Unwind Part 5/5

In this section of the book I read pages 263-335. In the beginning of this section Connor, Risa, Roland and Lev are all at the harvest camp but don't know about the others being there with them. when Connor gets to the camp he is not treated like a normal unwind. He is taken on a walk around the harvest camp skipping the orientation. This walk is like showing all the other unwinds that the all powerful AWOL has been captured and that all hope has been lost. This just make the other unwinds feel more rebellious and in the presence of a hero. When Risa is brought to "Happy jacks Camp" she is treated like a normal unwind and is brought through the orientation. When she is interviewed they find out she is a good piano player so she is put in the Happy Jack Band that plays on the roof of the chop shop while the unwinds that are to be unwound that day are brought down the path. Risa does not feel it is the right thing to do and can't stand to look at them as they walk by. The only reason she has not dropped out of the band is because being in the band makes it so they wont unwind you for as long as they can. Lev went back to being a tithe when he got to the camp. Tithes were treated special, they had there own places to sleep and got good food. They had a schedule they followed every day and they had all the help and people they needed to be comfortable. Lev is against the whole idea of kids being unwound, so he becomes friends with two other kids that believe it is wrong also. One of the kids has the supplies to make them into clappers. clappers are people that put explosives into there bloodstream so that when they want at any moment they can clap there hands very hard and ignite the explosives and be a human stick of TNT. Lev and the two others become clappers and plan to blow up the chop shop. One day lev sees Connor and runs over to talk to him, then a counselor runs over to break them apart and get Lev back to his room. When the counselor talks to him about it he tells Lev that Connor will unwound tomorrow at one so he wont be able to disrupt Lev any more. When Lev finds this out he go in a panic. He decides that he needs to explode the chop shop before one in order to save Connor. The next day they sneak into the chop shop and do not explode it in time. Connor had just walked through the doors when the first explosion happened. Then the second clapper exploded taking down the rest of the shop. Lev doesn't have the guts to blow him self up but he sees Connor walking out of the rubble so he runs over to him and helps put pressure on his mangled arm and his eye that was missing. When the roof caved in the band was on top playing for Connors arrival. the band fell through the roof and Risa was trapped under a pillar that had fallen on her torso. Later on Connor wakes up and he is in the hospital with a new arm and a new eyeball. Risa has been awake the whole time and she is diagnosed with being paralyzed from the waist down. She could get it all replace with the parts of an unwind but because of her beliefs she will not take the transplant. Lev confessed to being a clapper and he is all over the news as the clapper that did not clap and instead save many lives. he was put in a padded room and strapped to a chair so he couldn't clap. They slowly gave him transfusions to take out the explosive stuff in his body. Because of this incident it created a lot of awareness in the public and there was a lot of rebellion and protests against unwinding. In the end Connor and Risa became boyfriend and girlfriend and Lev live on as the "clapper that didn't clap."

Unwind Part 4/5

In this section of the book i read pages 195-262. In this section at the beginning when they arrive at the final destination there are a list of rules that have to be followed. These rules are called the "Ten Demandments". These rules are put into place to make sure the kids know what to do and to show them what is expected of them. The demandments are: #1 You arrived here be necessity you stay here by choice. #2 Surviving has earned you the right to be respected. #3 My way is the only way. #4 Your life is my gift to you, treat it like one. #5 You are better than those who would unwind you, rise to the occasion. #6 Everyone in the graveyard contributes, no expectations. #7 Teenage rebellion is for suburban schoolchildren, get over it. #8 Hormones will not rule my desert. #9 At Eighteen you cease to be my concern. #10 Make something of yourself, this is an order. I think that these are great rules to be followed in order to keep everyone in order. When they First get to the graveyard they are assigned a job that they will do every day and Risa is assigned to be a medic. Connor's job is to be the mechanic. He has never know how to do anything mechanically but he is going to give it a shot. Ronald gives Connor the idea that the captain is to perfect looking for a war veteran and he thinks that when the kids are called to go on a secret mission and don't come back that they are killed and harvested to keep him looking good. Connor thinks about this for a while and he starts to see how it could be true in more ways. In the end it was all not true and the perfect teeth were just denture that had been made for him that matched what his sons teeth looked like. The captain then tells Connor his story about why he is doing this for all the AWOL unwinds and this makes Connor have more trust and loyalty to the captain. Lev on the other hand became very street smart while he was on his own and ended up in the connections of safe houses. he wouldn't tell the kids he was a tithe, instead he told them that his parents signed the unwind papers after he committed an armed robbery. By the time he ended up at the graveyard he was know not to be messed with and kids stayed away from him. In the end of this section cops find them and take Connor, Risa and Ronald to go to the nearest harvest camp.

