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As much as I find the idea of unwinding truly disturbing, tithing is that much worse. The parents who have their children sent off to be Unwound seem to have no morals, sense, or love. The parents of tithes though, believe that they must offer a human sacrifice to God. They have a strong belief that murdering their child makes them holy. To take it a step farther, they brainwash their children into thinking the same way and celebrating their death at the ripe old age of 13. My many problems with this become evident when Connor attempted to save lev from his dad’s white Cadillac, or better suited, his hearse. As Connor rips him out the car Lev screams, “‘What are you doing? Leave me alone!’” This is his only chance to escape from his cruel fate, and he wants to stay safely in his death mobile. It is clear that Lev has deep faith that God chose this holy path for him and he feels grateful for it.

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Judging the society in Unwind and seeing the wrong in their beliefs is pretty easy, but not until Connor tells his story of how his family was storked, did I realize there were other immoral practices in their society besides unwinding. He explains to Risa and Lev, as they sit in the bathroom stalls of a school none of them attend, his family was storked when he was younger, but his parents did not want the responsibility of a baby. They decided to pass the baby off to the house across the street and pretend they never had it, but when the same baby arrives on their doorstep two weeks later, they saw that what they did was terribly wrong.  Connor explains, ‘“My parents brought it to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do. I was there when it died.”’ This crucial part of the story when Connor reveals why he felt the need to interfere in the storking they witnessed that morning shows how forcing a baby on people who do not want to care for it is wrong. The child’s human dignity is taken away as he or she is treated more like a pet up for adoption than a living, breathing person.
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Along Lev’s journey to save himself from the horrors of unwinding, he befriends an older kid named CyFi. He is a smart and sly conman, but refuses to blatantly steal. They are on their way to a destination unknown to Lev when Cy begins to act strangely. Not only does his voice and overall demeanor change, but also his morals. The pair stops at a random shop where Cy steals thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. After his episode, he is adamant that Lev “gets rid of it” and not worry about his 180.  At this point in the novel, I was very confused. I did not put it together that the part of his brain he received from an unwind was taking over his body. This changed my view of unwinding, but not in a positive way. Seeing that the part of Cy’s brain cut out of another person still held consciousness and did not even realize it was not in its original person shows how terrible unwinding is. Before this part, I had assumed that any piece of the person was unaware of its fate, but Cy’s incident showed otherwise. Unwinding is a murderous act that does not just take away life, but causes the unwound suffering.
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After living in a warehouse for a while with a large group of other unwinds, Connor and Risa are flown to The graveyard, a small society of escaped unwinds. While they are being transported to this site, they are thrown in small, dark shipping containers each with three other kids. Inside Connor’s crate, he and the others delve into a heavy conversation about unwinding, where their body goes, and why their parents chose to have them unwound. This conversation was intriguing to me because this was the first time the kids shared their deepest thoughts and opinions about the practice of Unwinding. Before this, it is clear that they did not want to be in a divided state, but it is finally revealed what they believe this divided state entails. I particularly liked what Hayden said about the soul, “‘If it’s indivisible, maybe an unwind’s spirit stretches out, kind of like a giant balloon between all those parts of us in other places. Very poetic.’”  The book provides other evidence that transplanted body parts have a sense of who they once were, so Hayden’s sentiment provided the best explanation for me.
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The Admiral’s conversation with Connor about the war showed how hypocritical their society is. The war was about life and the solution they found was to end a troubled or unfitting child’s life in order to extort a suffering person for profit. The war started because of the issue of abortion and whether or not to respect the lives of all people including the unborn, so it makes perfect sense that they decided to ignore the human dignity of a large percentage of the population. The Admiral explains how the deal was made, “‘With the war getting worse, we brokered a peace by bringing both sides to the table. Then we proposed the idea of unwinding, which would terminate the lives of unwanteds without actually ending their lives. We thought it would shock both sides into seeing reason-that they would stare at each other across the table and someone would blink.’” This shows that their means to end the war was only for each side’s pride. If they actually had a goal to respect life, they never would have agreed to this or even started a bloody war in the first place. For this reason, I was very frustrated at this conversation. He even uses the scenario of no one blinking to show that neither side wanted to back down for the good of humanity, they just wanted to win.
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I found reading about life at the Harvest camps was very unsettling. Connor says himself that seeing the staff work to make the experience pleasant with nice living quarters and activities, as well as the location in a scenic area makes him sick. The kids are also required to be active and play games that get them in shape so their parts are put to the best use. As Connor plays a match of Volleyball and notices, “the intensity of play can only matched by an undercurrent of fear that runs beneath every tap of the ball.” In their last few days or weeks, the kids are in competition with each other to be best even though this recognition will get them no where. They also have no idea when their unwinding will be, therefore, no way to prepare or say goodbye. The camps are not cruel, they are torturous.
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Connor is crucially injured from the explosion at the camp and loses his arm and an eye. He is sent to a hospital where he receives a new identity of the guard at the camp and without his permission, surgeons attach a new arm and eye. Considering he once stated that he would rather die than receive a part from an unwind, I could gather that he is not too thrilled about his new parts. Only then do I realize, this is not even the worst part. As he realizes what has been done to him, “She (the nurse) leaves him alone with the arm. His arm. An arm that bares the unmistakable tattoo of a tiger shark.“ He knows his new arm once, recently, belonged to the person he hates (hated), Roland. He goes to Risa who quickly accepts this new reality. At this, I am surprised. Although I was okay with the sort of happy ending of the book, they should not have been that okay with Connors new parts. It seems that if Connor wants to end the practice of unwinding, he probably should not be the receiver of an unwind’s arm, even if this outcome was not his choice.
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