American Government in Unwind By Neal Shusterman Essay Example

📌Category: Books
📌Words: 635
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 25 March 2022

The American government in the novel Unwind, by Neal Shusterman signs the Bill of Life in order to end the second civil war known as the Heartland War, which was fought over abortion. The bill was a compromise where human life was not allowed to be touched from conception until the age of thirteen, as such the parents when their child reaches the ages thirteen to eighteen would be able to have their child “unwound” through the harvesting of their body parts to be donated to others in need. As one reads the book however, the reader will meet many runaway unwinds that bring into question the whether or not their Government should be able to determine the worth of their lives over others. By empathizing with the stories of these runaway unwinds the answer is easy to see, that no, the government does not have that right. 

Let’s look at an example from the book where the Bill of Life has done more harm than good. In Part Two: Storked, a reiterated theme is the huge surplus of unwanted babies, so much so that the government had to implement a law called ‘storking,” where mothers of newborn children could leave them at a stranger's doorstep leaving them legally responsible for the child. Through Connor’s memory of an incident where his family was storked and then the baby was illegally passed around the neighborhood until it reached them again, it’s clear that a storked baby is not often a welcome responsibility. Not to mention Risa’s experience with the hundreds of infants that were put into the state home she was in. In this part Risa remembers a conversation with Nurse Greta from when she was in the state home. The nurse was old enough to remember times before the war when they’re weren’t so many unwanted babies because there was an option to terminate the pregnancy. The sole reason that Risa was meant to be unwound was because the state home she was in didn’t have enough funding due to the amount of babies, so they decided to “cut” the teenage population of the home by ten percent. Risa was average, and that was enough for the government to decide that her life was not valuable enough for her to remain whole. Even those who aren’t average like Connor and Roland who are considered bad or scary, that still doesn’t give anyone the right to decide they’re worth because they will never be given the chance to grow and develop into better people.

However, it is arguable that because the Bill of Life was signed in the first place, that it does legally give the government the right to weigh the value of people's lives. The key word here is legally, this book is a clear example of a dystopian society giving context to the fact that while the government may be in the legal right to make this decision that does not make it ethically correct. In Part Two: Storked, Risa and Conner discover people willing to help them such as Hannah the Teacher, and Sonia, the woman who’s basement they hide in along with three other runaway unwinds. They then discover that there is a whole system dedicated to helping kids like them. This shows them that there are many people who don’t  agree with the practice of sending children off to have their organs harvested. 

By giving the government the power to decide the value of one life over the other, this society has only led to a decline in the worth of human life and a place where teenagers as young as thirteen are forced to run for their lives. Reading Risa, Connor, and Lev’s perspectives as well as hearing about the other three unwinds they met, leads to many pervasive questions about the sanctity of life and how a government power should affect it. But one thing is clear is that the Bill of Life was never a compromise and placing that power into the hands of the government has only only caused suffering and created burdens upon their society.

+
x
Remember! This is just a sample.

You can order a custom paper by our expert writers

Order now
By clicking “Receive Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails.