UNWIND Consciousness- Predictions

 C O N S C I O U S N E S S
P R E D I C T I O N S  F O R  F U T U R E  B O O K S

There are still four more books to go in this series, not including the first book which this Novel Study is based on ('Unwind') which was written in 2007.

UnStrung: released in 2012

UnWholly: released in 2012

UnSouled: released in 2013

UnDivided: released in 2014

UnBound: released in 2015

Having not read the other four books yet, here are my predictions.

I think it will stick with the three main characters -Risa, Connor, and Lev- and will probably introduce some new main characters along the way. I think it would be interesting if somewhere along the line it includes a point of view from the baby that Connor decided to save after it was storked, just to see how her life turned out.

By the way Connor was talking at the end of the first book, I think he's going to attempt to put an end to Unwinding once and for all, with the help of a large portion of the kids at the Graveyard. Whether he's going to succeed or not, I'm not sure. 

I'm also not entirely sure what's going to happen with Lev. At the moment, he's in solitude. When he's out and they've gotten all off the explosive chemicals out of his bloodstream, he's going to a Juvenile Detention Centre for a few years, and then (hopefully) Marcus is going to be his legal guardian. At least, that's the plan. Maybe he'll try and escape the detention centre, or maybe he'll make an agreement, or get let out early and end up going to the Graveyard to help Connor and Risa.

I think Cyrus might appear a lot more in the next book, considering the work he did in protests, and how he went before congress to testify. Maybe he'll even join Connor and Risa in their mission to change the Bill of Life and end the system of unwinding. I believe some of the other smaller background characters will reappear too. At the end of the book, we know for a fact that Hayden was at the graveyard with Connor and Risa.

UNWIND Consciousness

C O N S C I O U S N E S S

How is it that Connor was not unwound? p318

When they searched the buildings and found one of the dead security guards, they stole the guards identity, and thus Connor Lassiter became nineteen-year-old Elvis Robert Mullard.

Whose arm does he now have? P319

He has Roland's arm, which he can quite clearly identify by the distinct shark tattoo on his forearm.

On p321 Risa tells Connor how she won't be unwound. Do you think her decision to not accept the spine of an Unwind was purely ethical, or was she also playing the system in order to stay alive?

It was ethical- if I were her I wouldn't want to have a transplant either. But she definitely was playing the system too. If she remained paralysed- at least until she's eighteen- they wouldn't be allowed to unwind her cause they wouldn't be able to use her spinal chord or any of her other damaged parts.

Since the explosions at Happy Jack, what have people been doing? What has Cy-Fi's role been in this? P325

It began to make people start talking about the ethics of unwinding, mostly people who beforehand had pretty much looked the other way. There were protests against unwinding in Washington, and Cyrus even went before congress and testified. There was also rumours and talk about lowering the legal age of adulthood from 18 to 17, which would save a lot of the kids, and though it wouldn't save everyone, it's a step in the right direction.

Lev's parents disown him. Who is trying to become his guardian? P328.
His brother Marcus petitioned for guardianship, who was also disowned by their parents. Marcus was the only person in Lev's family other than Pastor Dan who tried to change his parents mind and try to get through to them and Lev.

Why has Pastor Dan resigned? P329
Because although Pastor Dan still believes in God, he doesn't believe in a god who condones murdering innocent children and human tithing (better word for it is human sacrifice), and therefore decided to leave the church and wants no part in it.

P331-332 explain what has happened to Harlan Dunfee. What do you think about the Admiral and his wife's plan? Was it what you expected?  
The admiral and his wife signed the papers to unwind their son Harlan, and immediately regretted it. Their plan was nothing like what I thought it would be -in other words, nothing like the story everyone had been told- all they wanted was to bring their son back together in a peaceful and non-violent way. They just wanted to do it in the most meaningful way they could without causing more death. The admiral really did just want to help all of those children, he's not a murderer like everyone made him out to be.

Who takes over the graveyard? P331
With the help of Hayden, Risa, and a few others, Connor took over.

