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
Connor never thought of himself as a mechanic, but he can’t stand it when people look at a broken thing wondering who will fix it. He starts by working on a fried air conditioner and his success means that the Goldens transfer him to the repair crew. The work keeps Connor’s mind off of both Risa and Roland, who wheedled his way into being Cleaver’s helicopter assistant. Other kids fear and respect Roland for this, but they all want Connor on their side. Hayden says it’s because Connor has integrity. Connor thinks that he is getting into fewer fights and is better at mastering his impulses, all thanks to Risa. One day, Connor asks if Risa is falling for Roland. She responds that when she accepts the food and blanket Roland offers, she does so because it means Roland will be cold and hungry.
Connor undergoes much the same development as Risa does as he finds his place as a mechanic. Deciding to fix air conditioners notably helps everyone be more comfortable in the scorching Arizona heat, so fixing them is an important way for Connor to support the community. When this earns him the respect of the other Unwinds, it also shows that behaving kindly like this is an effective way to build up a coalition.
Themes
About once per week, the kids gather under a canopy for the work call. The Admiral never attends, but he watches from video feeds. This makes Connor distrust the Admiral. One of the Goldens announces calls for work. Connor never raises his hand, as he believes that the Admiral is using them, but Hayden points out that unwinding makes unpaid work look good. After the meeting, Roland stops by Connor and says that he also dislikes the Admiral. Roland mentions that the Admiral’s teeth are clearly not his own, and it’s rumored that he keeps a picture of the kid they came from in his office. Connor reminds Roland that he hates him, but Roland insists they have a common enemy and walks off.
Connor’s distrust of the Admiral is understandable, since Connor has been given little reason to trust the adults who care for him. However, his suspicion stems from anger at not knowing exactly what’s going on—which then makes him vulnerable to Roland’s rumors about where the Admiral’s teeth came from. If true, of course, the Admiral would be a horrendous and evil villain, but Connor also knows that Roland isn’t trustworthy to begin with.
Themes
Connor thinks over Roland’s words for a week. He thinks that Roland is right—the Admiral’s teeth aren’t those of an aging veteran, and since the work call kids never come back, it’s impossible to say that they don’t just get unwound. Connor never voices his fears, as he doesn’t want to align himself with Roland.
If the Admiral’s teeth really did come from a kid he had unwound, it would represent a major abuse of the system he supposedly hates. It would be even more egregious than Emby’s lung—a situation that clearly necessitated as transplant—as there are far more ethical alternatives for fixing one’s teeth.
Themes
During Connor’s fourth week, a plane arrives. Connor watches the Goldens march the newcomers to the supply plane and recognizes Lev in the back. He drops everything and runs forward, simultaneously furious and thrilled. Lev, meanwhile, looks hardened and dirty. He smiles at Connor and the Goldens let Connor grab Lev. Connor punches Lev in the eye for betraying him, and then hugs him and says he’s glad Lev is alive. That night, Lev wakes Connor up by shining a flashlight in his face. Connor points out that Lev is breaking rules, but Lev just tells Connor to never hit him again. Lev leaves and Connor can’t sleep. He knows something happened to Lev.
Even if Lev isn’t necessarily violent when he wakes Connor up, his sneakiness and threats give the impression that he’d have no problem getting violent if need be. Despite this, ending up at the Graveyard also creates some hope that now that Lev is back with friends he trusts, he’ll be able to come to a better and more nuanced conception of how the world works and where he fits into it. In other words, he has the opportunity to gain new perspectives in a place like this.
Themes
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Two days later, the Admiral calls Connor to repair something in his residential jet, a former Air Force One. Connor is curious and afraid, but he’s disappointed to see that the jet’s interior is worn and faded. The Admiral greets Connor, puts away the gun that he’s ostensibly cleaning, and shoos away the young kids cleaning his cabin. Then, he explains his coffeemaker is broken and says he doesn’t grab a different one because he wants this one repaired. He says that he hears Connor’s name often and it’s always because Connor solves problems, even when it’s through fighting. In the kitchen, Connor notices the coffeemaker isn’t plugged in. When he plugs it in, it begins making coffee immediately. The Admiral grins terribly and tells Connor to sit.
Even if Connor interprets everything the Admiral says and does here as sinister and evil, pay attention to the fact that the Admiral says he wants to repair things, not replace them. Though Connor is too caught up in his fear and anger to catch this, it’s possible to read the Admiral’s comment as a subtle condemnation of the unwinding and organ transplant system, which replaces things rather than fixes them. The description of the Admiral’s “terrible” grin comes from Connor’s perspective, which again suggests that it’s just his interpretation that makes it look that way. The reader, therefore, shouldn’t necessarily believe his characterization of the Admiral.
Themes
Connor catches sight of a smiling boy about his age. The boy’s smile looks just like the Admiral’s, proving Roland’s suspicions. When the Admiral asks, Connor admits he doesn’t like him. The Admiral says that Connor thinks he’s a slave dealer who uses Unwinds for profit. He asks Connor to think of why a decorated admiral needs to sell children. Connor snaps and says that the Admiral is “power hungry” and chooses parts from kids he unwinds. He points out the Admiral’s teeth and asks what parts of him the Admiral wants. This surprises the Admiral, but he rips out his teeth and throws them on the table. Connor screams.
Given how tuned-in the Admiral seems to the whims and fears circulating through the Graveyard, it’s genuinely surprising that he isn’t aware of the rumors surrounding his teeth. This reminds the reader that the Admiral isn’t infallible and is liable to make mistakes or miss things, just like anyone else. Again, though this goes over Connor’s head a bit, it also humanizes the Admiral for Connor and makes him more willing to listen to what the Admiral has to say.
