he is given blood transfusions. His pastor visits and tells him he is a hero.

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Lev Unwind Character Analysis

Neal Shusterman’s Unwind is a novel that tells the story of a future world in which children are Unwound – that is, their organs are harvested for transplantation. The novel follows three main characters – Connor, Risa, and Lev – as they try to escape their fate.

The novel is notable for its complex and well-developed characters. Connor is a “stork” – someone who was Unwound but then escaped and has been on the run ever since. He is a brave and determined young man who is determined to fight against the system that would Unwind him.

Risa is a “ward” – someone who has been raised in an orphanage run by the state. She is a kind and caring young woman who is forced to make difficult choices in order to survive. Lev is a “surplus” – someone who was Unwound because his parents couldn’t afford to keep him. He is a gentle and introspective young man who struggles to understand the world around him.

The characters in Unwind are richly drawn and compelling, and their stories are engrossing. Shusterman does an excellent job of portraying a future world that is both frightening and believable. The novel is a thought-provoking exploration of questions about morality and the human condition. It is a must-read for fans of science fiction and dystopian novels.

In a number of novels, main characters confront the problem of redefining their personalities as their lives change and transform them. In Neal Shusterman’s Unwind, one of the major characters, Lev Calder, undergoes significant changes in personality from beginning to end. When we first come across Lev at the start of the book, he is portrayed as a naÇve, bigoted tithe looking forward to his unwinding. However, by the conclusion of the book, Lev is self-reliant and oppositional , with strong feelings against being unbound.

Unwind is Neal Shusterman’s first novel, and Lev’s development as a character is extremely well done. Through the use of flashbacks and conversations with other characters, Lev’s change in personality is gradually revealed to the reader.

One of the most important factors in Lev’s development is his relationship with Connor Lassiter. Connor is one of the main Unwinds, and he and Lev are unwound together. At first, Lev greatly admires Connor for his strength and resilience, but their relationship soon changes. As Lev spends more time with Connor, he realizes that Connor is not as perfect as he seems; he has his own doubts and fears. This revelation causes Lev to question everything he thought he knew about Connor, and ultimately leads to Lev’s own rebellion against unwinding.

Another factor that plays into Lev’s development is his conversations with Risa Ward. Risa is another Unwind, and she and Lev have a lot of conversations about life, death, and everything in between. These conversations help Lev to see things from a different perspective, and they also help him to understand his own feelings about unwinding. By the end of the book, Lev has come to realize that he does not want to be unwound; he wants to live his life on his own terms.

Lev’s development as a character is extremely well done, and it is one of the things that makes Unwind such an interesting read. Lev starts out as a character with a lot of potential, and Shusterman does a great job of fleshing him out and showing his growth throughout the book. Unwind is an excellent novel, and Lev’s development is one of the main reasons why.

Lev’s transition from a naive tithe to a rebellious clapper has significant impact on the plot, making him one of the most intriguing characters to follow. Lev’s parents throw him a tithing party for his 13th birthday. At the age of 13, he will be “tithed” or offered up in sacrifice as part of his religion. Lev believes that he is “exceptional,” remarking, “He looks just like those other kids whose parents signed away their rights to get rid of them.” That couldn’t be further from the truth for Lev. He is his family’s pride and joy.

Unbeknownst to him, his family had already signed the unwind order. He is captured by a group of people called “The Scoop,” who harvest Unwinds for their parts. While at the Harvester’s facility, he befriends a girl named Risa Ward and a boy named Connor Lassiter. The three of them hatch a plan to escape and succeed. However, their plan goes awry when Lev is recaptured by the Harvesters. Connor and Risa continue on without him, but are quickly captured by Juvey-cops.

In school, MVP in little league. He’s not an Unwind simply because he should be unwound. “Just because he’s going to be unwound doesn’t mean he’s an Unwind; it just means he’s been napped” (Shusterman 31). Lev displays his conceit and superiority as well as his sheltered viewpoint of the world by emphasizing that he is different from other children.

Being called “special” while growing up sheltered him from harsh realities about his fate and prevented him from seeing straight through his parents’ deceptions, requiring him to rely on others. When Connor kidnaps Lev, Lev faces one of these harsh truths for the first time, but instead of facing reality, he maintains his conceit and

It is hard to judge a character like Lev because of the circumstances in which he is placed. Neal Shusterman does an excellent job in creating a complex and interesting protagonist, who is not perfect, but trying to do what he thinks is right. Lev’s character arc is believable and relatable, making the Unwind series all the more compelling.

