Neal Shusterman's Unwind: Review

In her article, On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto (2009), sociologist Alice Goffman uses data collected from her six year ethnographic study to explain how incarceration and threat of incarceration impacts daily life within a Philadelphia neighborhood. Her work focuses primarily on how policing and supervision in the neighborhood, referred to primarily as Sixth Street, impacts the lives of its poor Black residents. Gossman focused on the many men in the community that had warrants out for “minor infractions” including failing to pay court fees or breaking curfew, and the daily struggles they faced while trying to avoid identification and imprisonment. Using evaluation guidelines from Creswell (2013) and Anderson (2010), I have provided a critical review of Goffman’s research methodology and practices. I have highlighted many major flaws in her work, yet I have also recognized the promising advancements to sociological understandings that could come from her findings.

Eric Tang’s Unsettled is an ethnographic account of Cambodian refugees in the Bronx, New York that evokes a nuanced understanding of the refugee experience. Unlike many other ethnographies, Tang’s work centers around one individual named Ra Pronh, a fifty year old woman who survived the Cambodian genocide and has lived as a refugee for most of her life. The bulk of his work draws upon two main sources: Tang’s notes that are gathered from his work as a community organizer in refugee neighborhoods and his interviews with Ra Pronh over a three year time period. Throughout his interviews with Ra, Tang often encountered a language barrier with her. There were times where Ra’s children would translate her words from Khmer to English for Tang to

My Abandonment is a fictional novel by Peter Rock. In this story, Rock tells us about a father and his daughter Caroline, who have spent their lives living in isolation deep inside a forest. The book describes their time in the forest, their capture by police, and the life that transpired afterward. As you read the book it is hard to not feel there may be more to their backstory. Caroline seems to be smart, happy, and aware despite her circumstances.

“In the Loop” by Bob Hicok and “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney are comparable in terms of their symbolic titles, speaker’s perspective, and tragic themes. These two poems diverge only in their physical structure, as neither has rhyme nor meter.

The dystopian novel Unwholly, the second book in the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, is a twisted story of a futuristic world where life is not valued in the same way as it is today. When government advertises and pays citizens to make bad choices, it makes the society corrupt and inhumane. One corrupt thing about this society is that parents can choose to ‘Unwind’ their children. Unwinding is when parents can turn their kids over to the government and the government takes the children apart and uses their body parts for different purposes. A possible theme for Unwholly is that by following a corrupt society, people begin to develop selfish behavior.

Sookan changes in many ways throughout the book Year of Impossible Goodbyes when faced with the following situations: When she sees grandfathers toenails, when she goes to Japanese school, and when she is free in the south. For the first time ever Sookan's grandfather asks her to wash his feet. She feels honored that he asked her, because her Mother always does it. Sookan then realizes maybe why he never asked her to. "But no toenails! At first, I thought it was strange, but then it occurred to me. Sadness washed over me like a big ocean tide. My fingers trembled as I went over each toe with lemon oil. My head started to throb as all the horrible stories l had heard of Japanese cruelty went rushing through my mind.l held his toes in my hands." (Choi 44) Sookan immediately felt honored to wash her grandfather’s feet, but she

There is a saying that goes: “When we acknowledge the value in every human life and witness such, we thrive and succeed and protect one another” (Invisible Children). The value in life is a prospect that should not be suppressed, even in times of hardship. Conveying this message through literary elements can be tough at times, therefore leaving the theme unclear. Neal Shusterman’s Unwind counters this standard by using character development as a means of portrayal. Shusterman’s main character, Connor, adapts realistically to a situation where the safety of his life must come first, consequently illustrating a change from impulsive to reflective. Additionally, the conflict in Unwind that Connor encounters plays a role in compelling him

Obesity and mental illness cause constant struggle in the life of Dolores Price, and social and behavioral aspects of family, social network, socioeconomic status and behavior change play vital roles in the health issues that she endure. She's Come Undone follows Dolores and her struggles with health and behavior problems from childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. We first meet Dolores as a happy, care-free child, but when her father leaves Dolores and her mother unexpectedly her life becomes a downward spiral of anger and depression. Comforting herself with binge eating, television and smoking after being sexually abused by a neighbor, Dolores constantly rejects her mother and grandmother's love and nurture and struggles

For this essay, I will be examining the article “Absurd Self-Fulfillment,” written by Joel Feinberg. I will be pinpointing the central conclusion of this article, as well as the argument’s premises and the article’s central argument. I will also explain how the article relates to the film Being John Malkovich, and finally the school of philosophy, which we call “existentialism” and three of its central tenets.

