analysis & themes

Neal Shusterman claims that three things lead him to creating this story: reading an article that claimed that sometime in the future, 100% of human bodies will be useable for transplants, the topic of abortion, and political reports of teenagers going out of control in the United Kingdom.

Abortion: Obviously, the unwinding process is somewhat similar to abortion, but the novel doesn't blatantly state whether the process is "good" or "bad", and shows Lev's stance on unwinding, giving both sides of the argument.

Life: The main characters want to live, and their parents have no regard to their own children's lives. In this world, they insist that you stay "alive" through your organs, even if they are in someone else's body. This novel makes you think about what it means to be alive.

Identity: Throughout these children's lives, they are being evaluated based on their skills and talents, in order to see if they could best fit someone else. Many of the teenagers in this novel face an identity crisis of trying to please the adults in their lives, in order to keep themselves from being unwound. In this society, they aren't seen as a whole, but just as the sum of their parts.