Adolescent Fiction: Unwind

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Unwind

Unwind has many supporting events that follow the theme of choice. Laws that exist in the book take away the freedom of choice include storking and unwinding. These two laws prevent one or two parties from making a choice that could greatly impact their life. I feel that this novel is meant to depict to young adults what their lives would be missing if the freedom of choice was taken away from them.
Storking is a choice that affects the mother and the family that is storked. The mother no longer has the choice to abort an unborn child, instead they are given the option to stork their child by leaving it on the front step of a house for a family to find. Once the family opens a door they are then forced to keep the child. By taking away a mother's choice to keep or abort her unborn child you then take away the choice of another family as to whether they want to adopt a child or not.
Unwinding is a choice made by the parents and cannot be reversed once papers are signed. The child does not have a choice in whether they are to be unwound or not, and cannot escape the process unless they turn the age of 18 before they are unwound, and by the end of the book the age changes to 17. This is taking the choice of a life away from the child who is living it.
Throughout the book, adolescents are making choices to preserve their lives that were signed over to be unwound without their choice. Parent's are choosing to, for a lack of a better phrase, get rid of their children that they didn't have a choice to get rid of when they were pregnant. This book puts into perspective what would happen if choices regarding life were taken from us, I think it is a valuable lesson to anyone who reads it to cherish what choices they can make and to make sure they are the right ones.

1 comment:

AnonymousFebruary 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM
I did forget to mention stroking in my post. In the story they do talk about how along with the pro life decision. It is a right that a mother can choose to drop her child off at a doorstep and someone else will take care of your child if you feel like you can't raise it.
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Post #9 Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (due MONDAY, 4/30 by class time)

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup explores a number of themes, among them grief, identity, coming of age (Bildungsroman), friendship, love, and others. Kevin, our adolescent narrator, shares his story with us as a poetic narrative which includes poems written in conventional forms and free-form poems. Choose one theme which the book develops, and show its development through the text. As you do so, be sure to consider and articulate how the book's structure (as poems) affects whatever theme you discuss.

Post #7 Warriors Don't Cry (due Sunday 4/15 by 8 pm)

Choices for responses:

1. The title of this text refers to warriors. How are the characters warriors? Are you comfortable with that depiction? Why or why not? Be sure to offer specific description as you explore characterization.

2. While it could certainly be argued that the author of our last novel does place himself in the text, that book is fiction. This text is not; rather, it's a memoir. How does knowing that the book is non-fiction shape your reading of it? Does it cause you to respond differently? If so, how? If not, why not? Consider characters, events, and the historical context carefully as you respond.

Post #6 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (due Sunday, 3/25 by 8 pm)

Post #5 Annie on My Mind (part 2) due Sun 3/11 by 8 pm

You have several different options for your response:

1. How is social transgression framed and treated in the novel? Do you as a reader find that the characters are affirmed or punished for stepping outside of social conventions?

2. We've talked a bit about parallel spaces in texts, spaces in which characters encounter very different experiences. After reading this novel, can we argue that those parallel spaces never intersect? What function might those separate (or not so separate) spaces serve?

3. The story is written in the epistolary (letter writing) tradition. How does that framing affect your reading? Your interaction with characters? Your response?

Post #3 Due by Monday's class (2/20)

For this post, you have three options:

1. Respond to some theme you identify in the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the book.

2. Apply the article's claims to the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the article and the book.

3. Examine the novel as science fiction. How is it both utopic and dystopic in its function? What might it be warning us as a society against? Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the text.

Post #1 Due by Thursday's class (1/26)

Ellen Raskin's novel The Westing Game is a detective novel, yes, but we can tease out many themes as we examine the text. A few we introduced and explored briefly in class today:

the Cinderella effect

the roles of women

identity construction

gaming and strategy

trust (as it relates to other themes or on its own)

oppressive/repressive (think Trites) parents

Choose from a theme on this list or choose a theme you've noted in the text, and write about the way the theme is introduced and developed through the novel. As you show how the theme works throughout the book, be sure to offer specific examples to support your ideas.