A Guide for Reading Groups

A Reading Guide for

Unwind
By Neal Shusterman
Table of Contents
• About the Book
• Prereading Research/Activities
• Discussion Topics
• Activities
• Characters
• Unwind Slang

About the Book

In the not-too-distant future, teens Connor, Risa, and Lev are on the run for
their lives. Following the Second Civil War, between pro-choice and pro-life
forces, the United States now allows parents to unwind their unwanted and
difficult kids between the ages of thirteen and eighteen: Their bodies are
surgically taken apart and all the organs and tissue are used in other people.
According to the law, the kids aren't considered dead, they're "living in a
divided state." But Connor, Risa, and Lev, and thousands of other teens
slated for "unwinding", don't see it that way. They choose instead to "kick
AWOL," or run away. Unwind follows these three across the country as they
travel together, split up, and meet again when their destinies cross in a
Harvest Camp where they are slated to be unwound.

Prereading Research/Activities
Have students research those who helped endangered people in the past.
They can study the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad, a vast network of
individuals who helped runaway slaves make their way to freedom. They
can also research the stories of those who helped Jews escape the Nazis,
including Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, and Chiune Sugihara.

The novel takes places after the "Second Civil War." The real Civil War was
fought primarily over the issue of slavery. Learn about recent civil wars in
other countries. What issues--such as religion, race, or politics--have they
been fought over? In small groups, discuss the idea of a second civil war in
this country, and what it might be fought over. Do you think it could happen
here?

Find out how many people today elect to donate their organs after their
death. What is the process to do so? How are the organs handled and
delivered? How many lives do they save? Ask other students how many of
them intend to donate their organs. Stage a debate: Discuss whether it is a
good idea to donate organs. If so, why do so few people do it?

Discussion Topics
1. How would you feel if you discovered you were going to be unwound?
What would you do? If you didn't want to go along with it but couldn't run
away like Connor and the others in the novel, what other options might you
have?

2. How would you feel if you were in an accident, or had a rare disease, and
you could be cured only if your damaged organs were replaced by parts
taken from unwound teens? What would you choose to do? What if you
were certain to die if you refused the parts? What if it wasn't you, but
someone you loved (a parent, a sibling) who was in an accident? Would
your answer be different?

3. You just found out the person sitting next to you is going to be unwound.
Come up with ten good reasons why they should NOT be. Remember, their
life may depend on it!

4. When do you think the story takes place? The book never reveals the year.
How many years in the future might it be? What clues hint at how much
time has passed? What companies or products are named? What societal
norms can you point to that have changed or remained the same? What are
the similarities between the world of Unwind and our own world? What are
the differences?

5. Which of the three main characters, Connor, Risa, or Lev, do you most
identify with? Why? What traits do you have in common? Which of their
traits work for them, and which make their lives harder? Which of your own
traits would you like to give up? Which would you want to keep?

6. In the course of the book, Connor and Risa get separated from Lev, who
travels for a time with another character. Why do you think the author chose
to split the narrative into two distinct threads? What do you think this
achieves? How does this affect the evolution of the characters?

7. Compare the similarities and differences of Lev's journey with Cyrus to

Joplin, Missouri, in Unwind to Huck's travel with Jim down the Mississippi
River in the novel Huckleberry Finn.

8. While being transported to possible safety, some of the kids on the run
wonder, "Would it be better to die or be unwound?" If given the choice,
which would you choose? Why?

9. Another question the kids in the book discuss is, "If every part of you is
still alive but inside someone else, are you alive or are you dead?" They also
wonder if consciousness can exist even if it's spread out, and if the soul
remains intact. What do you think?

10. Which adults in the story are depicted sympathetically? Which do you
feel are not sympathetic? Do any shift from one to the other? How did the
author describe these characters to make you feel one way or the other about
them?

11. Risa is assigned to play in a band at a Harvest Camp, performing upbeat

tunes while teens are marched to their unwinding. Risa is conflicted: She
knows playing in the band will keep her alive longer, but it's at the expense
of others, and her joy at having her fingers on a piano is matched by the
horror of knowing what's going on around her. How would you feel in this
situation? Would you accept the position? Are there any situations in history
similar to this?
12. What positive consequences do you imagine would be realized by a
society where unwinding exists? What are the negatives? Do you think the
negatives outweigh the positives, or the other way around?

13. A euphemism is a mild word or phrase that's used to refer to something

unpleasant or embarrassing. "Living in a divided state" is a euphemism
officials in the novel use in place of "being unwound." Another euphemism
in the novel is "harvest camps" in place of "unwinding facilities." Can you
think of any commonly used euphemisms in real life? Why do you think
people use euphemisms?

14. In the novel, unwinding becomes big business, as there's a lot of money
to be made from ill people and accident victims requiring fresh organs, and
the population looks the other way, not considering the source. Are there any
present-day situations you can think of where ethics have been compromised
because of money, or because it's simply easier not to think about it? Predict
a situation in the future where greed or denial could defeat morals.

15. Imagine that you are approached to join the Clappers, the novel's
futuristic terrorists. How would you respond? What would you tell them?

