Today you are holding a digital discussion:
1st-respond to one of last week’s questions (linked above)

2nd-post one of your answers from yesterday’s assignment that connects a current issue to your book (linked above)
3rd-Give peer feedback or engagement with 2 people
(detailed instructions are on the document, and you can see my example)

- How does...connect to…?

- What do you think is wrong with...?

- How is...symbolic of…?

- What have you noticed about...?

- If you were to make a prediction at this point...?

 

How do your characters seem to FEEL within their world? They feel hated, unwanted, and they feel like what’s happening to them is unfair. They are also extremely confused.

Global Issues: Teen Runaways
In the 1950s and 60s, teen runaways began to be a big problem. Many abandoned middle school norms and “conventional” ways of life. In the 1970s, many acts of crimes were committed, such as drug use and prostitution. Many of the runaways have problems with their families and or their loved ones. The article says that the main reasons teens run away have to do with being in control of their own lives and to escape negative situations. The article also states that most runaway teens want to regain connection with their families, but some don’t want to at all. This issue is important in today’s society because the government/the world needs to take initiative to start helping teens in their home life or their life period so that they don’t ever contemplate running away. Like the article says, “More services need to be provided to runaway teens that help whole families address the problems at home, she concludes.” This topic is related to “Unwind” because the main characters are runaway teens and the reason they’re running away is so that they can find meaning in their life because their parents/society is making it seem like their lives don’t matter.

In this world it is normal for a kid to become unwound, even before kids are born it is decided for them to be unwound. It is normal for newborns to be left at doorsteps to be unwound but everything else in their world is just like ours except for people with abnormal looking body parts that aren’t theirs in the first place. The characters in story (Lev, Connor, Risa)

Global Issue: Teen Runaway
The article states, “the choice to run away is an attempt to exert control over what the teen perceives to be an intolerable situation.” The article states reasons on why teens run away from home including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. The issue is important in today’s society as there are more homeless youths and just overall a lot of more runaways in today’s society than ever. The topic “teen runaway” is related to Unwind because in the novel, Connor (a teen) decides to run away from home because of the situation he’s been put into where he has no choice but to unwind. He’s escaping for a  better life than what will become of it if he stays. 

The ongoing debate of whether it should be legal or illegal to get an abortion has many points from both sides of the argument. People on the pro- life side think that preforming an abortion at anytime during a pregnancy is as worse than killing a human. On the other side pro-choice people think that removing a undeveloped clump of cells is no difference from taking a plan b pill or taking birth control to prevent pregnancy. They argue that the “baby” is not developed enough to even be classified as a living human.  
       The high rates of rape and unconstitutional sex in modern society is very relevant. This leads to a lot of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. As of September 1st 2021, abortion was voted to be against the law in the state of Texas. In the book Unwind, kids can be killed through the ages 13-18 if the parents choose to. This form of killing is like a form of abortion. The difference is the age that the “person” would be killed at. In the book there are people that agree and or disagree with the law of being unwounded. These people can represent modern day pro-lifers and people who are pro-choice. 

Also when abortion is banned, the only realistic choice that is left is adoption. In America's adoption systems kids are mistreated and overcrowded. It is a bad environment to grow up in. In Unwind people who have unplanned children stork their babies on people porches. When a baby is stroked the person's porch that is on is obligated to keep the child. This leads to people raising the kid just to kill them when they turn 13.

Global Issue Research
The news article talks about how teen angst is shown in a play, and why that makes it so interesting to watch. Teen angst is teens' feelings, specifically the feelings of worry or dread. I think this topic is related to Unwind because of how all of the teenagers between ages 13 and 18 are constantly worried about being chosen to be unwound. For example, the extent that Connor went to escape getting unwound. He was so worried about it that he went to the lengths of running away and going into hiding. This issue is important today because teenagers constantly worrying, dreading, or being insecure about something can affect their daily lives and future. It can cause them to potentially act differently, or make poor decisions in hopes to get rid of or avoid some of those feelings. This article explains how they visually showed teen angst in a play, and the effect it had on some characters. It shows the emotions that they went through, and how they expressed those emotions, whether it was negative or positive. 

Describe the Setting of your novel? Does it work FOR or AGAINST your characters?

It definitely works against police officers. The setting changes many times because the characters are on the run and are basically hiding. It works for the main character because they are constantly on the move and they have many places they could hide but it works against the government because they are constantly on the move.  

How do your characters seem to FEEL within their world?

Connor and Risa definitely feel betrayed and upset while for Lev there was really no surprise because he grew up knowing that at a certain age he would be unwound. 

Explain how the world of your own Dystopian book has gone AWRY. (What happened for it to be in its current state?)
The expectation of a perfect society has led to the government making it an option for kids to be unwound to get closer to what they want. 

