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
When the Chop Shop blew up, Risa was awake the whole time. She was trapped and couldn’t feel her legs, but she comforted Dalton until he died. The guitar player brought others back to free Risa. Now she’s in the hospital, full of steel pins. She still can’t feel her toes. A nurse lets Connor into the room and Connor says that Lev saved him. Risa says that Lev carried her out too. Risa realizes that Connor doesn’t know that Lev was a clapper and is the one who didn’t clap. As they talk, Risa notices that Connor’s right fingers aren’t his. She admits that she’s paralyzed and refused the transplant operation, as they would’ve unwound her then—as a disabled person, she now can’t be unwound.
While losing use of her legs is, of course, difficult for Risa to deal with on some level, she copes with her injury by thinking about things in much the same way that the Admiral did when he refused a heart transplant: it would be hypocritical to fight against this system while also allowing oneself to profit from it. Not having use of her legs doesn’t make Risa any less able to be an activist—in fact, it makes her an example of what the novel suggests people should strive for in difficult situations like this.
Themes
Connor rolls his shoulder and his sling shifts, revealing the shark tattoo. Connor looks away in shame and promises to never touch Risa with that hand. Risa thinks of how that hand held her against a wall and threatened her, but she only sees Connor. She beckons him closer and puts his hand on her cheek. Risa says that Roland would never touch her gently.
Having Roland’s arm with them, presumably for the rest of Connor’s life, means that both Connor and Risa will have a constant reminder to look at all sides of a situation or of a person.
Themes
