UNWIND Triplicate

T R I P L I C A T E

How much brainwashing do you think has happened for teenagers to make this sort of claim as they’re being led to their "death"?  Considering the fact that they not only believe that they haven't done anything good with their lives and that they aren't worth the effort of being kept alive, but some of them also truly believe being unwound doesn't mean death, I'd say a lot. People like tithes (People like Lev) for example march off to their death completely willingly.

Why, do you think, has Shusterman chosen to have three characters tell their
story?   Three different characters with three very different backgrounds, being unwound for three very different reasons. Connor's parents wanted to unwind him because of his behavioural issues, Risa's head master agreed to unwind her due to budget cuts, and Lev's parents are doing it because of their religious beliefs. Having Lev, Connor, and Risa tell their stories offers three completely different perspectives.

Lev comes from a religious family, he wants to be unwound, and he gets in the car that will take him straight to a harvest camp completely willingly.

Connor comes from a pretty average family. He doesn't want to be unwound, he hates his parents for signing the form, and he runs away as any sane person would if their parents planned on sending them off to their death.

Rita doesn't live with her parents, she lives in a state home. She doesn't want to be unwound, however she makes no effort to escape until the bus she's on which is supposed to take her to a harvest camp unexpectedly crashes.

Lev is a tithe. This means that he is the 10% that his family will give back to the church as an offering. What are your thoughts on this? I don't think you should ever offer up or sacrifice a human life, especially not your own kids, no matter what your religious views are. I think his parents are a bit crazy.

Rita is a state home kid - she was unwanted at birth, and now the state have decided she is no longer useful. Do you think that the state should ever be able to determine if one life is more useful than another? No. No one should have the right to choose whether someone else gets to live or not, or whether one persons life is more valuable then another.

Connor's parents have chosen to unwind him due to his difficult behaviour. They have then booked a ticket to the Bahamas. In your opinion, how do parents view their children? Why do you think this? By the sounds of it, his parents see him as a burden. Instead of doing everything they can to help him, they decide it's better to kill him instead. Seems pretty twisted to me.

Pastor Dan presents as being conflicted. What reasons might he have to encourage Lev in his journey as a tithe? Why does he encourage him to run? Pastor Dan is a Pastor. He has very strong religious views, and sees it as his duty to live by those views. However, he's not stupid. He knows that being unwound means death, and he isn't going to stand by and watch as Lev gets killed.

What is the story based on a nursery rhyme that circulates among the youth? Humphrey Dunfee. A myth based on the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. Humphrey was a boy who's parents decided to unwind him. They later regretted, and went around the country hunting down every one who got a piece of Humphrey and killing them in an attempt to collect every part of their son and put him back together. It's based off of Humpty Dumpty not only because of the name, but because the Dunfee's couldn't put Humphrey back together again.

Unwind Slang

AWOL: a runaway teen, scheduled to be unwound, hoping to survive to age 18; said to be "kicking AWOL." From the military term, Missing in Action Without Leave.

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.

Creating Money

Creating Money

For the first few weeks of enterprise studies, we've been set the assignment of creating banknotes. We had to design two sides of two notes, both containing at least five of the eight characteristics of good currency, these characteristics being; 

• Generally accepted
• Durable
• Divisible
• Stable/consistent
• Transportable
• Scarce (controlled by government and aren't prone to hyperinflation)
• Easily recognisable
• Difficult to Counterfeit

Here are the two notes I made

Once we had designed both of our notes, we then had to make an annotated diagram stating the features of one of our notes, and write a paragraph explaining how our banknotes meet the criteria for good currency.

