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
Risa loves playing piano, but she’s horrified at the reason she’s playing. From the roof of the Chop Shop, she watches guards bring kids down “the red carpet” to be unwound. Dalton and the band ignore the kids. Risa asks how they can stand it. The drummer insists she’ll get used to it, but Risa declares she won’t. Dalton points out that this is about survival: either they play, or they die. Risa asks what happened to their last keyboard player. The singer answers that they took him a week before his 18th birthday, as they have to let them go if they turn 18 and lose money in the process. Dalton says that right before his birthday, he’s going to jump off the roof—it probably won’t kill him, and they can’t unwind him if he’s injured. The singer says she hopes they lower the legal age to 17.
Risa struggles here with the knowledge that she’s complicit in unwinding if she chooses to do nothing. Dalton’s insistence that this is about survival speaks to the difficult situation these kids are in—their survival does depend on playing along, but they also have to live with themselves as they bear witness to something that all of them suggests is cruel and immoral. The singer’s hope that the government will lower the legal age, however, is a hint that change is brewing outside of Connor and Risa’s world—and hopefully, for the better.
Themes
