In Unwind, America is a contradiction. Although America stands on the ideals of personal freedom, individualism, and equal opportunity, for children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a signature can rob them of their freedom and turn them into a commodity. “To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as ‘The Bill of Life’ was passed… The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively ‘abort’ a child… on the condition that the child's life doesn’t ‘technically’ end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called ‘unwinding’”(Unwind Prolog). In other words, the idea of personal freedom that America stands for contrasts with the practice of unwinding which systematically and legally robs children of their freedom. In view of the law, unwinds are property. Those that run are hunted down. Unwinds have to fight to live. 

Similarly, America has been a contradiction since the country’s inception. The U.S. Declaration of Independence pronounces ideas of equality between all men and innate rights that all people deserve, such as a right to live and a right to be free. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”(U.S. Declaration of Independence). The Bill of Rights also acts to secure the personal freedoms of individuals in America. In contrast, slavery was a common practice in America. It was legal for people to own other people. Further, those people were considered to be property. The legalization of slavery contradicts the very idea that all people have a right to freedom because slavery by definition rescinds a person’s ability to be free. “The contradiction was written into the very fabric of the nation with the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, which, in setting the terms for determining the population of a state, excluded ‘Indians’ and to the number of ‘free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years’ added ‘three fifths of all other persons.’ In effect, each enslaved person counted as three-fifths of a person; convention reflected this expression of the law, since enslaved persons were effectively denied the 'inalienable rights' of personhood”(The Idea of America Wald). Thus, America has been a contradiction since the country’s inception. 

In essence, both unwinding and slavery contrast with America’s founding ideal of personal freedom as those practices rob individuals of their freedom. Therefore, unwinding and slavery suggest America is a contradiction. 

This parallels how slavery is economically profitable. There was demand for products like rice, sugar, and cotton. In order to decrease the cost to produce these products, they used slave labor. “What they knew was that there was an economy there, like rice and cotton and sugar, that had to be produced to make this economy go. They wanted cheap labor and they enslaved people”(How Race Was Made Scene on Radio). Thus, the demand for these labor intensive products created a demand for slave labor which created a demand for slaves. 

In essence, the practices of unwinding and slavery are about generating economic profit. 

This parallels the myth that slavery benefits the enslaved. To justify the enslavement of Africans, the idea was propagated that people with darker skin were uncivilized and beast-like. “Zurara portrayed slavery as an improvement over freedom in Africa, where, he wrote, ‘They lived like beasts.’ They ‘had no understanding of good, but only knew how to live in bestial sloth’”(How Race Was Made Scene on Radio). In other words, Europeans were helping Africans by enslaving them because through that enslavement, they were civilizing the bestial Africans. 

However, the idea that slavery is good for the enslaved is a myth. Enslaved Africans were treated horribly. The work they were forced into was grueling, families were often separated, and slave owners were allowed to reprimand their slaves however they saw fit. “The Virginia Slave Codes… [say that] when a slave is resisting his master, the master has the right to correct the slave. And if the slave is killed in that process of what they call correction then it wouldn't be counted as a felony. It says actually the master, owner and every other such person giving correction ‘shall be free and acquitted of all punishment and accusation.’ So, now you just have the ability of slave holders to just torture black slaves with impunity”(Made in America Scene on Radio). Similarly, enslaving someone by definition means taking away that person’s personal freedoms. Very few people would actually consent to that. 

In essence, the myth that unwinding is good for the kids being unwound parallels the myth that slavery benefits the enslaved. In both cases, an entity is trying to justify a morally wrong practice by promoting the fiction that that practice benefits the people it victimizes.

