Unwind

“What do you mean ‘change’? Dying is a little bit more than ‘change’” 

When Risa hears that she is to be unwound, she gets upset but is told to calm down because change is always scary. For Risa, to call unwinding a “change” allows the others to distance themselves from what the act of unwinding truly is—a death sentence.

“And to our parents! Who have always done the right thing. The appropriate thing. Who have always given generously to charity. Who have always given 10 percent of everything to our church. Hey, Mom—we’re lucky you had ten kids instead of five, otherwise we’d end up having to cut Lev off at the waist” 

Lev’s brother lets his speech drip with sarcasm, suggesting that though what is being done might be deemed appropriate, it certainly doesn’t make up for what is happening to Lev. The image of Lev being cut in two shatters the idea that in making Lev a tithe, his parents are being pious; instead, his brother reveals it for what it really is—an act of violence against one of their children.

“He wishes he could truly take these wastes-of-life out rather than just taking them down” 

The common view is that Unwinds are terrible kids and should be removed from society. A cop wishes he could kill these kids. However, the bigger point he misses is that by “taking them down,” he is killing them—sending them to the harvest camps to be dismembered. Unfortunately, his view—or rather his blindness—is shared by many, which contributes to so many kids being signed away by their families.

“It’s no use trying to explain to this godless pair what tithing is all about. How giving of one’s self is the ultimate blessing. They’d never understand or care. Save him? They haven’t saved him, they’ve damned him.” 

Lev believes whole-heartedly in his faith. From a young age, he was taught that being a tithe is a blessing. He looks at Risa and Connor as beneath him. In many ways, his view is like the cop’s view—these people deserve to be removed, while he, a tithe, is given as a gift. Lev’s view underscores the brainwashing that the populace can succumb to when believing blindly without questioning in either religion or government.

“It had become so common that it [finding babies in dumpsters] wasn’t even deemed newsworthy anymore—it had become just a part of life….Funny, but the Bill of Life was supposed to protect the sanctity of life. Instead it just made life cheap”

This passage sums up much of the novel’s narrative. People appear to be numb to the reality around them—whether it is babies being abandoned in dumpsters or children being shipped off to be dismembered. The irony is that humankind attempted to define and uphold life by enacting the bill, yet the bill ensures that the voiceless will die in the name of staving off more violence.

“If you turn us in, we’ll die….What he’s really saying is: Please be a human being” 

Some people find a way to challenge the feelings of numbness that characterize people’s opinions on unwinding. When Connor asks Hannah not to turn them in, she realizes he is asking her to have feelings, to recognize that his life matters, and to stick up for humanity. 

“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” 

Sonia’s speech to Connor reveals a nugget of wisdom. Many people in the novel might seem like bad people—Connor’s parents, for example—but no one individual is all good or all bad. This is further evidenced in the actions and transformations of both Roland and Lev. Shusterman underscores the complexity of human nature here.

“Which was worse…to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted, or to silently make them go away before they were even born? On different days Risa had different answers” 

The debate that created unwinding revolves around this very question. What is worth considering about Risa’s question is whether there is an answer. Later in the novel, one kid says he doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong. Connor declares it the best answer of all. If both are equally awful, how can anyone decide which is right and which is wrong?

“Seeing the whole, and none of the parts. It’s not just in their speech but in their eyes as well. When they look at Risa, she can tell they don’t really see her” 

The tragedy of those helping the Unwinds is they don’t look at the individuals they are helping. They are fighting an idea, a concept. In many ways, their blindness can be viewed in much the same way as the general public’s numbness toward Unwinds. Risa and the Unwinds want to be viewed for what they are—human beings, not numbers or statistics.

“Unwound into nothing—his bones, his flesh, his mind, shredded and recycled” 

AWOL Unwinds continuously worry about being unwound. Some characters speculate that being unwound does not mean death. What it actually means is continuing in another form. However, this quote suggests that Connor does not believe in anything after Unwinding. He is no longer a body. He is nothing.

“Maybe it’s the best answer of all. If more people could admit they really don’t know, maybe there never would have been a Heartland War” 

Here, Connor asks how anyone can know what is right or wrong. Just as Sonia said—no one is all good or all bad, so can any answer be all right or all wrong? The entire novel begs the question, but does not provide a clear answer. Instead, the best answer may simply be, “I don’t know.”