This is one of the two banknotes that I have created. They are made of a thin type of polypropylene plastic called ‘polymer’, a material that is both difficult to tear and water resistant. Because of this, these notes are both durable and transportable. Both the $200 notes and the $30 notes I have created are easily divisible, as $5, $10, $50, and $100 notes can all be used to add up to $30 and $200. These banknotes also include many security features such as four serial numbers (two on the front and two on the back of each note) and a clear window with an embossed image (on the $200 banknote it is a fantail sitting in a kowhai tree, and on the $30 banknote it’s the last four digits of that particular notes serial number, which in this case are 8, 1, 2, and 3 on one side, and on the other it’s a dog. Purely because dogs are adorable and who wouldn’t want to see a dog every time they open their wallet?), only visible in certain lighting. This window-like feature is also surrounded by lines of microtext on each note. Both notes are created using raised ink, these features making them quite difficult to counterfeit. It is stated on both notes that they are legal tender in New Zealand, and on one of the two notes I created there is the well-known Goldman Sach- sorry, Goldman Stokes logo- along with the founder of Goldman Stokes' himself, Sam Stokes' signature, showing it is made by a “completely legitimate” and “trustworthy” bank, totally not just some guy who enjoys laundering money in his spare time... Making them generally accepted and easily recognisable. As this money is controlled responsibly by the government, there is no hyperinflation, meaning these banknotes stay scarce. And lastly, the value of this money doesn’t vary, it stays the same, making it a stable and consistent currency.

In relation to New Zealand, I included on one note a drawing of Mt Cook/Mt Aoraki on one side, and on the other a silhouette of the skyline of Auckland, along with- as I mentioned before- a fantail sitting in a kowhai tree. On the other note there is a drawing of a kārearea, a falcon native to New Zealand, and on the other side a drawing of the Moeraki boulders.

Map of The Slave Trade Triangle

Map of The Slave Trade Triangle

UNWIND The Cover and the Blurb

Examining the Cover

Must Do Questions:

Looking at the original cover to the right,
answer the following questions,
remember to explain why you think that
for each answer:

• How do you think this story will be written? Judging by the text in the top left corner of the page stating 'Before there was The Hunger Games there was...', I think the language used in this book will be similar to most dystopian literature. By this I mean the Point of View will most likely be in third person, only talking about one specific characters thoughts and actions at a time.

• Why do you think the story is entitled as it is? As I have already read the blurb on the back of the book, it is of my understanding that the term 'Unwind' is the word for an execution of sorts, or more accurately a word for human euthanasia.

• Where do you think the story will take place? Considering other dystopian films and books such as The Hunger Games, Ender's Game and The Giver all take place in the future, I'd say that's when it will take place. I'm not too sure whereabouts it will take place though. Perhaps America.

• What time period do you think the story is set in? As I said before I think it will be set in the future like books and movies of this genre or similar to this genre usually are.

Exploring the Blurb

Unwind blurb

The process by which a child is both terminated and kept alive is called 'unwinding'. Unwinding is now common, and accepted practice in society.

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.

1. What do you already know about pro-life and pro-choice groups? What do these terms mean? Is it an issue you have thought about? I know that people who are pro-life are people who are against abortion and euthanasia, and pro-choice is supporting the idea that woman have the right to decide whether or not they get an abortion. If you look at it from both perspectives, both pro-life and pro-choice groups have understandable points.

2. What do you know about organ donation?  I know it's the process of giving your organs to someone who is in need of them. When you get a license, I know you can choose whether you're going to be a donor or not, meaning if you were a donor, and you were to die, your organs would be donated to people who need them. For example if someone needed a heart transplant, or someone who only has one kidney's other kidney fails, or if someone needed something like a bone marrow transplant.

3. Teenagers to be unwound are sent to Harvest Camps. Can you make a connection between the language used to describe this place, and other places people have been sent historically?  Until reading this question I haven't even thought about this connection, but by the way harvest camps are described, they do seem very similar to concentration camps and death camps, the first of which was established in 1933 near Munich.

4. What religious connotation does the word 'harvest' evoke?

I'm not religious, and I don't know an awful lot about religion, but after a bit of

research I found that the symbolic meaning of the word harvest in scripture focuses on two main

points which are God's provision and God's blessing for others.

5. The term "living in a divided state" here is really a euphemism for what? Can you think of other, common euphemisms? Why do people use euphemisms? The euphemism 'living in a divided state' means they've been unwound. Disassembled. Cut up into tiny pieces. Donated. They're dead. Other common euphemisms referring to death include; carked it, passed away, six feet under, no longer with us, etc etc. I feel like people use euphemisms (when it comes to things liked death at least) because in some ways, using slang or an alternative phrases makes it easier to say. Euphemisms for other things could also be used to sound less rude or offensive.

