Carlie Ralston

TCH 238-001

Reading Analysis

April 19, 2017

Reading Analysis of ​Unwind​ by Neal Shusterman

Reader Response Analysis

Dear Dr. Seglem,

The book that I have been reading is called ​Unwind​ by Neal Shusterman and it is a

dystopian fiction novel. The conflict in this novel is that there is a new law that allows parents to

get rid of an unwanted child at the age of thirteen as opposed to an abortion during pregnancy.

The three main characters are Lev, Risa, and Connor. Risa and Connor are Unwinds that have

been given to the government to be unwound. Lev is a bit different because he is a tithe, which

means his parents are unwinding him as an act of religion. The story follows these three

characters after they escape their unwindings and are trying to remain alive.

Throughout the entire book we see Connor developed as a leader who wants to make a

change in the world. From the very beginning, he is a rebel who run away from his family to

avoid unwinding and then finds Risa and Lev along the way in order to save them as well. He

becomes very well known by the entire society and especially by unwinds who are inspired by

his bravery and willingness to fight against unwinding. Throughout the entire book, the author

really develops Connor’s character and turns him into a powerful leader of the unwinds. One
passage to show this characterization is from one of Connor’s chapters when he is talking about

the world and unwinding. Here it is.

"'People shouldn't do a lot of things,' says Connor. He

knows they are both right, but it doesn't make a difference. In

a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and

strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a

perfect world everything would be either black or white, right

or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this

isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is."

- ​Unwind​ by Neal Shusterman, pg 75

I thought that this was a very interesting passage because it really showed Connor’s

feelings, which he doesn’t show often. Connor is often very angry at the world which causes him

to be aggressive, one of the reasons his parents wanted him unwound. However, in this passage,

the author shows a different side of Connor in which he is being very down to Earth and logical

about the world that they live in. We see this thoughtful and somewhat emotion side of Connor

in the very beginning of the story as well when Connor first finds out that he is being Unwound.

In the first chapter it says, “Connor wonders how he can call the place he lives home, when he is

about to be evicted—not just from the place he sleeps, but from the hearts of those who are

supposed to love him.” (5) We see him start to feel emotional about the situation and betrayed by

the family he has been apart of his entire life. He feels hurt and like he doesn’t belong there

anymore which adds to his feelings of betrayal. The thing I liked about both of these passages is

that they is relatable to the reader. When I read them, I instantly could think of a time where I
also thought about how much easier life would be if things were in black and white or right and

wrong, and how our choices would be so simple if our world was like this. Everyone has to make

hard choices in life or live through tough times in which they wish the world wasn’t so harsh and

that things were easier. This passage really allows the reader to connect with Connor and feel

empathy for the things that he is going through, even though none of us have ever had to deal

with being an unwind. This relatability with the character made me as a reader want to keep

reading because I wanted to see how he would overcome his obstacles and how he would use his

feelings to try and change things around him.

The genre of this novel, as a mentioned before, is dystopian fiction. The premise of the

novel was taking a controversial topic we have today, abortion, and twisting it in a way that was

similar yet different and felt more futuristic. I thought this choice by the author was a good one

because it allows the reader to easily connect the events and ideas of the novel to the world that

they are living in. The concept of this book is one that is easily compared and contrasted with the

world that we live in which gives us as readers a way to make connections. With the past

election, pro-life and pro-choice have become very important topics and are constantly being

talked about among Americans and the government. While I was reading this book, I was

thinking about how my life would be different if unwinding was the solution our government

came to in order to compromise on the issue of abortion. I couldn’t help but think about if my

parents would have unwound me between the ages of thirteen and eighteen or if the friends I

have today would still be in my life or not. Using this topic in a dystopian fiction novel was a

really good choice on the author's part and allows for a lot of conversation and connections to be

made when reading.

 I am looking forward to reading the other three books in this series and finding out what

happens with Lev, Risa, and Connor. I can’t wait to meet the other characters that come along

and watch as these three characters develop even more.

Love,

Carlie Ralston

19 April 2017
Close Reading Analysis

WALLPAPER1
---------------------
Paper Thin
Cut down to any size,
Crumble, crop me wrong
Pull the insulation from my heart.
Never will I be "A Paper Doll!"
Thank you for calling me a "Friend!"
Thank you for wasting my "time!"
Enjoy the WALLPAPER display
---------------------

Layers and layers of lifeless brick

KEEPS EVERYTHING OUT!
Emotional poster boards of doubt
Envious fiberglass green never seen
Yuletide Carols warped around my energy
Merry and full of acrylic sh!t-
Hand full of putty maintains the makeup on my face
Arts and crafts display my inner fancy grace
Heavy installed Sheetrock so easily replaced

Tough paint chips away silently through the

night
Rigid boards transform into fragile crystal light
The greatest illusion blinding reality
Smooth Tiger Skin, texture of orange simple peel
Beautiful mud swirl, L'Oreal.
Gypsum soft enough you want to touch

Dark walls of a thousand words

A plasterboard of discordant grey notes
Blots and clots of ink, enslave my skin
Colorless drywall, resilient to your charms

Printed designs of cleverly decorated lipstick

Morbid shadows underneath the ceiling veil
A double coat of Pacific Waterproof Blue-
Printing bags from -- YESTERDAY!

