Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Slideshow created by: Kenedi McCormick, Jordan Polk, Kiara Giles, Savannah

Simmons and Jaya Davis

S for S e t t i n g :• The setting of the novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman takes place

after the second civil war, which is in the future. • The beginning setting takes place in Akrin, Ohio, and towards the

middle of the novel, quite a few parts take place in Joplin, Missouri.• Towards the end of the novel, the setting of the story takes place in

the Graveyard, which is in Arizona.• Another part of the story takes place in the Happy Jack Harvest

Camp which is also in Arizona.• Though there are various settings in the story, a great majority takes

place in the forests that are in Ohio.

C for Main Character

• Connor Michael Lassiter: also referred to as the

“Akron AWOL”.

Connor is a sixteen-year-old teenager whose parents signed the Unwind Order behind his back, and deliberately planned a trip to Hawaii the very next day that he was due to be unwound without him. Connor was sent to be unwound because of his misbehavior. He was constantly fighting, and always getting thrown out of school. Though Connor is stubborn, he definitely has enough will-power to last him for a lifetime. He has the drive to stay alive, great intuition, and an even better instinct that helps him along his journey. Although it may not seem like it, Connor is very compassionate. Though he is not liable and responsible for a lot of situations that occur in the novel, he still feels as though it’s his duty to do certain things that he should not have too. for

Protagonist & Dynamic Character

• Risa Megan Ward: also referred to as just “Risa”.

• Risa is a fifteen year old teenage girl resident at a StaHo (which is a state home) orphanage in the state of Ohio. Risa became an orphan at StaHo right after her parents “storked” her when she was a new-born baby. Risa is a very skilled piano player, but was going to be unwound because the orphanage wanted to cut costs and they felt like she had already met her full, possible potential there. Growing up in an orphanage, Risa had never really learned how to trust people. But even though she portrays a hard shell on the outside, she is actually very emotional and caring. Risa is very intelligent, and even more street smart. She uses her resources wisely, and definitely to her advantage.

C for Main CharacterProtagonist & Dynamic Character

• Levi Jedediah Calder:• Lev is a thirteen year old boy who was born to be a tithe and believed

that it was his destiny to be unwound as a sacrifice to the church. This is because his family is very religious and cares about each other very much, but why Lev? The youngest member of his household? Later on he soon discovers that his parents that call themselves family seem to love Jesus more than they love him, their own son. Which causes Lev to trust others close to him rather than outsiders. He is a clever and loving boy who is very honor worthy to his loved ones.

C for Main CharacterProtagonist & Dynamic Character

• Cyrus “Cy-Fi” Finch:Cyrus Finch is mainly known in the story as Cy-Fi and is first introduced into the

story when he helps out Levi (Lev) find food and other sources. But being himself as an *Umber isn’t easy even though he is very proud to be one. Cy-Fi started out as a storked baby as most kids usually are when their parents can not provide for them. Unlike usual storked babies he was taken in by two men as fathers. Lev, Connor, and Risa were all sent to be unwind but unlike them he decided to run away from his family due to the thoughts of an unwind lobe which was sent to him shortly after a car accident. As told later in the story, Cyrus’ brain once belonged to an unwind victim whose name goes by Tyler. Cyrus later finds out the Tyler was sent to be unwind from his constant bad behavior which causes him to act in unusual ways. Most people who obtain the brains of unwinds usually gets pieces, but his doctor was paid off to keep his high IQ. Which on the down side causes him to feel the same things Tyler felt. While also dealing with a condition known as *kleptomania which was given to him from his brain donor.

*Umber:mixed;alittleofeachrace*Kleptomania;aconstanturgetosteal,withorwithoutareason.

M for Minor Character Protagonist & Static Character

• Admiral or “Admiral Dunfee”:Admiral Dunfee is a man who has been alive a long time, long enough to have

worked in the military for a good amount of time. He helps teenagers from the age of thirteen to eighteen (which are the ages where teens are vunerable to be unwound). While helping them he then gives those who ask a safe place to hide from the juvey police in an airplane junkyard. The reason why he does this is because his son (Humphrey Dunfee) was once an unwind victim, by his and his wife's choice. Besides his good deeds to help these children, there is a myth that he and his wife killed all the people that got their sons’ body parts to make him whole again, though he didn't seem like a guy that would commit such a crime. The kids around Connor, Risa, and Levi’s age now tell this story to many whether they choose to believe it or not..