This parallels how the people who colonized America intentionally elevated poor white people by giving them privileges over minorities, especially black people, in order to break up class solidarity and minimize the chance of a poor person revolt against those in power. The “growing American peasantry was proving difficult to govern… periodically rising up in riot and rebellion, light skinned and dark skinned together. The political leaders of the Virginia colony struck upon an answer to all these problems… The Virginians legislated a new class of people into existence: the whites. They gave the whites certain rights, and took other rights from blacks… And thus whiteness, and to a degree as well blackness, was born in the mind of America. As of the 18th century whites could not be permanently enslaved as they sometimes had been before, and black slaves could never work their way to freedom… This plan worked gorgeously. It broke all efforts of the majority of people, African or European, to fight for civil and political rights in America against a landed class that ruled everything”(How Whiteness Got Made Norton). Additionally, Bacon’s Rebellion and the story of Punch prove that solidarity existed between poor white people and poor black people in America (Made in America Scene on Radio). In response to these events, laws were made to break up this class solidarity. Those in power legislated privileges to white people that extended to poor white people and gave white people power over black people. “It reduced a portion of the people to the status of the negro slave, and gave the poor but now white people a precious and entitled inch to stand above the permanently enslaved on the social ladder. The next thing the politicians did sealed the deal: they paid poor whites a bounty for runaway slaves, and often made them overseers for slaves, turning every poor white in America into a prison guard against the people who had once been their neighbors and allies”(How Whiteness Got Made Norton). In doing so, the allegiance of poor white people shifted from other poor people to those in power. 

In essence, Proactive Citizenry’s effort to drive a wedge between parents and children parallels how lawmakers in America broke up the class solidarity of poor people in America. In both instances, the people in power are intentionally creating division between the people they govern in an effort to prevent a revolution that could dethrone them. 

Similarly, Proactive Citizenry funds movements intent on committing violent acts, such as the Clapper Movement and the Stork Brigade, further perpetuating the myth that children are violent, dangerous, and should be unwound. 

Further, Proactive Citizenry creates Camus Comprix or Composite-Prime, a person completely made of unwound parts— a rewind. Proactive Citizenry makes Cam to spread pro-unwinding propaganda and acclimate the general public to the idea of rewound people. Later, it is revealed Proactive Citizenry intends to manufacture hundreds rewinds and sell them to the U.S. military. They intend for Cam to be the face of it all. In other words, Proactive Citizenry profits from unwinding. Thus, the institution acts to promote society’s dependence on unwinding. As it is explained in the novel, “Unwinding is the single most profitable industry in America- maybe even the world. An economic engine like that protects itself”(UnSouled Pg.326). 

This relates to how laws, policies, and systems in the U.S. have continually been made with the intention of advantaging white people and disadvantaging minorities so as to keep the people in power in positions of power. For example, in Virginia in 1705 laws were passed that required freed white indentured servants to receive land, money, food, and a musket (White Affirmative Action Scene on Radio). Meanwhile the Virginia Slave Codes, which were also passed around the same time, increased the control slave owners had over their slaves (White Affirmative Action Scene on Radio). Additionally, in 1934 the home-buying process changed to require a smaller down payment and allow for longer mortgages. Low interest rates and low mortgage payments created a high demand for houses. However, people living in mostly-black areas were refused these loans. Thus, white neighborhoods got developed while black neighborhoods did not (White Affirmative Action Scene on Radio). Further, the 1944 GI Bill of Rights sent veterans to college. However, at the time, schools remained segregated and there were more white colleges than black colleges. Hence, while millions of white men attended college and got degrees which led to higher paying jobs, men of color did not have access to the same opportunities (White Affirmative Action Scene on Radio). Moreover, different rules were created regarding what race someone qualified as. The one-drop rule was used to determine if someone was considered black, whereas the blood quantum rule was used to determine if someone was a Native American. In 1924, America was passing its Racial Integrity Act. “The Act adopted the one-drop rule for Black people, declaring those with any African ancestry ‘colored.’ But the state held on to the Pocahontas Exception. It defined as white people with up to 1/16th Native American ancestry, keeping John Rolfe’s and Pocahontas’s aristocratic descendants inside the white people tent”(On Crazy We Built a Nation Scene on Radio). The one-drop rule meant that the most amount of people that could be considered black were considered black while only a fraction of people with Native American ancestry were considered Native American. Using these rules to determine a person’s race was advantageous to the American elites because it allowed John Rolfe and Pocahontas’s kids to still be considered white and inherit Rolfe’s wealth. Additionally, these rules created the maximum amount of black people, who were being used for slave labor, and the minimum amount of Native Americans, whose land would be easier to take if there were less of them. 