Plastered wounds of cement dry and roughens along the edge

A human-made barrier, not even God comes in.

by;PD
Copyright © ​Poet Destroyer A ​| Year Posted 2013

1
Destroyer A, Poet. (2013). Wallpaper. Poetry Soup. Retrieved April, 19, 2017 from
https://www.poetrysoup.com/
 From reading ​Wallpaper​ by Poet Destroyer A, I think that the wallpaper discussed in the

poem is used as a metaphor for someone trying to find their identity. Throughout this entire

poem I imagined myself as a middle school student trying to be just like everyone else, using

makeup to try and be “prettier,” and going through friendships trying to find where I fit in the

best. Throughout reading this poem there were sections that seemed to relate to each of these

things and used figurative language to describe real life situations.

Originally when I first read the title of this poem I thought about how wallpaper is

applied, by putting it over a painted wall or plain drywall. From my interpretation of the title, I

thought that maybe the poem was going to be about covering something up or hiding something

in order to make it more beautiful, because that it what wallpaper is used for. In the very first

stanza of the poem it says, “Thank you for calling me a ‘friend!’/ Thank you for wasting my

‘time!’/ Enjoy the WALLPAPER display.” From reading the first two lines of this I immediately

thought about middle school and having a fight with friends. In middle school, there are always

those people who call you a ‘friend’ but then go behind your back and do something to hurt you.

This is when I started to get the impression that maybe the poem was about fitting in. However,

with the last line, it was not until my third reading when I really started to understand what that

line “Enjoy the WALLPAPER display” actually meant. In that third time reading, I came to the

conclusion that it was a metaphor for the exterior of a person. It made me think of the saying,

“It’s what is on the inside that counts” and that this quote from the poem was telling that friend

who hurt the narrator that they can enjoy the exterior that is fake and influenced by peers but

they will never really know who they are on the inside because they didn’t take the opportunity

to get to know them.

 In my second reading, I really focused on the second stanza because I noticed a lot of

metaphors being used and I really wanted to analyze their meanings and what exactly they were

trying to make comparisons to. The first one that really stood out to me was the line “Envious

fiberglass green never seen.” This line really stood out to be because the first time reading this

stanza I couldn’t understand exactly what it was trying to say. When I read it back over, I made

the connection between ‘envious’ and ‘green’ in the line and connected that to saying “Green

with envy” as well as “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Since after my first

reading I came to the conclusion that the theme of the poem was identity and that the narrator is

trying to find out who they are and where they belong, this line made me envision a middle

school girl seeing another girl wearing designer clothes and shoes and wishing that her clothes

were that beautiful, that she was envious of her peer’s belongings and wishes she could live up to

that type of standard. This interpretation followed me down to the line where it says, “Merry and

full of acrylic sh!t/ Hand full of putty maintains the makeup on my face.” I related this back to

the theme of identity and how the girl I envisioned wanted to be as beautiful as her peer so in this

line she cakes on her makeup in order to try and be as pretty as the girls around her. I think that

the first line is talking about not only the makeup but the fake persona that many young

adolescents put on throughout this time in their life in order to try and fit in with someone else or

a group of kids. With my reading of this stanza and analysis of the language so closely, I was

really solidified in my opinion that the theme of the poem is identity and trying to it in during

adolescence.

In my third reading, I read the entire poem once more. In the third reading, I caught a few

things that slipped past me in the first and second readings. The line that I think aided me the
most in supporting my idea of identity and fitting in as the theme of the poem is in the second

stanza when it says, “Heavy installed Sheetrock so easily replaced.” This line made me think

about feelings and how when you are friends with someone you develop those feelings of

belonging, respect, and camaraderie so quickly and so strongly and how those feelings hit a

young adolescent very hard. The part about being easily replaced made me think about those

feelings being broken down and discarded when a friendship ends poorly, and how those

bonding feelings between two friends that were once so strong are knocked down and replaced

by feelings of hurt and deceit so easily. These feelings of friendship really support the idea of

trying to find friend groups in middle school and how those life events play such a big part in

identity and fitting in at that age. Once I finished reading the entire poem I came to the

conclusion that the author had some bad experiences during adolescence and had trouble fitting

in and finding themselves so they are very negative about the experiences. The metaphors and

language used are very harsh and create the connotation of sadness. This use gave me the

impression that this was not an easy or fun time for the narrator and that they wanted to show the

reader how much pain and trouble they went through trying to find out who they were and where

they belonged.