Describe the Setting of your novel? Does it work FOR or AGAINST your characters? 

How do your characters seem to FEEL within their world?

What forms of control are being used within your novel? (technological, philosophical, bureaucratic, corporate--discuss all that apply)

Are the people in the story willing to accept the idea of change, or have they been so beaten down that they are no longer able to think for themselves?
People have been brainwashed to listen and accept what the government says. No one in the book so far has tried to protest directly against the government besides Connor and a few other run away kids. Everyone is scared of the government and what might happen if they say what they really feel.

What are some of the extreme or even bizarre effects of control that you are noticing? 

Global issues: Adoption
Adoption is legally transferring care for a child to biological parents to adopted parents. The article states how many different adoption systems there are and how long adoption has been around. I think unwind explores adoption because when a child is unwound by their parents, the child is basically getting given away, like for adoption. When a child gets unwound it means the parents signed a paper before the child becomes an adult to be sent away to a harvest camp, this reminds me of when the child gets sent away to an orphanage or a different family.  Adoption is important in today's society so that the care for a child can be top priority to make sure the child grows up right and in the correct environment.

The extreme effects of control that I'm noticing is that whenever a kid is known to be an unwind it's like their family doesn't care for them anymore. They sign papers to have their kid be unwounded and don't seem to show emotion about it or anything. Connor is an unwind and his parents signed papers to have him be unwound and they had plane tickets to go to the Bahamas. They had three tickets exactly for his dad, mom, and little brother, it seemed to be maybe a celebration or a way to forget about Connor.

Teen Runaways
The article explains that most teen runaways get away from dangerous environments because of either physcial, emotional, or sexual abuse. They say the teens that run away most times engage with bad decisions such as unprotective sex, drugs, or gang related activities. This issue is important in today’s society because many kids could be in dangerous environments right now and have thoughts of running away or plan to do so. There are still many kids that run off to an unknown place to get away from anything bad that’s happening at home that’s affecting them. Some kids, not all of them, after running away get into bad habits like maybe drugs, doing gang related activities or having unproductive sex very often. This topic is related to the novel because the beginning of the book is Connor planning to run away with a girl named Ariana who doesn’t actually end up going with him. He runs away and meets up with other runaway kids. They run away from their dangerous environments because they’re all being taken to become unwound, meaning being disassembled and used as parts for another person. They all run away simply to survive because they know what is gonna happen to them and they don’t want it so the three runaway kids team up to survive together till their eighteen.

How do your characters seem to FEEL within their world? They feel hated, unwanted, and they feel like what’s happening to them is unfair. They are also extremely confused. 

What forms of control are being used within your novel? (technological, philosophical, bureaucratic, corporate--discuss all that apply) Technological because they were tracking Connor when he ran away. Philosophical because everyone thinks that unwinding is the right thing to do and everyone agrees with it.

Global Issues- Population Control
Chinese families have been majorly affected by population control. Here are some of the things that they have to do. they have mandatory birth control, forced abortion and sterilization. The United Nations supports China's policy. Families are only allowed one child. This issue is important today because it was in effect until 5 years ago, but now they are limited to two. unwillingly will have to abort in fear of illegally baring a child into the world. In my book Unwind, if the child is not doing anything to help the world, they are set to be unwound. unwound is being put to death in order for them to harvest organs and decreases the population of “useless” people. 

This issue is very important in today's society because tons of thousands of people deal with medical issues they cannot control, for example, cancer is something that can cause these vital organs to fail. This is why there are certain people who choose to give their organs away when they die. This can be found on a driver's license. 

This topic is VERY related to Unwind because the whole book is about how kids are getting unwound and donated to give their body parts away. The reason is completely different than what medical doctors deal with in the real world, but in this dystopian book it deals with much more than just organs. 

Explain the government in your book. Who’s in charge? How do they function? Which citizens are aligned with the main ones in power?

Explain how the world of your own Dystopian book has gone AWRY. (What happened for it to be in its current state? 

The society seems somewhat to have gone desensitized and brainwashed, it seems that children who aren’t even “misbehaving” are to be unwound. For example, the character Risa has done nothing necessarily wrong but has been given up, because the shelter “doesn’t have enough space” to take her in anymore.

Describe the Setting of your novel? Does it work FOR or AGAINST your characters? The setting of the novel is never described in the year that it takes place, but rather a fictional time, after America’s second civil war and the Bill of Life has been placed (a form of agreement between the pro-choice and pro-lifes). The setting works against our characters, who are to be unwound (⅔ against their choices).

How do your characters seem to FEEL within their world? The characters seem to feel very unsafe in the world they live in. Even though some of the characters aren't against being unwound, most of them seem very scared to go through so much change.