6. What is the definition of legal?  If something is legal, it is permitted by law, meaning you're legally allowed to do it. Whether you should or not is another story

7. What about ethical? Ethics and the word ethical relate to someone's principles and moral values. If something is ethical it means it is right in a moral sense. Another example of the word ethical; if you're in a situation and you aren't sure what to do, you're having an ethical dilemma.

8. Do you believe that because something is legal, it is also ethical, or morally right? No. I believe there are a number of things that are legal that are morally and ethically wrong. However, there are also a number of things that are illegal that in my opinion shouldn't be, not so much in New Zealand, but in other countries.

9. Can things that are ethically sound ever be illegal? Provide examples. Yes, for example, until very recently, it was illegal in Saudi Arabia for women to drive. Same-sex marriage, and Homosexuality in general, is illegal in over 73 countries. And yet, you look at America's gun laws. It's entirely legal in California, Illinois, New York, and South Carolina to openly carry a handgun around in public. It's illegal to love who you want to love, but by all means feel free to carry a deadly weapon around where ever you go.

10. Can you think of examples in history to support your ideas? Provide examples

• Women's Suffrage: Up until 1893, no women anywhere in the World had the right to vote. New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote. The United States of America didn't give women the right to vote until 1920, and it only became legal in Saudi Arabia in 2011. I know it kind of sounds like I'm having a dig at America and Saudi Arabia, but that's because I am.
• Slavery: Denmark was the first country to abolish slavery in 1792, however it was also one of the first to permit it so that isn't saying much. The slaves in the West Indies also weren't actually liberated until 1848, which was 15 years after Britain put an end to it. And then- not to make America look like jerks or anything- there's America. The American Civil War, 1861-1865. A war fought between the United states and the confederate states. With out going to far in to detail, in a nutshell the United States thought it was wrong of the Southern states to leave the union, so they initiated a war that went on for four years. In the end, the United States defeated the confederate states in 1865, in the process also abolishing slavery in the USA. Not to be that person. But... Yes, America put an end to slavery in their country, but they also acted (and some- not all- still do) like the African American people should be extremely thankful. Which... they shouldn't, and they don't owe America anything considering they were the ones who enslaved them in the first place. Just saying. However, they weren't the last country make slavery illegal so that's something. That would be Mauritania, who didn't abolish slavery until 1981. Wow.
• Mass shootings: In 2018 alone, there was a total of 307 mass shootings in the United States. Need I say anymore? Change your gun laws
• Atheism: No where near as horrendous as some of these other laws and events, but after a bit of research, I also found that it is punishable by death to be an atheist in 13 countries. So that isn't great news for me...
• Stand Your Ground: Lets not forget (Sorry America) the 'Stand Your Ground' law. This law allows you to 'take action' if you feel even slightly threatened, even if it involves lethal force, and the need for lethal force could've been easily avoided. The 'Stand Your Ground' law has been legislatively adopted in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
  
• The Nuremberg Laws: The Nuremberg Laws were a set of extremely antisemitic and racial laws in Nazi Germany. Not only did these laws forbid marriage between Jews and Germans and forbade the unemployment of German women under the age of 45 in Jewish households, but it also included the Reich Citizenship Law, stating only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich Citizens, meaning the Jewish people had no citizenship rights, and were merely classed as state subjects. Of course, these laws were nothing compared to the horrific events these innocent people were about to face.

In the present: Even today, there are a number of things that are illegal that shouldn't be. Here is a small list

• Taking a child away from an abusive parent or family when you aren't directly related to the child being abused.
• Seeing someone in hospital who is in critical condition who you care about but aren't related to.
• (In some places) Allowing a teenage girl an abortion even when it could be saving her life and stopping her future child from suffering.

It isn't just these laws and events that should never have happened, and should either have been illegal but weren't, or shouldn't have been illegal but were. There are so, so, so many, and the fact that to this day some of these things are still illegal/legal is frightening. 

Dystopian Literature

Dystopian Literature

Dystopian literature

According to the Science-Fiction Dictionary Brave New Words, dystopian literature is "an imagined society or state of affairs in which conditions are extremely bad, especially in which these conditions result from the continuation of some current trend to an extreme." 

 

Name three synonyms for dystopia.