M for Minor Character Protagonist & Static Character

Rising Action• The rising action of the story begins when all three of the main characters (Risa, Connor, and

Lev) finally formerly meet, each of which are due to be unwound. This happens when Connor is on the run, but his phone gets tracked by the police because he forgot to turn it off, and take the battery out along with ditching it somewhere. Connor resists arrest, and runs away from the police. While doing so, he runs right into traffic and snatches up a tithe-boy, (Lev) from a car so that he can use him as a hostage, and also a human shield. Lev tries to resist by trying to fight Connor and ends up biting him in the arm, but ends up getting shot by a tranq gun (tranquilizer gun). Connor feels bad/guilty so he slings Lev over his shoulder. Because now both Connor is totally in the middle of the street, (with Lev slung over his shoulder), this causes a bus full of StaHo kids (state home wards) who are all on their way to harvest camp to swerve into a ditch, and the bus falls and catches on fire. This gives Risa the perfect chance to escape. Risa is the first one to flee into the woods, and is chased (only for a brief amount of time) by a JuveyCop. Connor runs into the woods with Lev too, and helps Risa defeat the JuveyCop by shooting him with his own tranq gun. Lev eventually wakes up, and questions why they’re trying to escape. He keeps talking about how what they’re doing is wrong, so Risa and Connor keep a very close eye on him.

The definition of rising action: a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

Rising Action cont’d• The three teens eventually venture out of the woods, and into a society. They

gather supplies (like clothes, thanks to Risa) and while attempting to catch/get on a random school bus, they come across a storked baby that’s on a doorstep. Long story short, because of Connor, they end up getting stuck with a baby. The three of them (Connor, Risa, and Lev) get on the school bus with the baby. When they arrive at the school, they attempt to hide out in a public bathroom with the baby. The bell for classes ring, and as students are shuffling in and out of the bathroom, Lev escapes without the others knowing. (Since Lev is a tithe, he thinks that it is an honor to be unwound). Lev goes to the school office to turn in Risa and Connor. While in the office, he calls his pastor (Pastor Dan), who tells him that he’s the one that helped to keep their faces out of the paper to try to stop them from being unwound so that Lev could be free. Lev finally understands why Pastor Dan did this, and comes to a sudden conclusion that he needs to pull the fire alarm so that Connor and Risa could escape from cops that were entering the school.

The definition of rising action: a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

Climax• The climax in the novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman is when Connor is about to be

Unwound. The climax begins when Lev’s friends Mai and Blaine blow up the ChopShop because they are clappers, which are people who inject fluids into their bloodstreams which are highly explosive. Connor and Risa both end up injured because of the explosion; Connor’s left eye is basically missing + his arm is smashed, and Risa’s bottom half of her body (hips & below) is paralyzed. Both were rushed to the hospital. This practically saves Connor, Risa and Lev from being Unwound because; Connor was given a fake I.D. from a nurse that worked at the hospital stating that he was a 19-year-old male by the name of E. Robert Mullard, and Risa wasn’t allowed to be Unwound because it is against the law to Unwind cripples. This is the climax of the novel because this is the point in the story where the largest event occurs, (which changes a lot, and sets the story on a different path) and after this point in the story, everything seems to fall into place with all of the characters in the novel.

The definition of climax: the highest or the most intense point in the development of something (in the story).

Falling Action • In the novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman, the falling action begins

when Connor and Risa unite again at the hospital and begin a relationship together while they are at the harvest camp. Because of Connor injuries, his is unwilling to receive a new eye and arm, which had actually belonged to Roland. Connor can tell because he sees a shark tattoo on the arm, which he vividly remembered Roland having. The nurse at the harvest camp gives him a fake ID from one of the guards that was killed in the explosion, to save Connor from being unwound. Risa decides to refuse treatment even though she is paralyzed from the waist down. By doing this, Risa basically saves her own life because cripples/people with disabilities are not allowed to be unwound. The definition of falling action: the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved.

Falling Action cont’d• Lev is rescued from the explosive fluid that is in him, because it is being

slowly removed from his bloodstream. Both Risa and Connor go back to the Graveyard to take care of it and run it because the Admiral is extremely weak and ill (he refused to take a new heart from an Unwind which would have potentially saved his life). Connor and Risa make a vow to begin fighting against harvesting. The novel ends with a get-together at the Admiral’s house, where they’re celebrating the Admiral’s son, who he and his wife had unwound. (Not necessarily on purpose, it was against their will. So the son is not actually “living”, but they’re celebrating in remembrance of his life). All of the people who had gotten body parts from his son attended the get-together, which was like bringing him there. The story completely ends with Risa and Connor going back to the Graveyard.