“He knows he’s been changed by this moment, transformed in some deep and frightening way. Wherever his journey now takes him, it doesn’t matter, because he has already arrived there in his heart” 

This is the turning point for Lev. Once, he was a boy whose faith determined his belief in tithing, in unwinding. However, after he sees the result of one Unwind’s brain being transplanted into CyFi, he sees the pain unwinding causes. It makes him angry. It makes him frightened at his naivete and desirous of change.

“He’d given her back her right to exist”

The Graveyard, and by extension the Admiral, provide a purpose to Unwinds who make it there. Risa begins to feel as if she is allowed to be alive, something she hasn’t felt since before she was told she would be Unwound. This quote may suggest the answer to all the questions of the novel—to exist is a right. It’s something people value and feel they should have a right to, just as Risa does.

“I’d rather be used whole than in pieces” 

There are a lot of references to wholeness and pieces throughout the novel. As AWOL Unwinds, many of the kids worry about being torn to pieces. As such, injustices against them that keep them physically whole seem less offensive.

“It never occurred to Connor to consider the toll unwinding had on the ones who signed the order. He never thought he could have sympathy for a parent who could do that—or sympathy for one of the men who had made unwinding possible” 

The Admiral reveals he helped to create the system of unwinding. After all that Connor has been through, he should be angry, but the truth is that the situation the Admiral was in was frightening. The Admiral did things he regretted. Admitting his faults makes the Admiral seem human, which is how Connor wants to be seen. It further cements Sonia’s comments as well about people being both good and bad.

“Never let anyone else name you” 

Although the Admiral is speaking specifically about Emby, the quote has wider-reaching implications. Connor and Risa are in the Graveyard because they refused to let anyone name them Unwinds. Lev fights against being a “tithe.” They each fight a label because, once they let someone name them, they have failed to determine their own identity.

“The shock of hearing such words from one of their own snaps them back to sanity” 

Connor is horrified to find his peers destroying the one place they are safe. In anger and shock, he yells the words none of them expect to hear from one of their own—you should all be unwound. However, the words suggest Connor’s frustration with Unwinds: they all want to be free. By revolting, they jeopardize their situation.

“See, runaway Unwinds on the street—that’s a problem for us. But the Admiral gets them off the street….He doesn’t know it, but he’s doing us a favor”

The cops reveal they know about the Admiral’s operation. Unwinds on the street would give people hope, just like Connor gives hope to those at the harvest camp. However, with the Unwinds out of the way, the cops don’t need to worry about rebellion.

“He was left to figure everything out for himself. Risa knew the point wasn’t to challenge him, or even to punish him. It was to give him every opportunity to do the wrong thing” 

When Connor and Risa arrive at the harvest camp, they are separated. Connor has to figure everything out for himself. The camp counselors don’t like him because he provides hope to the others—he is a problem. Therefore, giving him a chance to do things incorrectly offers them a chance to get rid of him more quickly. This passage highlights how manipulation and subtle power work. The harvest camp methodically bides its time in waiting for Connor to mess up.

“Connor can’t remember either the names or the faces of the missing kids, and that haunts him” 

Just as the guards at the warehouse saw the whole picture rather than the individual pieces, when kids go missing at the harvest camp, Connor finds he can’t remember them. He is too overwhelmed by the impending reality of being unwound to take notice of the others who face the same fate. This passage puts Connor closer those he earlier dislikes by showing how easy it is to become numb when feeling helpless.

“Would you rather die, or be unwound? Now he finally knows the answer. Maybe this is what he wanted. Maybe it’s why he stood there and taunted Roland. Because he’s rather be killed with a furious hand than dismembered with cool indifference”

Roland is upset because Connor got him in this mess. He attacks Connor with the intent of killing him. Just as Connor would rather be used whole than in pieces, he would rather die at someone’s hand than be dismembered. He wants someone to care about what they are doing to him. Roland would care—the doctors at the harvest camp would not.

“Priests give last rites….That’s for people who are dying. You’re not dying”

Perpetuating the lie that Unwinding isn’t dying, the guard taking Roland to the Chop Shop refuses to call a priest for him. In the final moments of his life, Roland is denied perhaps the one comfort he might have had.

“[B]ut it was Mai who sealed the hatch of the crate. It was amazing to her that killing could be as easy as closing a door” 

Mai locked the five kids in the crate at the Graveyard. She sealed their fate of suffocation. However, this line is important because it parallels the ease with which Connor’s parents could kill him. Killing him was as easy as signing a paper. Ultimately, it all boils down to power and how (or if) people choose to wield it over others.