In essence, institutions that have power act to reenforce the systems that gave them that power. Institutions create laws and operate in ways that will sustain the organization, despite the immoral implications of those laws or practices. 

This parallels how settlers used religious justifications for taking over Native lands. They viewed the land as promised to them by God. For example, William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, describes the Pilgrims’ arrival in North America writing “they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries of it, again to set their feet upon the firm and stable earth, their proper element” and Bradford “compares himself standing on the dunes of Cape Cod to Moses standing on Mount Pisgah”(Pilgrims and Puritans Heike). In other words, the Pilgrims view the land in North America as entitled to them by God. Further, Major Mason uses religion to justify the slaughter of Native American women and children. “Major Mason 'went to his grave believing that the violence at Mystic pleased the English God… ‘Sometimes,’ he wrote, ‘the scripture declareth that women and children must perish with their parents… We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings’”(Connecticut and America). In other words, Major Mason is using religion to justify an extremely violent act. Some settlers also claimed they were saving the Native Americans by bringing them to Christianity. Thus, religion was used to justify the violence settlers inflicted upon Native peoples.

In essence, religion can be used to justify atrocities and uphold societal systems.

This relates to the myth of white superiority. The myth of white superiority is the idea that white people are inherently superior to people of all other ethnic backgrounds. However, the myth of white superiority is a fiction. There is no biological evidence that supports that idea that racial groups exist (How Race Was Made Scene on Radio). Similarly, all people are 99.99% genetically similar and all people descended from a common ancestor (How Race Was Made Scene on Radio). In other words, all people are similar. Thus, white people are not inherently superior to any other people. 

In essence, the idea that any person is inherently superior or inferior is a lie. Being storked does not make a person lesser than, nor does being white make someone innately superior. 

This relates to how there have always been people against American chattel slavery, despite slavery being a commonly accepted practice in America. For example, many people wrote Jefferson letters challenging his racists beliefs. “Jefferson in particular was constantly receiving letters from people in the United States and even in Western Europe who were challenging the ideas, the racist ideas, he put forth in his famous Notes on the State of Virginia” (Made in America Scene on Radio). 

In essence, not all people felt the same about unwinding which parallels how not all people felt the same about slavery. Thus, to defend someone through the claim that they are just a product of their time is a fiction because not all people think the same. The idea that someone is a product of their time or society is not a justification that absolves someone if they partook in an immoral practice. 

This relates to the myth that African Americans are safer in the North than they are in the South. This myth stems from the fact that the South fought to keep slavery in the Civil War, as well as idea that the South is populated with racist, uneducated, ignorant people. However, in reality, there were Northerners that supported slavery. Further, African Americans have faced violence in both the North and the South. For example, in 1863 there were draft riots in New York “in which thousands of mostly Irish working class men protested— it started out as a protest against the draft and then it turned into a race riot. And they attacked Black people and killed something like 120 Black people in a race riot”(That’s Not Us, So We’re Clean Scene on Radio). Thus, the North is no safer for an African American person than the South. 

In essence, for both runaway unwinds and African American people, it is a fiction that any place in America is safer than another. 