Unwind Part 3/5

I have read pages 121-194. In the beginning of this section of the book Lev meats a new friend name Cyrus but he goes by CyFi. CyFi is also a runaway unwind but he like to say that he is a run-to. CyFi is a very interesting person, he can be very witty and smart but at times he just doesn't have any common sense. When they first meat he teaches Lev the easiest way to get free food without having to dig through the garbage or eat peoples leftovers. On the other hand Risa and Connor are being shuttled around from one safe house to the next. They are getting sick and tired of not being able to stay in one place. They end up in an old abandoned airplane hanger. There are many kids there, this is the holding spot for the start of the final journey. Risa and Connor both wait and watch to see if Lev will come in the next group of kids. While they wait they come up with a plan to take down Ronald. Connor is told not to "take the bait", this means that even though Ronald might try to get into a fight with Connor that he shouldn't fight back. Later they are woken up early one morning and headed into large crates to be taken onto planes and transported. they arrive in some junkyard for old decommissioned planes out in the southwest. Lev robs a pawnshop and has all the money he needs to be able to buy food. Lev now has the control between him and CyFi because CyFi has started to go insane and if it weren't for Lev he probably would be dead. when Lev and CyFi finally make it to CyFi's house his parents freak-out and call the cops. Then Lev gets furious at CyFi's parents for not accepting him back into there family so he threatens to kill them unless they promise not to unwind him. This has been an interesting part in the book and i can't wait to see what happens next.

Post #2 Part 2/5

For my second blog post i read pages 50 - 120. Throughout this portion of the book there were many twists and turns in the plot and the different character development. The three unwinds, Connor, Lev and Risa have all come together to try and stay alive for as long as possible. Even though Lev says that he is on their team they still feel that they need to watch what he does. In the plot many changes have happened, they find a stork baby and decide to rescue it and care for it. A stork baby is a baby that is not wanted by there mother so when it is born they mom can put it on a doorstep and leave it there to be raised by another family. Having the baby with them both helps and hurts there struggle to survive. The baby makes it so that the cop won't suspect them to be the runaways because they have the baby and that doesn't fit the description. But it also makes it easier to get caught when trying to hide and it takes a lot of effort and time to take care of. Throughout the adventure the baby plays a big role in helping them sneak past the cops and get help from people that normally wouldn't be willing to provide a hand. There is another big twist in the story when Lev runs away and betrays them by telling the police that he had been kidnaped and that they other two were hiding in the bathroom. Once he realizes what he has done he pulls the fire alarm for a last ditch effort to save his only friends and try to stay alive. There have been many great twist and turns in this book and i am looking forward to see what will happen next.

Mac B.

Unwind Part 1/5

The book I am reading is Unwind by Neal Shusterman. I read pages 1-50 for my first part. In the book there are three main characters Connor, Risa and Lev. All of the characters are signed up to be unwound in the near future. Being Unwound is when your parents or guardian don't think that you are good enough to live a full life so they send you to a harvest camp where you are killed and every part of your body is donated. Unwinding is supposed to be be a way for parents to kill there kids and have a way to justify the terrible thing they have done. Connor is a sixteen year old boy that gets bad grades and get in trouble a lot his parent feel that he is no good for society that is why they have decided he is to be unwound. Risa is a good student and musician that lives in an Ohio State home. They have run out of room that is needed for the better students, they have decided that Risa has reached her full potential and is one of the girls that must be unwound to make room. Lev is a thirteen year old boy that has lived his whole life knowing that he was to be unwound. from birth his parents determined that he was a tithe. A tithe is a person "knowing all there life they will be a sacrifice"(Unwind, 44). All of these kids end up in the woods running away from the cops because of a traffic build up on the way to the harvest camp. They all bond together with the common goal to stay alive and not get caught. by working together they are able to do thing that they wouldn't be able to do alone. The theme of the first part of the book is that there is more to life than being perfect. I think that this is the theme because these kids are not perfect but yet they are trying there hardest to stay alive and live another day. I think that there decision to run away and try to live a full life was the right thing to do. A person should have the right to decide whether or not they want to live. the writer has a different style of writing this book, every chapter it changes the view point on what is happening. So in one chapter you be seeing it through Connors eyes and in the next it will be through the personality of Risa. I like this because you are able to see what every character is thinking and you are able to relate to each character differently. This has been a great book so far and I am very interested to see what will happen next.

Mac Blankenship (Blankenater)