1. anti-utopia
2. apocalyptic world
3. Fictional

What is the antonym for dystopia? Utopia: an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.

Dystopian Origins and characteristics

Dystopia is a relatively new genre, but has deeply rooted origins dating back to Thomas More's 1516 text Utopia. Dystopia fiction often comes about when major events happen in the world (WWII, the rise of communism, major advances in technology).  

Defining features of dystopia include:

• Full Government control
• Citizens relinquishing all rights
• Seemingly perfect societies with a dark side to them
• The rise of technology, and how it overtakes humanity
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world
• Citizens worship one leader
• Citizens live in a dehumanised state

Types of Dystopian Controls Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media.   Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials.   Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through computers, robots, and/or scientific means.   Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.   Which dystopian novels have you read?   How many others can you name?

If you have read or viewed some dystopia, what are some of the key elements you have noticed?   FAMOUS DYSTOPIAN TEXTS 1984 - George Orwell - often seen as the definitive text - 'Big Brother is watching you Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - once again an earlier example of dystopian literature A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess - Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation was banned in the U.K for twenty-five years until 1999 due to its "ultra-violence' and copycat crimes. Burgess claims he regrets ever having published the book.

Human Rights

For the first few weeks of year 10 social studies, we have been looking at mapping, graphing, and our current topic, human rights. 

What I already knew:

Going into this topic, I already knew a number of the basic human rights, e.g the right to be free, the right to trial and the right to life, freedom to move, the right to food and shelter, that your human rights are protected by law and that no one can legally take them away from you. I didn't really know much more than that.

What I found interesting: 

I found it interesting- not interesting, but shocking- that even today more than two hundred million children between the ages of five and seventeen are economically active, over seventy-three million of these children being under the age of ten, and six million of them working in forced and bonded labor. 

What I'd like to learn:

I'd like to learn more about when and where slavery and slave trading started, and also learn more about Iqbal Masih.

Critical Literacy Reflection

What do you think critical literacy is?
Critical literacy is about interpreting the real meaning and messages behind things such as the media, stories, videos, news articles and pretty much anything else you can think of. In a nutshell, it's about having your own opinion based on your own experiences and morals.

What did you learn during critical literacy?
I learnt the difference between factual and satirical, or more so the definition of satirical, and certain ways you can tell if something is real or not. E.g, you can tell if a news article is fake based on the title, when it was uploaded, and who uploaded it. Before this module, I had no idea who 'The Onion' was so now I know something is fake if they published it.

What did you find challenging during Critical Literacy?

It wasn't always easy to interpret the messages behind some of the texts and videos that we looked at so that was kind of challenging at times. Or sometimes what the text was actually about was nowhere near what I thought it would be.

How will you use Critical Literacy skills in real life?

Because of what we've been doing over the past two or so weeks, I can now use what I've learnt to figure out the unspoken truth of what people are really trying to say, mostly in media, but also just in general like when I'm reading, watching a movie or anything like that.

What are you looking forward to in English this year?

I'm not entirely sure. If I'm being honest, English has never been my favourite subject, but so far this year I've found what we're doing in English to be quite interesting. I use to enjoy creative writing a lot, but I seem to be prone to getting writers block so perhaps not...

YouCubed and Problem Solving

For the first few weeks of year 10 Maths with Mr Werder, we've been looking at videos created by Youcubed, and using them to help us with problem solving activities. For example, we used matchsticks and blue-tack to recreate a model. We then had to calculate how many pieces of blue-tack and how many matchsticks we used to make it without counting. Another activity we did was creating a square or rectangle with an area twice the size of the perimeter (For example, a 6x8 cm rectangle has an area of 48 and a perimeter of 24).

Some of the messages that these Youcubed videos have are that making mistakes helps your brain grow, and that you don't have to be fast at maths to be good at it.

Critical Literacy: Butterflies, Lift + and Drake

What kind of language is used in this text?

The grandparents used bad English, possibly because they are uneducated, and maybe English is their second language.

What is this text about, how do you know?

I think this text is about how people have different perspectives based on their experiences. For example, the grandparents see butterflies as pests. However, the granddaughters teacher sees them as harmless beautiful creatures.

What does the author want us to know?