16. Connor's anger and lack of impulse control is often a problem for him,
until he learns to control and channel his emotions. Do you ever feel like
your impulses are stronger than your will? What strategies do you use to
control your feelings? Do they work?

17. The bully, Roland, makes life hard for Connor and Risa from the time
they meet him. What do you think of his ultimate payback? Did you think it
was fair? Was it satisfying, or did it make you squirm or both? Why?

Activities
In the novel, Sonia, the owner of the antique shop, has each of the teens she
helps write a letter to someone they love. Write your own letter to someone
you love and, like the kids in the novel, put everything you want to say to
that person, good and bad, in the letter. Would you be willing to show this
letter to the person you wrote it to? Why or why not? What about in three or
four years?
Draw up a will; instead of possessions, it's your personality that you're
giving away. List your personality traits. What parts of your personality
(your sense of humor, your determination, etc.) would you give away, and to
whom?

Prepare testimony to Congress as they begin hearings on the status of the

Bill of Life. Write your testimony from the point of view of a teen slated to
be unwound or from someone whose life was saved by receiving body parts
from an unwound teen. Hold hearings, where several students share their
testimony with the class. Then debate whether the law should be changed or
not.

Risa's band plays "Don't Fear the Reaper," among other songs, for the teens
who are going to be unwound. Put together a set list of songs your band
would play if you were performing at a Harvest Camp. Explain your
choices.

In the novel, the characters arrive at "the graveyard," a safe refuge for teens
facing unwinding. In a group, invent another location where teens have
gathered. Describe how your own makeshift community functions, and what
each of your jobs is. Create a list of ten rules for getting along, in the spirit
of the Admiral's "Ten Demandments."

At the novel's end, when different people who obtained parts from a single
individual are brought together, they begin to act as a unit. In a group, try
performing the acting exercise known as "the Machine." One person does a
single repetitive motion over and over again. Then a second person joins the
first, repeating a different but complementary motion. Then the others join,
one at a time. In the end, you will have a "machine" with a number of
different parts, all doing separate but related motions, acting as a single
entity.

Try telling a story in which every person, one after another, gets to donate
only one sentence. The goal is not to throw the story off track, or to be
funny, but to make the story coherent. Can it be done? Did the story make
sense?

Write a newspaper article dated one year after the end of the novel. What
news event has just happened (for example, a new election, a riot, a new
terrorist attack)? Has it changed anything fundamental about the society or
the Bill of Life? Has the law been repealed?
Characters
Connor Lassiter: a sixteen-year-old troubled kid. When he learns his
parents have signed an unwind order, he runs away in search of a place to
hide until he's eighteen years old.

Risa Ward: fifteen years old, an orphan at a state home. She runs away
when the administrators sign the order to have her unwound, and out of
necessity joins Connor in seeking safety.

Lev Calder: the tenth and youngest child of his religious family, a "tithe"
who was born to be unwound when he reached his thirteenth birthday. He is
"kidnapped" by Connor, who means to save him from his fate.

Pastor Dan: Lev's minister and his spiritual advisor. Pastor Dan gives Lev
support as he approaches his unwinding, but at the moment Connor frees
Lev, he urges him to run.

Hannah Steinberg: the high school teacher who hides Connor and Risa in a
classroom.

Sonia: an antique-store owner who hides AWOL teens in her basement, the
first step on their roundabout journey to safety.

Mai: an AWOL Asian girl whom Connor and Risa meet while in hiding.

Roland: a manipulative, ruthless AWOL bully who has continuing

confrontations with Connor.

Hayden: a snarky but thoughtful AWOL with attitude.

Cyrus Finch (CyFi): a runaway teen encountered by Lev. Cyrus, who

received a piece of brain from an unwind, is searching for something the
unwound kid in his head is trying to tell him.

The Admiral: the adult, former U.S. Navy man who runs "the graveyard"
where many AWOL teens stay for safety. The Admiral was one of the
drafters of the Bill of Life.
Unwind Slang
AWOL: a runaway teen, scheduled to be unwound, hoping to survive to age
18; said to be "kicking AWOL."

Bill of Life: the law instituting unwinding.

Boeuf: a soldier, male or female (from the French word for beef)

Chop Shop: the operating room where teens' bodies are surgically taken
apart.

Clappers: suicide-terrorists who have replaced their blood with a

nitroglycerin blend. They blow themselves up by clapping their hands.

Harvest Camp(formerly called "unwinding facilities"): where teenagers

awaiting unwinding are housed, as well as where the procedure is
performed.

Humphrey Dunfee: urban legend about an unwind whose parents go crazy

from grief and kill all the recipients of their son's body parts, in an attempt to
reassemble their son.

Juvey-cops: Police officer specializing in taking down AWOLs.

"Living in a divided state": a euphemism for being unwound.

StaHo: State Homes, orphanages where wards of the state stay until their
eighteenth birthday or until they are sent to be unwound.

Storked: babies who are left on doorsteps. The homeowner is obligated to

keep and raise the child.

Tithe: a child of a religious family who is born and raised to be unwound, as

an act of charity.

Umber: the socially acceptable way to describe someone who is African

American. (In contrast to sienna, the socially acceptable way to describe
someone who is Caucasian.)