Response to Pregnancy - Janie

I agree with your thoughts on the pregnancy issue. The Bill of Life was supposed to protect life, but instead, more and more children are getting brought into the world for the mothers' fear of getting unwound, then those children are storked so that the responsibility no longer falls on the mothers' shoulders. Many of those storked children end up in State Homes, where there is no room, and when they reach the age of thirteen they are unwound. It's an absolutely ridiculous system that is so flawed, no responsibility seems to be taken whatsoever.

Pregnancy - Julia

I found it very interesting how the common way to prevent yourself from being unwound is by getting yourself pregnant, since a pregnant girl is protected by law from being unwound.
 On page 92, Sonia says, "'If you really want to stay alive, honey, have him get you pregnant again. They won't unwind an expectant mother, so that will buy you nine whole months.'"
This shocked Risa and Connor, and it also shocked me. I am wondering if this is part of the reason that there are so many more pregnancies in this society. Perhaps girls get themselves pregnant since the know for a fact that they cannot be unwound. Also, this can be paired with the fact that babies can be storked, so the girl does not even have to keep the baby. It's like the ideal idea (in this world)- get pregnant so you cannot be unwound, and then stork it so that you do not have to have the responsibility.

Response to Tithes - Janie

I can't really think of anything today that parallels with tithes because the morals in this society have become so twisted and warped. Some believe that tithing is "in the Bible," as Lev says on page 72, but in today's standards, this sounds absolutely absurd. I think that it's really the subtle hints that make this such a dystopian society; of course we know the main one is unwinding but if you look carefully at the words and actions of people, you can really see the characteristics of a true dystopian world.

Tithes- Julia

What do think of the idea of tithing? I think that it is a very interesting concept- that you are a special person, better than the others because you are willingly giving yourself up. It's almost like a brainwashing technique, because we quickly realize that the reason tithes are not supposed to be around the other unwinds at harvest camp is because the harvest camp leaders don't want the other unwinds making the tithes think that unwinding is bad. However, the tithes believe that they are not supposed to be around the other unwinds because they [the tithes] are better and more important that just regular unwinds. Tithes have more of a purpose, a duty. I was trying to think of something today in our society that could be compared to tithes, but I was having trouble thinking of something. Can you think of anything that is somewhat like a tithe?

Response to Nurse- Julia

I think that this is very true. It would have to be very difficult to keep your composure around a teenager who is absolutely terrified and is freaking out. I'm sure that after a while, though, you become used to what common responses are for kids. The nurse seemed to have very prepared responses to everything that Roland was saying.
"' I want you all to go to Hell.'
'That's natural.'" (Shusterman 291)
I still think that every single time you had to be in that room comforting a different kid, most likely all of them pouring their heart out to you, it would be very challenging, emotionally. It would take a very strong and tough person to be in that room. I certainly wouldn't be able to do it.

Nurse - Janie

I know we've previously discussed the creepiness factor, etc. of the unwinding process. We've analyzed how unwinding looks to an unwind. But what about to the nurse who was in charge of keeping Roland calm? By law, they must tell the unwind every bit of his unwinding process. But what effect (mentally, emotionally...) would the process have on this nurse?


I can't imagine that when unwinding was first legalized the nurses were able to keep their composure. Watching an extremely terrified teenager being taken apart, frantically trying to remember things that have happened over the course of his or her life, has got to be emotionally exhausting for anyone with even a shred of compassion. I would guess that after years of doing this that the process becomes numbing for those involved (with the exception of the unwind, of course), and that the nurses have learned to supress their emotions and see unwinding as just another day at work.

Response to Risa's Story Response- Julia

What you said did bring up a good point- perhaps they do unwind the more talented/smarter kids first. They probably are of a higher demand, since people probably want smarter brains/more skilled hands, etc. I wonder if you have to pay more for better body parts. For example, maybe a smarter person's brain costs $2000, however a person's brain who is maybe not as smart only costs $1000.
On page 126, Cy-Fi says, "'My dads even paid off the surgeon so I'd get an entire temporal lobe from an Unwind- no offense- rather than getting a buncha brain bits, like people are supposed to get.'" So, according to this passage, you could pay more to get more choice body parts.
Anyway, what you said did make sense, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true that the state wards did unwind the smarter or more skilled kids first.