Throughout all of my readings of ​Wallpaper, ​I could think about the book ​Unwind ​and

how the theme of this poem directly related to the characters directly. When I was reading this

poem I thought the most about Lev and how he struggled to fit in with the unwinds because he

was a tithe. When Lev was first introduced into the novel he talked about his experiences in

school as a tithe. He says, “All his life he’s had to deal with kids who resented him, because

grown-ups treated him as if he was special. There were kids who were kind, and kids who were
cruel. That was life. It did bother him, thought, when kids called him things like ‘dirty

Unwind’...There are, of course, a few other tithes at his school, but they’re from other religions,

so Lev has never felt a real sense of camaraderie with them...Lev has always felt closer to God

than to his friends, or even his family.” (31-32) This section of the book really came to mind

when I read the first few lines, “Paper thin/ Cut down to any size,/ Crumble, crop me wrong.”

These lines made me think of Lev talking about his experiences as a tithe in school because it

seemed as though as he felt inferior to others when they would call him a ‘dirty Unwind” and

how people were trying to cut him down so that he was like the rest of them. When people were

not giving him a hard time, Lev was proud to be a tithe because he was giving himself to God

and was going to be unwound as an act of worship to God. However, it seems as though when

kids would question him about his tithing or say he was crazy for thinking unwinding was okay

at all, he began to feel as if his sacrifice to God was less than or tainted. These feelings caused

Lev a lot of distress throughout the book until later on when he realizes just how wrong his

parents were for tithing him. Until this realization however, Lev struggles to fit in with Risa and

Connor because he feels as if he is more holy than them and that he is better than them in some

way.

When I read the last stanza, I thought a lot about Connor. The last lines of the poem are,

“Plastered wounds of cement dry and roughens along the edge/ A human-made barrier, not even

God comes in.” These lines reminded me of Connor because throughout the entire story he is

seen as an aggressive and angry boy who is mad at the world for making unwinding legal and his

parents for signing the order without telling him. The first line that I quoted made me think that

the ‘wounds’ consist of his parents never telling him about the order and then taking a vacation
the day after he is supposed to be unwound, those wounds are then plastered over with his will to

survive. These wounds relate to his identity and where he belongs because he feels shunned from

his family and is forced to try and find his way alone, until he finds Risa and Lev and the other

unwinds who make him feel apart of something again.

Critical Literacy Analysis

In ​Unwind​, the Unwinds are definitely privileged. We are always getting to see what life

is like for a an unwind through the viewpoints of Risa, Lev, and Connor who have all had an

order to unwind signed for them. Throughout the novel we switch between these three

viewpoints and occasionally we get the viewpoints of other unwinds that our three main

characters meet in the graveyard. While a few chapters are from the viewpoints of the Admiral, a

doctor, and a store owner, the majority of this story focuses on the points of view of the unwinds

and the things that happen to them. This point of view makes sense because unwinding is the

focus of the entire book and in order to learn what it is like to be an unwind we must see it from

their perspective which is why their point of view is privileged.

Since the voices of the unwinds are so heavily focused on, we don’t get the perspective of

the parents who signed the unwind forms or the parents who storked their children. The lack of

this perspective makes the reader wonder what the reasons were for Connor’s parents to unwind

him, aside from what Connor thinks the reason is. One may also wonder why Lev’s parents

chose to have a tenth child who they would then tithe. It would also be interesting to learn why
Risa was a ward of the state since birth and get a different point of view regarding her life. These

voices being marginalized really changes the perspective of the story because the reader only

sees things from the points of view of unwinds. While their points of view are critical to the plot

of the story and are the main focus, we only really get one take on each situation instead of

seeing how unwinding effects all parties involved. If the novel were to be written from the points

of view of the adults who choose to unwind their children, from the government who created the

new laws, or from adults who were once ordered for unwinding but escaped and survived the

novel would be very different. With these perspectives, we would be able to see multiple views

on the idea of unwinding and learn about why the parents of the main characters chose to have

their children unwound. These points of view would answer a lot of questions for readers who

are interested in learning why and would provide us with some context as to how Risa, Lev, and

Connor ended up in their new lives as AWOL unwinds. Along with information about the book,

seeing how the parents of Unwinds make their decisions and live with themselves after

volunteering to Unwind their children, we might get a sight into how the parents who choose to

abort their children in today’s society make their decisions. Abortion is a controversial topic that

I feel can only be truly understood by those making the choice to have the procedure. I think that

if they author were to write this book from the perspective of Unwind parents, we might get a

better look into the thought processes and decision making strategies of parents in our present

day society who choose to have an abortion. However, the author may not have wanted to

provide this perspective for a reason. Children grow up and hold the values, ideas, opinions, and

beliefs of their parents because it is what they grow up hearing and so they think that they should

believe the same things their parents do. Maybe the author chose to not include the perspective
of parents just for this reason. By not including these perspectives we see what it is like to be a

child being Unwound and how they don’t agree with the ideas, values, and choices of their

parents because those ideas, values, and choices lead to their lives being ended. The authors

choice to marginalize the thoughts and perspectives of parents and adults of Unwinds seems to

be deliberate for this very reason.