UNWIND Unwound

U N W O U N D

Connor and Risa are sent to Happy Jack Harvest Camp. Describe what it is like, and explain why it is like this. P265-266

Every harvest camp is purposefully placed in very scenic areas. The grounds are all extremely well kept, much like a resort, and there are a lot of bright pastel colours, with as little red as possible. Happy Jack is situated in Arizona, with views of forests and red mountains. The boy's dormitory was painted light blue with green accents, and the girl's was painted lavender and pink. They hide the barbed wire hence which surrounds the perimeter of the camp with hedges, and everything is bright and colourful.

What is the exact percentage of the Unwind that you have to keep alive? Why is it not 100%, as Risa believes? P269

They have to keep 99.44%, because they have to keep in mind vestigial structures like the appendix, which are now entirely useless.

What do the unwinds call the place where unwinding occurs? P271

The Chop Shop. There's a red carpet leading up to it and the band plays on the roof as people walk the red carpet to their death. Fun.

Lev too, is at Happy Jack, but as a tithe. Why is this?  

Because it's part of his plan. Him, Blaine, and Mai are preparing to become clappers and blow up Happy Jack harvest camp.

On p278 Connor and Roland finally have the fight that's been brewing between them. What does each character realise during this?

Roland realises he isn't the killer he thought he was, and isn't capable of the things he thought he could be. Connor finds the answer to the question Hayden asked not long ago. Would you rather die, or be unwound? He realises that maybe death is a better alternative.

P284 - What group has Lev joined, who recruited him, and when will they follow out their plan?  

Cleaver -the helicopter pilot from the Graveyard who was beaten to death and taught Roland how to fly a helicopter- recruited all three of them, and they plan on blowing up Happy Jack by simply clapping their hands, and causing absolute chaos.

'We have no cause but chaos'- Cleaver

It was an expression of all the things they felt inside. It was the spirit, and the nature, and the manifestation of all they had become. They weren't just the messengers, they were the message.

Roland is called for unwinding on p286. Why is this?  

Even though Roland has only been there a few days, his blood type AB negative is rare and in very high demand, therefore they're unwinding him as soon as they possibly can.

Chapter 61 is arguably the most confronting chapter in the book. Here we have Roland's first person narrative of being unwound. Do you think this chapter is necessary?

I think it is yes, because up until this chapter the author has never gone into detail about how people are unwinded- do they get put on anaesthetic? Where do they begin? It's also something that all of the characters show interest in (well... curiosity, not interest) throughout the book. It also shows you what's in store for Connor in the next few hours.

Why do you think Shusterman chose to have Roland's experience detailed? Do his memories alter how you view him?  

Because Roland is a very controversial character. No one really likes him, no one really understands him. Adding snippets of Roland's memories did change the way I thought about him to an extent, and the origin story of his shark tattoo was kind of interesting. The memory of his mother comparing him to his dad, who I'm guessing isn't a very good person, and how his babysitter either killed or permanently disabled his little sister was sad. It makes you start to understand why he is the way he is a little bit more.

Why does Lev decide not to clap? P310

At first, he physically can't bring himself to do it, and then he sees that Connor is still alive and decided not to.

Sonja Terk Delauney- Orphism

Sonja Terk Delaunay was a French-Ukrainian abstract artist,

                                                                                              

wife of fellow artist Robert Delaunay. She spent

most of her life working in Paris, and was responsible

 for co-founding the art form 'Orphism', a type of art 

involving lots of bold colours and geometric shapes.

Sonja was born into a Jewish Ukrainian family, and moved 

to St Petersburg in Russia at the age of seven. 

She first thought of this type of geometric cubist art when her son was born in 1911, and she decided to make him a blanket out of bits of fabric similar to those she had seen in the houses of people in Russia when she was younger.

O R P H I S M

Orphism, also known as Simultaneism, derived from Cubism, and was named in 1912 by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

Oil painting 'Triptych' by Sonja Delaunay, 1963

Oil painting 'Rhythm Colour' by Sonja Delaunay, 1964

Orphism thumbnail sketches

10 Countries with the Highest Rates of Child Labour

Child labour is work done by children which harms them or exploits them in some way, either physically, mentally, or morally (e.g blocking access to education, which they have a right to). The map above lists ten locations with the highest rates of the worst kinds of child labour. Under each location, it states the amount of children in that country estimated to be in child labour, as well as the most common types of labour in said country.

