Unwind Summary - Part 1

In his novel, Unwind, Neal Shusterman tells the story of three young teenagers whose parents have signed them off to be “unwound”.  In their culture, children who are unwound are taken apart piece by piece and their body parts, organs, and hair are distributed and reused.  In a sense, they are organ donors who give away their entire body.  The novel focuses on the stories of Connor, Lev, and Risa, who are living with their parent’s decision to have them unwound.

                The novel opens up with each individual story of the three kids when they find out that they are being unwound.  Connor and Risa are very upset.  While Lev is upset at first, he seems to come to terms with the fact that being unwound is his purpose in life.  These three teenagers, who are originally strangers to each other, cross paths in an accident.  Connor realizes that Risa is an unwind, and he tells her to run with him.  She is hesitant at first, until she realizes that it is her only chance of survival.  Connor also recognizes Lev’s fate and takes him along.  Lev is surprised when his Pastor tells him to go with the other unwinds when they run away.

                The three unwinds do not get along at first.  Risa yells at Connor, and Lev does not understand why they “kidnapped” him.  The three are now runaways, on the run from the police who know they are unwinds.  In a hectic scape, Connor makes the mistake of taking a baby that the mother does not want.   The kids are now forced to take the baby with them and take care of him.  The unwinds go to a local school to hide and try to blend in with the other kids.  They hide in a bathroom and strategize what they are going to do.  While Risa and Connor are discussing the plan, Lev sneaks out of the stall and goes to the office of the school.  He does not agree with anything that Connor and Risa are doing, and he does not think that they should have the baby.  He tells the office that he had been kidnapped by unwinds who were hiding in the bathroom.  The police are called in, and Risa, Connor, and their baby have to make a quick escape.  A teacher at the school recognizes that they are unwinds by the looks on their faces.  Not wanting to know anything about them, she agrees to help them escape.  She also tells them to go to the antique shop close by for a place to hide.  Risa and Connor now get along with one another because they bond their anger at Lev.  Lev feels slightly guilty for turning Risa and Connor in to authorities.  Risa and Connor have a discussion about the storking of babies, and how the world would be a better place if life was welcomed and embraced, rather than discouraged by so many people.  I believe that here, they were not only referencing the fact that families give away their children, but that families can sign their children off to die, as their parents had done to them.

                Risa and Connor go to the antique shop and Sonia, the woman who works there, brings them down to the basement.  In the basement, are other children who are either unwinds, or abandoned by their parents through storking.  Risa and Connor talk to the other kids, and they hear the story of Humphrey Dunfee, whose parents had him unwound, only to change their mind and try to piece him back together.  They are there for multiple days, and before they leave, they give the baby to their friend Hannah, who can take better care of him.  However, they miss the baby after they give him away.  Risa, Connor, and the other unwinds decide to go from one safe house to the next, as they literally run for their lives.