Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Unwind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Inequality, Injustice, and the Law
Anger, Violence, and Radicalization
Activism, Compassion, and Atonement
Morality and Perspective
Summary
Analysis
The Graveyard is in Arizona and houses more than 4,000 planes. The Admiral’s rules are that kids don’t have to stay and that they’ve earned the right to be respected. They must follow his rules and treat their lives like gifts. He insists that these kids are better than those who would unwind them. Everyone must pull their weight, and the kids can neither rebel nor give into their hormones. Once they turn 18, they’re no longer the Admiral’s problem, but they must go on to make something of themselves. The Graveyard is a thriving business of selling parts of or whole decommissioned airplanes. The Admiral only employs one adult on the property: Cleaver, his trustworthy helicopter pilot. The Unwinds spend their days stripping planes for parts to sell, and they live in refurbished planes. The Admiral keeps his motivation for running the Graveyard private.
The Admiral keeping his motivations private again makes the case that there doesn’t need to be a reason for someone to do something kind and good for someone else. Further, the rules he has for the kids in his care, though strict, imbue the kids with the sense that he cares about them as individuals, and that he wants them to live and be successful—which is more than any other adult they’ve met outside his organization has been able to offer them.
Themes