Child Labour:

Although it may be prohibited, child labour is still a socially acceptable and very large problem. 197 countries still have reports of child slavery and child labour, in some places, children starting as young as five. But why? Many families who are in poverty opt to sell their children into slavery to pay off their debt. Others don;t have a choice. Child labour is a breech of children's human rights. It robs them of their freedom and education, forcing them to work in dangerous and sometimes lethal conditions, just for mistakes that they didn't make Child labour is a massive problem, and something needs to change.

Not only does child labour deprive children of their right to education, but it can also be extremely dangerous. For example, mining. In Tanzania, there are eight-year-old children going down into mines, up to seventy metres deep, and inhaling toxic gasses for hours on end. They work with mercury, which if accidentally consumed can cause problems in their nervous system, digestive system, and immune system. It can severely damage their lungs and kidneys, and in worst case scenario, kill them. That's not even including day-to-day accidents. Mines tend to collapse, which can and has trapped the children working inside, and crushed them. Mining is only one of the only deadly forms of labour, proving my point that child labour is extremely dangerous.

UNWIND Graveyard

G R A V E Y A R D

Which job in the graveyard does Risa get assigned to? How does this come about? P201
She gets assigned the job of being a medic. Just as she steps out of the line with the boring - to say the least- job of dishwasher, the boy that Connor punched in the face to get out of being in the same crate as Roland walks up behind her. Connor had broken his nose, and she instructed him on how to stop the bleeding. Risa was then promoted to medic.

Why doesn't Connor volunteer for "work"? P205

Because to him, it seems like the admiral is using them all for his own personal gain. Most of the unwinds however don't really care, because, as Hayden said "I'd rather be used whole than in pieces". Even if they aren't getting paid for the work that they're doing, it's still better than the alternative.

"About six girls- all seventeen years old, it looks like," says Hayden. "I guess no one wants to be a house-girl for more than a year."

"This place isn't a refuge, it's a slave market. Why doesn't anyone see that?"

"Who says they don't see it? It's just that unwinding makes slavery look good. It's always the lesser of two evils.

How does Roland unsettle Connor? P206-207

He firstly informs him that Cleaver is teaching him how to fly. He then tells Connor about his theory on the admiral. Roland told Connor that he doesn't think it's a camp for saving unwinds, but instead a camp for the admiral to choose new body parts for himself from. Connor doesn't exactly believe him, but he doesn't entirely shoot his theory down.

P208-209 detail Lev's arrival, and Connor's reaction. Make sure you fill in your character profiles for both characters.
Lev's arrival was the same as Connor, Risa, Hayden, Roland and everyone else's arrival. A big group of them arrived in an old unregistered jet, in this case and old Fed-Ex jet, packed into crates in groups of four. Connor was both relieved and infuriated. He remembered how Lev had betrayed him and Risa, but he also remembered how devastated he was when he thought he had been unwound.

P214-215 Connor learns the truth about the Admiral here. How does the Admiral gain Connor's trust?
By giving him a true and logical explanation to all the numerous odd things he'd heard about him. The admiral explains to Connor that the so called teeth he got from an unwind were dentures, and the picture of the kid on his desk was his son, who's teeth he got his dentures modelled to look as similar as possible to.

What, according to the Admiral, is it that Connor is becoming famous for in the Graveyard?p212
Mostly for his skill in fixing broken things, but also his reputation for being impulsive and getting into fights.

What happens to the Goldens?p217
Someone killed the Goldens by locking them in a crate with no air holes. Connor suspects it was Roland, but as we later find out it's actually Lev, Mai, Cleaver and Blaine, who have much bigger plans in store than killing five kids.

How does Roland begin to assert his power in the Graveyard? (you'll need to look throughout the section)
He begins to share his theories about the admiral with all the other kids in the graveyard. He tells them about how he believes the admirals teeth and other parts of the admiral aren't really his, and scares some of them into believing that they're next. This of course isn't true, and at this stage I'm not sure whether Roland believes it himself or not, not that it really matters since he seems to be very persuasive, and the others very gullible.