“When in the presence of Connor and Risa, he is forced to act like them, stating, “Acting like one of them-pretending to be like them took every ounce of Lev’s willpower. The only thing that kept him going was the knowledge that very soon everything would be as it should.

Unwinds are not supposed to have emotions, and when faced with the reality that he does, Lev struggles. Connor highlights this idea when he tells Risa and Lev that Unwinds “are pieces of other people. They’re Unwinds because they don’t have a choice. You do. You can be anything you want to be. Maybe even human” (Shusterman 125). Connor is emphasizing how Unwinds are not truly themselves because they are made up of other people, but Lev still has a choice in who he wants to become.

Connor is an Unwind who was scheduled to be unwound on his seventeenth birthday, but he escapes from the Harvest Camp days before his unwinding is supposed to take place. Connor becomes a runaway, which is illegal, and the Juvey-cops are sent after him. The Juvey-cops are “the juvenile authority’s version of police officers” (Shusterman 10). They are tasked with capturing runaways and Unwinds who have escaped from their facilities.

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American Government in Unwind By Neal Shusterman Essay Example

The American government in the novel Unwind, by Neal Shusterman signs the Bill of Life in order to end the second civil war known as the Heartland War, which was fought over abortion. The bill was a compromise where human life was not allowed to be touched from conception until the age of thirteen, as such the parents when their child reaches the ages thirteen to eighteen would be able to have their child “unwound” through the harvesting of their body parts to be donated to others in need. As one reads the book however, the reader will meet many runaway unwinds that bring into question the whether or not their Government should be able to determine the worth of their lives over others. By empathizing with the stories of these runaway unwinds the answer is easy to see, that no, the government does not have that right. 

Let’s look at an example from the book where the Bill of Life has done more harm than good. In Part Two: Storked, a reiterated theme is the huge surplus of unwanted babies, so much so that the government had to implement a law called ‘storking,” where mothers of newborn children could leave them at a stranger's doorstep leaving them legally responsible for the child. Through Connor’s memory of an incident where his family was storked and then the baby was illegally passed around the neighborhood until it reached them again, it’s clear that a storked baby is not often a welcome responsibility. Not to mention Risa’s experience with the hundreds of infants that were put into the state home she was in. In this part Risa remembers a conversation with Nurse Greta from when she was in the state home. The nurse was old enough to remember times before the war when they’re weren’t so many unwanted babies because there was an option to terminate the pregnancy. The sole reason that Risa was meant to be unwound was because the state home she was in didn’t have enough funding due to the amount of babies, so they decided to “cut” the teenage population of the home by ten percent. Risa was average, and that was enough for the government to decide that her life was not valuable enough for her to remain whole. Even those who aren’t average like Connor and Roland who are considered bad or scary, that still doesn’t give anyone the right to decide they’re worth because they will never be given the chance to grow and develop into better people.

However, it is arguable that because the Bill of Life was signed in the first place, that it does legally give the government the right to weigh the value of people's lives. The key word here is legally, this book is a clear example of a dystopian society giving context to the fact that while the government may be in the legal right to make this decision that does not make it ethically correct. In Part Two: Storked, Risa and Conner discover people willing to help them such as Hannah the Teacher, and Sonia, the woman who’s basement they hide in along with three other runaway unwinds. They then discover that there is a whole system dedicated to helping kids like them. This shows them that there are many people who don’t  agree with the practice of sending children off to have their organs harvested. 

By giving the government the power to decide the value of one life over the other, this society has only led to a decline in the worth of human life and a place where teenagers as young as thirteen are forced to run for their lives. Reading Risa, Connor, and Lev’s perspectives as well as hearing about the other three unwinds they met, leads to many pervasive questions about the sanctity of life and how a government power should affect it. But one thing is clear is that the Bill of Life was never a compromise and placing that power into the hands of the government has only only caused suffering and created burdens upon their society.

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Also, the U.S. is preparing for Iran to retaliate soon. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.

By Matthew Cullen

O.J. Simpson lived a life that made him one of the most famous people in America. He was a Heisman Trophy winner and a star for the Buffalo Bills, and he made fortunes as a Hollywood actor and a commercial pitchman — he was the first Black star of a national television advertising campaign. Then, in 1994, he was charged in the double murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Simpson, who was 76, died yesterday at his home in Las Vegas. The cause was cancer, according to his family. You can read his full obituary here .

Simpson’s 1995 murder trial held up a cracked mirror to Black and white America and mesmerized the nation, which followed along on daily national television broadcasts . The jury acquitted him, but questions about his guilt or innocence never went away.

