Challenging Destiny
“He knew he was a tithe from the time he was little. ‘You're special,’ his parents had always told him. ‘Your life will be to serve God, and mankind,’” (Shusterman 31). From the very beginning, this has been Lev’s destiny. He is the star student and athlete of his family of twelve, and he has always known that his supreme purpose is to sacrifice himself for God through unwinding, a process where his body parts and organs are separated to be used as replacements for others, but ultimately he is still alive. While this may seem reasonable for a character in a science fiction novel, his particular character contains a deeper message. Throughout the book as Lev has different experiences that contradict his entire upbringing, …show more content…
As he progresses from believing in what has been imposed on him by his family and pastor to running from everything he knew with “friends” he makes, such as CyFy and Cleaver, to returning to what he knows is right in his big rescue, his major role in the story is portraying the message not to just accept the future or choice that is presented, but to trust in what you learn and believe in order to make decisions. Lev begins as a young thirteen year-old at his tithing party, celebrating his last “whole” day before being unwound. As it explains in the book, unwinding is a procedure in which all the body parts are harvested from a child aged thirteen to eighteen to be used in surgeries for others. This was created as a part of the Bill of Life, a compromise between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice sides in the Heartland War as it technically keeps the child alive, but in a divided state, eliminating the child from the lives of others. While some teenagers are chosen to be unwound for behavioral or economic issues, such as the two other main characters Connor and Risa, Lev is different. He is the tenth child in a very religious family, who have planned his future out as a tithe. It states in the bible that people should give ten percent of what they have
“He knew he was a tithe from the time he was little. ‘You're special,’ his parents had always told him. ‘Your life will be to serve God, and mankind,’” (Shusterman 31). From the very beginning, this has been Lev’s destiny. He is the star student and athlete of his family of twelve, and he has always known that his supreme purpose is to sacrifice himself for God through unwinding, a process where his body parts and organs are separated to be used as replacements for others, but ultimately he is still alive. While this may seem reasonable for a character in a science fiction novel, his particular character contains a deeper message. Throughout the book as Lev has different experiences that contradict his entire upbringing, …show more content…
As he progresses from believing in what has been imposed on him by his family and pastor to running from everything he knew with “friends” he makes, such as CyFy and Cleaver, to returning to what he knows is right in his big rescue, his major role in the story is portraying the message not to just accept the future or choice that is presented, but to trust in what you learn and believe in order to make decisions. Lev begins as a young thirteen year-old at his tithing party, celebrating his last “whole” day before being unwound. As it explains in the book, unwinding is a procedure in which all the body parts are harvested from a child aged thirteen to eighteen to be used in surgeries for others. This was created as a part of the Bill of Life, a compromise between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice sides in the Heartland War as it technically keeps the child alive, but in a divided state, eliminating the child from the lives of others. While some teenagers are chosen to be unwound for behavioral or economic issues, such as the two other main characters Connor and Risa, Lev is different. He is the tenth child in a very religious family, who have planned his future out as a tithe. It states in the bible that people should give ten percent of what they have