UnWind
Neal Shusterman
About the Author
Plot Overview
Rising Action: Connor has left home and started to run and he stumbles into a truck driver who gives him a ride north. Connor is very tired and sleeps on the way and it is morning the truck has stopped and he realizes that the truck has been stopped by a Juvenile Officer and his father. Connor first instinct is to run which he does. Risa on the other hand is on the bus to the harvest camp and realizes there is no way she can run or get off the bus. Lev's parents are driving him to his unwind and his father hits the breaks and sees this kid in front of him and the kid grabs Lev and takes him as a hostage. When Lev's father hit the breaks that cause major chaos through the highway and Risa's bus crashed and the bus driver dies. Risa realizes this her time to escape and run away to the forest. Connor is almost hit by a car and the rear mirror hits him and he takes a kid in the car as a hostage. Its Lev and he sees a girl run into the forest and takes the kid. Lev tries to escape, but he is tranquilized. Connor meets Risa in the forest and all three of them are on an adventure to escape their fate. The juvey-cop who was chasing them got trapped by Risa and Connor and he tranquilized the cop. All three of them go to a town and try not to look suspicious and Risa plan was to pretend to get on the school bus because there was a cop and was looking at them funny. Right when they going to the bus the police stopped and waited until they went on the bus. Connor saw a baby on a doorstep and the kid open the door and told his mom they got storked, again. This made Connor angry and he decides to take the baby and he did not think it through and after that they had to get on the bus. The police looked at them strange as they were getting on the bus. After they went to the school they hid in the bathroom and Lev decides to betray them and tell the office that there are Unwinds in the bathroom. After doing that he regrets it after getting off the phone with his Paster, Dan. He pulls the fire alarm and this is RIsa and Connor way to escape. They find this teacher and they give them a location were they can hide and they start running. After going to the safe hiding place they find other unwinds and there is one that cause trouble, his name is Roland. He is socially superior and he does not like Connor and Connor has the same feelings towards him. They get sent around to different locations and they finally end up at the Graveyard
Conflict: Once Risa and Connor hit the Graveyard everything is fine and they are protected from the outside. They all get assign jobs and Risa a nurse job and Connor is the mechanic. The person in charge is called the Admiral and he feels there is something special about Connor. Connor does not trust him and the Admiral knows so he tells Connor something that no one knows. Some one at the Graveyard has killed five of his guards and two of his new arrivals. Connor needs to find out who it is and bring him to the Admiral. Meanwhile Lev is on an adventure with this weird kid named Cy-Fi before he comes to the camp. Connor knows who killed the five guards and two new arrivals, Roland. He suspects him and traps him, gets him cornered and puts him in a crate and questions him. Meanwhile while Connor is busy with Roland, the whole came becomes chaotic and the unwinds are trying to kill the Admiral and burn down the place. Risa is with the Admiral and the Admiral is on the floor not responding and there are a bunch of unwinds at the door banging. When Connor is informed about this he starts running towards the chaos and see this guy named Cleaver leading it. He is beaten up and bleeding and Connor runs up to him and tries to save him. Something slips out Cleaver mouth, how he killed the five guards and the two new arrivals. Connor was furious and left him to die. Connor stopped the chaos and got the Admiral and Risa out,but the Admiral was having a heart attack. Cleaver is dead so he can not fly them to the hospital the only person that could fly a plane was Roland. He agreed, but right when they hit the hospital he snitched that Connor and Risa were unwinds. He was caught too, but he made a deal with them to tell where hundreds of unwinds were. The Juvey cop already knew about the Graveyard and the deal was off. The government knows about the Graveyard, but the Graveyard helps keep unwinds off the street so they turn a blind eye. All three of them were sent to Harvest Camps. After arriving Connor notices that Lev is there too. Lev is informed that Connor is getting unwind and he has a plan to stop it. Once Roland gets unwound and Connor is next. Lev's friends help and all three become clappers, clappers make a person a bomb. One of his friends claps when a officer is near them and that creates chaos and when Connor is in the room where the do the uwinding, there is a clapper hidden in the room and she goes off. The whole building blows up and Connor walks out with a missing eye and a crushed arm. Risa was on top of the building because she plays in the band. A large metal rod lands on her and she became paralyze. Lev was the third clapper and did not clap. He tried, but he could not picture him doing it and instead he helped Connor and Risa before he was taken out by one Juvey cop.
Falling Action: After the bombing at the Harvest Camp, Connor found himself with a new arm and an new eye. He recognizes the arm it has a shark tattoo,it was Roland's arm. Connor knew what this hand did to RIsa and never wanted to touch with that hand because Roland almost raped her in the Graveyard. RIsa visits Connor and Connor sees what happens to her. Both of them cannot get unwind because Risa is disabled and Connor has someone else body parts. Lev ends up in a prison and he can not get unwind because he has the clapper chemicals in him so if though they get most of it out of his blood, but can not get rid of it.
Resolution: Connor takes over the Graveyard and he has help with his friends Hayden and Risa. The bombing of the Harvest Camp made it big and people could not turn a blind eye at unwinding. Protest started and the government lowered the age to seventeen. Lev became a famous face because he was a clapper that never clapped and he was an ex-tithe.
Dystopian World
Characteristic of the Dystopia
- Unwinding was viewed as a good thing
- The Unwinds live on fear
- Tithe are worshiped because the were "chosen"
- Freedom of speech were restricted
- The Graveyard was under surveillance
- The government was watching all the Unwinds
Dystopian Controls
I say this because it was advertise as the best solution for troubled children. Plus it was controlled by the government, but it was not a bureaucratic because there was no taping because they knew about the Graveyard, but did not act upon it. This one fit the best.