He was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million, although he paid little of the debt and struggled to stay out of trouble. He sold a book manuscript giving a “hypothetical” account of the murders, but after a public outcry, Ronald Goldman’s family secured the book rights.

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The U.S. is preparing for Iran to retaliate soon

The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East arrived in Israel today to coordinate with the Israeli military ahead of an expected attack by Iran .

Despite recent friction, President Biden said U.S. support for Israel was “ironclad,” and he warned that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack. Over the last 10 days, Iran’s leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for a strike that killed several senior Iranian commanders in Syria.

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Have a supportive evening.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew

We welcome your feedback. Write to us at [email protected] .

Neal Shusterman

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, connor lassiter quotes in unwind.

“Anyway, since it was legally ours, we paid for the funeral. It didn’t even have a name, and my parents couldn’t bear to give it one. It was just ‘Baby Lassiter,’ and even though no one had wanted it, the entire neighborhood came to the funeral. People were crying like it was their baby that had died...And that’s when I realized that the people who were crying—they were the ones who had passed that baby around. They were the ones, just like my own parents, who had a hand in killing it.”

“People shouldn’t do a lot of things,” says Connor. He knows they’re both right, but it doesn’t make a difference. In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or right, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.

Please what? the teacher thinks. Please break the law? Please put myself and the school at risk? But, no, that’s not it at all. What he’s really saying is: Please be a human being . With a life so full of rules and regiments, it’s so easy to forget that’s what they are. She knows—she sees —how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency.

There’s nothing keeping them tied to this baby anymore. They could stork it again first thing in the morning [...] And yet the thought makes Connor uncomfortable. They don’t owe this baby anything. It’s theirs by stupidity, not biology. He doesn’t want it, but he can’t stand the thought of someone getting the baby who wants it even less than he does.

“You think this makes me a saint? Let me tell you, I’ve had a considerably long life, and I’ve done some pretty awful things, too.”

“Well, I don’t care. No matter how many times you smack me with that cane, I think you’re decent.”

“Maybe, maybe not. One thing you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have—people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light.”

The fighter in him screams foul, but another side of him, a side that’s growing steadily stronger, enjoys this exercise of silent power—and it is power, because Roland now behaves exactly the way he and Risa want him to.

“You might think I’m stupid, but I got a good reason for the way I feel,” Emby says. “When I was little, I was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. Both my lungs were shutting down. I was gonna die. So they took out both my dying lungs and gave me a single lung from an Unwind. The only reason I’m alive is because that kid got unwound.”

“So,” says Connor, “Your life is more important than his?”

“He was already unwound—it’s not like I did it to him. If I didn’t get that lung, someone else would have.”

“The unborn have souls. They have their souls from the moment they get made—the law says.”

Connor doesn’t want to get into it again with Emby, but he can’t help himself. “Just because the law says it, that doesn’t make it true.”

“Yeah, well, just because the law says it, that doesn’t make it false, either. It’s only the law because a whole lot of people thought about it, and decided it made sense.”

“The Admiral’s out of touch,” he would say. “He doesn’t know what it’s like to be one of us. He can’t possibly understand who we are and what we need.” And in groups of kids he’s already won over, he whispers his theories about the Admiral’s teeth, and his scars, and his diabolical plans for all of them. He spreads fear and distrust, using it to unite as many kids as he can.

“Then we proposed the idea of unwinding, which would terminate unwanteds without actually ending their lives. We thought it would shock both sides into seeing reason—that they would stare at each other across the table and someone would blink. But nobody blinked. The choice to terminate without ending life—it satisfied the needs of both sides. The Bill of Life was signed, the Unwind Accord went into effect, and the war was over. Everyone was so happy to end the war, no one cared about the consequences.”

“Of course, if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened...but people like to keep what’s theirs, even after they’re dead. It didn’t take long for ethics to be crushed by greed. Unwinding became big business, and people let it happen.”

“It’s only because of his unwinding that you’re all here. Afterward, my wife left me and formed a foundation in Harlan’s memory. I left the military, spent several years more drunk than I am now, and then, three years ago, I had The Big Idea. This place, these kids, are the result of it. To date I’ve saved more than a thousand kids from unwinding.”

“How can you do this?” she asks during one of their breaks. “How can you watch them day after day, going in and never coming out?”

“You get used to it,” the drummer tells her, taking a swig of water. “You’ll see.”

“I won’t! I can’t!” She thinks about Connor. He doesn’t have this same reprieve from unwinding. He doesn’t stand a chance. “I can’t be an accomplice to what they’re doing!”

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.