Themes
The Admiral explains that they’re dentures, which used to be common before unwinding, although today it’s cheaper to get an Unwind’s teeth. Connor looks toward the photo, and the Admiral says the boy is his son. Connor apologizes, and the Admiral explains exactly where the money goes: operating costs and bribery, for the most part. The Admiral asks if Connor believes him and says that he’s going to show Connor something worse than false teeth.
Dentures are extremely expensive—they can cost several thousand dollars in many cases. It’s worth considering, then, how it’s less expensive to harvest full sets of real teeth from Unwinds. This suggests that there are a lot of Unwinds, for one, and that unwinding is a normalized, subsidized, and inexpensive practice.
Themes
Half a mile away, the Admiral stops his golf cart at the FedEx jet that brought Connor to the Graveyard. Connor notices the five graves as the Admiral instructs him to find crate number 2933. Connor screams when he sees what’s inside the crate: the Goldens, dead. Outside the jet, the Admiral says that the Goldens died by suffocation and in the same crate as the first five boys. He adds that whoever did this took out the five most powerful kids, presumably to shake up the power structure. Connor thinks of Roland, but he doesn’t think Roland could do this. The Admiral says that the culprit wanted him to find the Goldens, and that now he has no spies. He asks Connor to help him find the culprit and to return tonight to bury the bodies in secret.
Connor’s willingness to recognize that Roland probably doesn’t have this kind of violence in him speaks well of both Connor and Roland. It shows that while Connor still sees Roland as a threat, he recognizes that Roland has limits as to what he’ll do. For Roland, it suggests that even if he’s dangerous and violent, his maliciousness doesn’t extend quite this far. Connor is able to come to this recognition because he can now control his anger and doesn’t jump to conclusions anymore.
Themes
The next morning, the Admiral announces that he sent the Goldens to organize new safe houses. Roland betrays no reaction and seems distracted, but this is possibly because he’s been learning to fly the helicopter and wants to get to work. He gives rides to lots of kids when Cleaver isn’t around, which allows him to spread rumors about the Admiral. Connor works hard to keep his mouth shut.
Connor decides to install a mister under the wing of the recreation jet, both for comfort and so he can listen to conversations in the jet. The problem is that kids want to help and hang out with him. Roland points out that Connor is “the Admiral’s new golden boy.” Hayden interjects that lots of kids, including Emby, have been up in the Admiral’s jet. Emby squirms and says that the Admiral is curious about his family, but Roland insists that the Admiral wants Emby’s hair. Connor yells at Roland for picking on Emby, but Roland brushes him off.
In Roland’s defense, the idea that the Admiral is interested in Emby’s family is somewhat suspicious, if only because it seems unusual that the Admiral would take an interest in anyone’s family. When Hayden jumps to defend the Admiral by pointing out that he talks to lots of kids, however, it shows that Hayden already understands the importance of looking carefully at all sides of a story rather than jumping to conclusions.
Themes
That night, Connor tells the Admiral about his suspicions regarding Roland. The Admiral doesn’t let Connor leave and instead, says that he fought in the Heartland War—his scars came from a grenade. When Connor asks what side the Admiral was on, the Admiral asks how much Connor knows about the war. Connor admits he knows little. The Admiral says that there were actually three sides: the Life Army, the Choice Brigade, and the American military, which was supposed to keep the other two from killing each other. The Admiral was part of the military. He says that conflict begins with an issue, but by the time it balloons into a war, what matters most is which side is the most hateful.
When the Admiral mentions that by the time a conflict becomes a war, hate is the only thing that matters, he sets the stage for Connor to discover that whatever happened to resolve the Heartland War. Namely, the passing of the Bill of Life, which didn’t necessarily happen because people thought about it. Instead, it happened because people were overcome with hate and were unwilling to see others’ perspectives.
Themes
The Admiral says that before the war, right and wrong was turned upside down. People were murdering abortion doctors, while other people were getting pregnant and selling the fetal tissue. It turned into war until the Bill of Life came into being. The Admiral says he was there when people came up with the idea to terminate pregnancies retroactively, and at first, it was a joke—until the Nobel Prize went to the scientist who came up with the procedure allowing every part of a donor to be used in transplants. The Admiral and the military brought both sides to the table and proposed the Bill of Life with the intention of shocking them, but both sides signed it and were happy to move on, no matter the consequences. Soon, everyone wanted new parts and unwinding became big business.
What the Admiral says about the genesis of the Bill of Life goes against everything that Emby believed was true in the shipping crate. The Bill of Life didn’t come into being because people thought it made sense, it became law because it was going to solve the issue at hand—which the Admiral suggests was the war, not abortion. Then, when the Admiral points to the rise of unwinding as a profitable business, he explains why unwinding is still happening and why it’s so ingrained in society: there are people who are making lots of money off of vulnerable kids, no matter how unethical this practice is.
Themes
The Admiral nods to the photo, which is of his son, and says that Harlan was smart, but troubled. About 10 years ago Harlan started stealing, and since the Admiral was part of the Unwind Accord, he was pressured to unwind Harlan. The Admiral and his wife changed their minds, but Harlan was already gone. Connor is surprised that he feels sorry for the Admiral and offers condolences, but the Admiral says that Harlan’s unwinding is the entire reason Connor is here. The Admiral’s wife started a foundation in Harlan’s memory and the Admiral has saved more than 1,000 kids in the last three years. Connor knows that the Admiral is saying this to earn his loyalty.
When the Admiral essentially brushes off Connor’s condolences and says that what happened to Harlan is why he runs the Graveyard in the first place, the Admiral shows clearly how one’s poor past decisions can influence them to change their behavior and become an activist to make the world better for others. This is what the Admiral does with his teeth, too: he refuses to profit off of the system he’s trying to take down.
Themes