The definition of falling action: the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the conflict has been resolved.

Conflicts: Man vs. Fate• Man versus Nature: An example of Man versus Nature in the novel Unwind by

Neal Shusterman would be towards the middle/end of the novel when all of the Unwinds were at the graveyard. Both examples use the natural element of fire. At the graveyard, a great majority of the Unwinds were after the Admiral because Roland (who is extremely sneaky and conniving), tricked all of the Unwinds into believing that the Admiral was secretly against them. The Unwinds went on a rampage, and started creating fires, burning down everything in their path. Connor had to struggle to get away from the fire.

• Another example of Man versus Nature is when Connor, Risa, and Lev were at Happy Jack Harvest Camp, and Blaine & Mai detonated themselves. This caused a massive explosion of fire which did damage to 2/3 characters: (Risa was paralyzed from the waist down, and Connor lost an eyeball + his arm was smashed.) Lev suffered minor damages.

Conflicts: Man vs. Himself• Man versus Himself: An example of Man versus Himself in the novel Unwind by

Neal Shusterman is when Cyrus “Cy-Fi” Finch struggled with ‘the voice that was inside of his head’. Cyrus had taken a temporal lobe from an Unwind to help him hear better, but what he didn’t know, is that a part of the Unwind’s mind would now be with him. The Unwind suffered with kleptomania, which not only gave him the urge to steal, it gave Cyrus the urge to steal as well. It’s not necessarily that either of them wanted to steal, the Unwind was just trying to fill a gap in his heart that his parents had left empty. Cyrus traveled all the way to Joplin, Missouri to deal with this problem. Cyrus confronted the Unwind’s parents, and though it wasn’t truly genuine, they said that they accepted him, and forgive him (the Unwind, not Cyrus).

Conflicts: Man vs. Himself• Man versus Man: An example of Man versus Man in the novel Unwind by Neal

Shusterman is when Connor and Roland were both alone in a ‘dorm room’ of Happy Jack Harvest Camp. They both had a lot of built-up tension (towards one another mostly), and almost at the same time, they both just snapped. All of their anger was being released, and they were going hard, fist-fighting each other. Although Connor has a great deal of muscle, he was no match for Roland. Roland took Connor by the neck and almost strangled the life out of him. He was close, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. His brain thought that killing him would be a good decision, but his conscience and heart told him otherwise.

Theme and Resolution• The lesson of this story is that no matter how things may get or how bad people will get, there are ways of getting through

tough times. This is the main moral of the story because the donor of Cyrus’ (Cy-Fi) brain was a kleptomaniac and was unwound because of it. Even though he seemed to have an urge to do the wrong than there are still could have been ways to help his condition. Another reason that this would be the best moral of the story is before Connor, one of the unwind to be victims found out about his order to be an organ donor. His parents noticed for a long time his bad behavior, mainly at school, being in too many fights with students. Adding on to kids can get better, they will make sure that they will have future. For example;“I don't know what happens to our consciousness when we're unwound," says Connor. "I don't even know when that consciousness starts. But I do know this." He pauses to make sure all of them are listening. "We have a right to our lives!" The kids go wild."We have a right to choose what happens to our bodies!" The cheers reach fever pitch.

•After all that has happened in the story Unwind By: Neal Shusterman it all ends how people don’t expect this story to end. They all survive but not yet until eighteen, which is what they need to be in order to finally be safe from people who want them to be unwound. After being in the *clappers group, Lev gets sent to take the bomb that was put into him taken out from him (Mission name- suicide bomb). Connor and Risa are left to survive until seventeen, as the date has gotten changed but now since they have stolen older people identities they now are “safe.” They think.

*Clappers; are people have the ability to just clap and bomb any place then and there due to a bomb places into their bodies. Blowing up them and others around them (suicide bombers).

Mood

• The mood of the story from the beginning to the end of the novel Unwind By: Neal Shusterman has always been dramatic, sad, but full of courage at the same time. There have been many moments of disappointment throughout the story whether it involved the five main characters and their decisions or the people around them (minor characters).