That people have different opinions and perspectives. But I also think she wanted to shed light on the fact that people were treated very differently based on the way they look back when this story takes place.

How are characters constructed in this text?

It seems that the grandparents are portrayed as not knowing English perfectly, perhaps from not having a very good education. There's a possibility that they are poor, as they grow their own food instead of buying it, but then again that might just be what they prefer. They're very proud of their granddaughter, which you can tell by the way the grandfather boasts about how clever she is to their neighbour.

The granddaughter doesn't understand why her teacher thinks what she's doing is bad, and the teacher doesn't understand why the granddaughter doesn't see anything wrong with it.

What kinds of social realities does the text portray?

That people don't always understand other peoples reasoning for doing certain things or having certain opinions, along with other social realities that the author (Patricia Grace) witnessed as she was growing up.

 

How are characters constructed in this video?

The guy getting hit on the head with a spoon is portrayed as not being very smart

What is the video about? How do we know?

Its an advertisement, encouraging people to drink Lift + because it makes you smarter. The tagline 'Sharpen up' supports this idea.

What different interpretations of this video are possible?
A fair number of probably will probably only see this is a comedic Lift+ advertisement. However, others could interpret this as generalising New Zealanders and Islanders as being immature.

How are characters constructed in this video?
The man getting hit on the head with a spoon is depicted as being... not very observational, to say the least.

Who benefits from the video?

Viewers who want whiter and stronger teeth, or maybe people with sensitive teeth, as although it isn't said in the video, Sensodyne is known for making toothpaste suitable for people with sensitive teeth (as far as I'm aware, anyway).

Whose views are excluded or privileged from this video?

There are no interviews or clips in this video of buyers/customers who have actually tried this toothpaste, and whether they think it actually works. Then again, usually when companies do include buyers opinions in their advertisements it seems fairly scripted, which does help with marketing, but most of the time it isn't actually their opinion.

What do the images suggest?

It would seem that the person being filmed/interviewed is either a dentist or an orthodontist, or something similar, and that the toothpaste they're selling whitens and strengthens your teeth.

It this video fair?

Considering theirs a 50/50 chance the person in this video is getting paid to say what she's saying, and there are no other clips of other people recommending it. I don't think it is, if you're referring to whether it's an unbiased point of view.

What is the text about? How do we know?

This video is mostly centered around a child going around and almost destroying everything, and it's about getting insurance to avoid needing to be careful all the time.

Who benefits from this video?
People who need insurance, and are looking for an insurance company with an insurance plan suitable for them.

Who is the most likely audience of this text and why?
It's an advertisement, so probably people who are watching TV, but not necessarily people who need insurance specifically.

What do the words suggest?

That if you have insurance with this company you can live more care free. I find it funny in a way, because these insurance advertisements almost make it seem like people with insurance really do things like this, when in reality, most normal people wouldn't let their kids ride around their house on a bicycle destroying everything. Just because you have insurance doesn't mean you're going to go and purposely risk spilling wine all over a white rug just because you can replace it for free. Well. Apparently this guy is,

Who benefits from this music video?

All the people in this video who he gave money and free things to, fans who got to meet their idol, his fans in general.

Who is the most likely audience of this video and why?
Probably Drake's fans, because they like his music and enjoy listening to it. People who like this genre of music in general

What is this music video about? How do we know?
I think this music video is about Drake's life, the music industry, and how even though there are a lot of people who want to try and bring him down, he's still going up.

What does the author want us to know?
That even though people are trying to bring him down he's going to keep going and keep making music, because he believes that it's 'God's Plan'.

The Trolley: By Patricia Grace

What kinds of social realities does this text portray?
That a lot of people can't afford to buy presents for their children or their other family.

How are the characters constructed in this text?
You can tell that Tania loves her children, and that she wants the best for them, and wants to be able to buy them nice expensive gifts like the other kids in their neighbourhood. You can also tell that Miria and Hoani appreciate the effort their mother went to to make their trolley.

Who is missing from this text?
There was no mention of a father, so I would assume he isn't in Tania, Miria, and Hoani's life, but I could be wrong.

What has been left out of this text?
It doesn't mention what time this story is set place, or whereabouts, but I'd assume it's New Zealand, considering the writer is known for writing stories about Maori people and injustice.