In Unwind, black is known as umber and white is known as sienna. In Unwind, CyFi is a law abiding, umber kid who has the temporal lobe of an unwind named Tyler. Tyler is sienna. He also likes to steal things. Sometimes Tyler takes over CyFi’s mind and causes him to steal. According to CyFi, “The stealing makes me mad. I mean, here I am, a law-abiding citizen, never took nothing that didn't belong to me my whole life, and now I'm stuck with this. There's people out there— like that lady in the Christmas store— they see an umber kid like me and they automatically assume I'm up to no good. And now, thanks to this kid in my head, they're right. And you wanna know what's funny? This kid was lily-sienna, like you. Blond hair, blue eyes… But other people— they don't see him when he steals. It's me they see. My hands grabbing”(Unwind Pg.139). In other words, Unwind subverts the stereotype that all black men are dangerous criminals by having CyFi be obsessively law abiding while Tyler is a thief. 

In essence, Unwind subverts the stereotype that all black men are dangerous criminals through CyFi. 

In essence, Unwind’s depiction of Native Americans subverts the myth that Native Americans are savage and war-like by portraying Native Americans as having a complicated society, being in educated professions, and having moral clarity. 

This myth is false because the Indian Princess and the Squaw are stereotypes. This myth perpetuates misperceptions about Native Women and Native Cultures. In reality, there is ample diversity among Native Women. Native American Women “are citizens of hundreds of distinctive Native nations that have particular cultural practices, languages, and precolonial histories, as well as experiences under US colonialism” (All the Real Indians Died Off Dunbar-Ortiz).

In essence, Unwind subverts this myth by portraying Native women with depth and nuance. 

This parallels how Native people in America tend to be taken advantage of. For example, the murder and rape statistics of Native women are disproportionately high. According to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, “Indigenous women have continued to bear the brunt of colonial violence, specifically sexual violence, both within families and by settler predators, and, increasingly, sex traffickers… One in three Native American women has been raped or experienced attempted rape, and the rate of sexual assault on Native American women is more than twice the national average”(All the Real Indians Died Off Dunbar-Ortiz). In other words, Native women face more violence and exploitation than the average women in America. Similarly, Native people were taken advantage of through manipulated contracts and debt cycles. For example, Jefferson expresses that “To promote the disposition to exchange lands, we shall push our trading houses and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt. Because we observe that when these debts get beyond what individuals can pay, they're willing to lop them off by the cession of lands”(Little War on the Prairie Scene on Radio). In other words, white settlers intentionally tried to use debt to leverage Native peoples into giving their land to white settlers. 

In essence, Unwind reflects how Native people have been continuously taken advantage of throughout history. 

This relates to the fictions surrounding Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus led the voyage that discovered America. However, in the years after his death, Columbus’s legacy was embellished. For example, “It was the first biography of Columbus (written by his son, Ferdinand) that reached a wider circulation and promoted the image of Columbus as hero and ‘discoverer’ internationally… Ferdinand had his own agenda in promoting the unequivocal exoneration of his father’s achievement… [He] lived comfortably off his father’s ‘new world’ discovery… and thus had a strong interest in securing his inheritance and the legal titles granted to his father, which in the meantime had been revoked by the Spanish Crown. It appears that many passages in the book had originally been written for a litigation procedure against the Spanish courts"(Christopher Columbus Heike). In other words, Ferdinand’s book embellished Columbus’s legacy, building him into the mythic figure he eventually became. People painted Columbus as being a figure of exploration and credited him with discovering America. 

In essence, both Connor Lassiter and Christopher Columbus became larger than life figures. 

Poem The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, portrays the Statue of Liberty as a symbol that people are free in America. Lazarus calls the statue the “Mother of Exiles” and suggests the statue says “Give me your… huddled masses yearning to breathe free”(Lazarus). In other words, America is a place where rejected populations can thrive and find personal freedom. Lazarus’s poem helps build the idea of America. This relates to Unwind because unwinds are exiles in a land where exiles are supposedly welcome. Similarly, unwinds are not free in a land where, according to the poem, people can come to escape oppressive regimes. 

In essence, Lev’s choice to stage his protest under the Statue of Liberty highlights the irony of unwinding as unwinding directly contrasts what the Statue of Liberty symbolizes according to Lazarus’s poem.