In recent news, “The U-Conn. Huskies” star guard, Shabazz Napier, told reporters that sometimes he goes to bed “starving” because he can’t afford food. Although Napier was likely just craving a late night snack, a student athlete at the top of his game just being named most outstanding player should get the late night snack that he craves. Napier summarizes it very well in this statement “Napier told reporters: “We as students athletes get utilized for what we do so well, and we’re definitely blessed to get a scholarship to our universities. But at the end of the day, that doesn’t cover everything. We do have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food in. Sometimes money is needed.” Being a college student myself I understand that sometimes after the dining hall closes you sometimes still crave food or were unable to get in to eat while it was open.

In a postmodern world it is worth contemplating in what we can put our faith. Does culture, religion, or God merit our trust? Or is this a world of mechanical and biological evolutionary processes void of any meaning and purpose? The Sunset Limited, “a novel in dramatic form,” by Cormac McCarthy, is a dialogue between two persons who approach each other from opposite worlds to answer these questions. Black, a born-again believer and ex-con, and White, a nihilistic college professor, attempt to determine whether belief in God is viable in this world and if life is worth living. Despite Black’s efforts to convince him otherwise, White remains a Depressed Self who denies God’s existence, affirms his view of the world as deranged, and leaves to complete his suicide.

In Carol Dweck's video The Power of not Yet, she claims that when kids are given the grade of not yet instead of a failing the grade they tent to succeed more in school. The not yet grade giving them hope of achieving the goal instead of believing never accomplish the impossible goal. Giving them praise for the process not the grade. While I understand her reasoning behind this and somewhat agree, there are still unanswered question in her theory. Likw what happens when you reward them for son long that the reward becomes meaningless? Or when some who has actually tired, and succeed no longer sees the point trying because they all get the same reward no matter the outcome. Where is the challenge? There is a fine line between encouraging them

The Novella “The Body” by Stephen King is about a group of boys who all come from abusive dysfunctional families and this book is their journey to discover a dead body. They are young and their immaturity makes them excited to see a dead body but along the way, they begin to realize various things and begin to grow. In this book the four boys Gordie, Chris, Vern, and Teddy come of age. In this essay, there will be brief descriptions about three of the four of the boys from this novella. Chris came from a bad family and was thought to come out the exact same way as his family and was doubted his whole life. Teddy came from an abusive family where his father burned off his ears and took away his hearing. Gordie’s older brother Dennis had died and his family began to treat him like he was invisible and that their only child had died. “Coming of age is when an adolescent protagonist comes to childhood by a process of experience and disillusionment. These characters lose their innocence, discovers that previous preconceptions are false or has the security of childhood torn away, but usually matures and strengthened by this process” (Matthew’s Quote). In Stephen King’s novella “The Body” King shows through Chris, Gordie, and Teddy that a person cannot come of age unless they are able to come to contact with their emotions and reality and be able to forgive to move forward in life.

The author uses the idea of childhood innocence to his advantage through the novel. He is able to show the obvious bad parts of unwinding through various main characters feelings. Connor has feeling of betrayal that serve a way the reader can relate to the character, imposed when he explains his feelings of rejection “from the hearts of those who are supposed to love him” after finding out that he would be unwound. Lev also conveys with the readers his “fury at a universe pretending to be fair and just”. Along with clear faults in the process of unwinding, the author uses the viewpoints of his young characters to explore significant issue in our society. When Connor is being taken to the graveyard, he is forced to consider topics such as unwinding and abortion with three other boys in his crate. WHile they discuss issues regarding unwinding, Shusterman puts an emphasis on the topics that are relevant today. Emby represents the present day pro-life argument, while Connor takes the side of pro-choice, saying that a soul “comes when a baby’s born into the world”. Hayden admits to having started “our own little Heartland War”, connecting the boys’ discussion with the current debate of abortion. The author is not trying to push his beliefs

The government is coming to take you away! Government control is a common dystopian theme, as it is feared greatly by many people on this planet. Some people, such as the residents of North Korea, already are in complete government control and brainwashing. A recurring idea in government control is the government wiping out a certain percentage of people to keep the population down, which is usually the people with less intelligence than average. In Neal Shusterman’s “Unwind” the parents get to choose if they want to get rid of their child between the ages of 13 and 18, but there’s a catch. The “unwind” doesn’t necessarily die, rather his/her body parts are put up for sale, and a bit of the unwind’s consciousness gets put into each part. In Henry Slesar’s “Examination Day” children at the age of twelve