By having the majority of the story told by unwinds, I think the author is really trying to

portray the hardships faced by unwinds to survive and how trying to stay alive until eighteen

when they are legal adults is such a difficult feat. By utilizing these points of view and throwing

in a chapter from outsiders every now and then, the author is trying to show us that the unwinds,

the children, are the ones who are suffering the most from the unwind laws. Showing their

struggles highlights the fact that the government is making all of these choices for children

between the ages of 13 and 18 without even considering their thoughts and feelings about being

divided up for parts at the will of their parents, or the government if you are ward of the state

such as Risa. By seeing what being an unwind is like from the viewpoints of Risa, Connor, and

Lev, we see hear about their feelings of failure because they were unable to make the adults in

their lives appreciate them enough to want to keep them around and alive. For Connor especially,

coming from a typical family, he felt betrayed by his family for signing the order and not telling

him, only to have him find out when he finds three plane tickets to the Bahamas. The questioning

of why this parents were doing this to him and why they are not telling him is what ultimately

drives Connor to runway and go AWOL in order to live. We also see Risa under pressure at a

piano recital, forcing herself to try and be perfect in order to prove she has talent so that Stahoe

will not unwind her to make room for younger children with more potential. These thoughts,
fears, and pressures are so clearly seen through the perspectives of these characters and the

author made them the focus in order for readers to see just how deep their pains go and how

difficult it is to find a will to survive when you know that your entire family or the important

adults in your life have no regard for your well-being. Another reason I think that the author

chose to write from the perspective of children and not adults is to make a point about Abortion,

which is so clearly the societal focus of this novel. I think that that author’s choice to write from

the perspective of children is to show that our current abortion laws don’t allow the children to

have a voice in the situation. A fetus cannot make an argument as to why it should be kept alive,

why it deserves to live, contest to how scared it is. By changing our current abortion laws and

making Unwinding a thing in this novel, and then looking at the perspectives of the children who

are being “aborted” later in life, the author is giving the babies who don’t have a voice a way to

speak their peace and show how their lives deserve to be lived just as much as the next person.

Risa, Connor, and Lev don’t have a choice about whether they are Unwound or not and kids such

as Connor don’t even have a solid answer as to why, similar to the way that the fetus’ being

aborted in our society don’t have a choice or a say in the situation, instead their fate is told to

them by adults. All young adolescents think that their parents are telling them what to do, how to

think, what to say, how to act, and controlling every aspect of their lives. This perspective choice

made by the author is showing readers that their voices can be heard if they yell loud enough and

make a wave in society.

Reflection

The three types of analysis that I completed above were very interesting because each one

made me think in a different way. For the reader response, I really just had to think about exactly

what I thought of the book through theme, characterization, and things that readers would pick

up on when reading a book. I liked the reader response because I had a lot of freedom in what I

talked about and I enjoyed that it was in a letter format. This format would allow for interesting

conversation between student and teacher and would provide students a safe place to share their

thoughts with their teacher if they are uncomfortable sharing to the class. The reader response

was much different than the close reading analysis. In close analysis you read a passage multiple

times from different viewpoints and really dig deep into the meaning and making connections.

Compared to close reading and critical analysis, I think that reader response is much more

surface level and is more based on what the reader picks up on while reading as opposed to

analysing the text in depth. Close reading was very tedious, as was the critical analysis. In these

two analysis, there was a lot of digging and going deeper which was time consuming and was

sometimes difficult. While it was difficult, I thought that digging in deeper really helped me

think about the author’s motives and understand the book and poem better because I was forced

to really think about it at more than just surface level. The only thing I really struggled with

when doing the reader response section was the structure. I am used to writing college level

essays so to form my thoughts about theme and characterization into more of a letter was kind of

challenging but once I got into it I enjoyed it.

The thing I found the most difficult with this analysis was that felt like I was writing

three papers in one so I often had to take a break and come back because each section was a bit
time consuming. However, I thought that these analyses did help me delve deeper into my book

and I think the overall outcome was very useful. If I were to use these in a classroom I would

probably use each of these analyses but separate them so students don’t get burnt out with

writing. I would probably do them in the order of reader response, close reading and then critical

analysis to scaffold the different types and so that students have the entire book to critically

analyse at the end. By using these three techniques students will really get a deeper

understanding into their book and be able to see it from different perspectives which is

something that all readers should be able to do. This skill would come in handy not only with a

novel but in other classes when historical pieces or scientific articles are being used.