P222-226 give us an insight into how the Unwinding Bill was passed into law. Summarise what happened, then explain whether or not you think it is plausible.  

It started with the Heartland war, a war fought between two sides; Pro life and pro choice. However, as the admiral explains, there were actually three sides in the war. Pro life, pro choice, and the remains of the American military, who were tasked to stop the other two sides from destroying each other. The bill of life, started as a joke, no one took it seriously, but then that same year a scientist won the Nobel Prize for perfecting a process called neurografting, meaning they could officially use every single part of a human's body -every single cell- in a transplant. As the war got worse, they brought both sides to a table and came up with a solution. The third side (the American military) proposed the idea of unwinding in the hopes of shocking both sides into seeing reason, but unfortunately neither side saw a problem with it, and therefore The Bill of Life was passed and the war came to an end.

The Admiral was there when the Bill of Life was signed - do you think this detracts from the believability of the commonplace nature of Unwinding?

If the admiral was there when the bill was signed, it means it happened a lot more recently than I thought, but for younger generations I suppose it probably still seems fairly ordinary, because they don't know any different.

In your opinion, do you think the book should have a few more generations between those who signed the Bill, and the present state in the novel?
I think it would be interesting to get the perspective of someone who was around Connor, Risa and Lev's age when the bill was passed. Because they would've lived their entire lives having nothing to worry about, and then all of a sudden get thrown into the possibility of being sent to their deaths by their own parents. However, I feel like most parents of children of that age when the bill was passed wouldn't agree with it -if I were them that would seem barbaric- and opinions probably changed over the generations.

What job does Lev volunteer to do? P236

He volunteers to work on an oil pipeline along with Mai and Blaine until they turn 18. What Connor and Risa don't know is that it's part of their plan, and that job was called specifically called because Mai, Blaine, Cleaver and Lev all knew no one in their right mind would choose it.

Which part of Harlan Dunfree does Emby have? P240

He has one of his lungs, the one which gives Emby asthma.

Chapter 39 is from Roland's point of view. Why do you think Shusterman changes the narrative here? What do we learn in this short chapter?

We find out that he really didn't kill the Goldens- however he did pull a lot of questionable pranks on people. Roland is a horrible person but apparently he isn't horrible enough to be a killer.

By the end of this section, things at the Graveyard have deteriorated, with the unwinds turning on the Admiral, and tearing the place apart. Which character is beaten to death on p250?

Cleaver, who Connor soon finds out is the real murderer. He doesn't find out who his accomplices are though.

What does the Admiral refuse on p255? What is the doctor's reaction to this?

He refuses to get a heart transplant, because he refuses to support the act of unwinding in any way, even if it decreases his chances of surviving drastically.

Why does Roland have the Juvey-Cops called?

Because he thinks he can bribe them into capturing Connor and Risa but let him go, if he tells them where they can find hundreds of rogue unwinds.

P259 Why doesn't his plan happen?

Because the Juvey-Cops already knew about the graveyard, and the hundreds of unwinds, and the fact that it was being run by the admiral. They just didn't care. If the unwinds were out of their way and off the streets, it isn't their problem.

Michael Mew Inspired Art

In art for the past few weeks, we have been working on completing Michael Mew inspired mixed-media art, using things such as leading lines and focal points.

After choosing and cutting out potential focal points from magazines for our piece, we drew some thumbnail sketches, using different pieces, different colours, and rearranging things on our page as we went. The media I used to create this piece was mostly water paint (a lighter shade of blue, a darker shade of blue, brown, and black) and the pieces I chose from magazines, but I also used pencil to sketch the bird. The focal point in my piece is the hands, and the bits of collage surrounding, and to the top left of the hands, create leading lines.

In our piece we also had to include one of five birds native to New Zealand (The Mōhua, the Riroriro, the Tīeke, the Korimako/Kōparapara or the Pīpīwharauroa). I chose the riroriro, also known as a grey warbler. The riroriro is part of the Acanthizidae family, a family of passerine birds, and are usually seen living in temperate forests.

Here is some artwork by Michael Mew