Companionship in Macbeth and Unwind

Companionship is necessary to almost everyone. Having a trustable companion can greatly influence one’s mindset and actions. The strength of companionship is so powerful that it could help one to overcome catastrophic situations. In the book Unwind and play Macbeth, Shusterman and Shakespeare use the characters they’ve construct to demonstrate how companionship could support one at their most desperate stage and saving them from making mistakes that would ultimately cause failure and how lack of companionship would do the vice versa.

In the book Unwind, the companionship between CyFi and Lev saved CyFi when he was losing self-control. When CyFi was having a mental breakdown because he was upset that the Tyler part of his body is steadying gaining control of his mind, lev helped him and took care of the problem together. “Lev wants to put his arm around Cy's shoulder like an older brother to comfort him, but he just can't bring himself to do it. So instead, he pulls the blanket from the bed and wraps it around Cy as he sits in the chair.” (Page 140, Shusterman). This quote shows the care that Lev had for CyFi; without this companionship, CyFi would be struggling with his own identity. This act of companionship justifies how Lev could support CyFi at his weakest stage and took care for him.  Lev said, "It's all right, Cyrus. Everything's going to be okay."(Page 194, Shusterman). This quote demonstrates that despite the age difference, Lev is comforting CyFi at his breaking point to prevent further grief from CyFi. In conclusion, the companionship between Lev and CyFi shows how companionship is able to help one at their weakest stage and prevent them from further frustration and failure.

In the book Macbeth, Macbeth lost to his successors because he lacked the companionship to save him from failure. Macbeth’s only close companion was Lady Macbeth; however, the lack of her presence around Macbeth in the later part of the play led to the final collapse of Macbeth. In the book, Macbeth said, “This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness;”(Act I, Scene V)  One can accord from the title “dearest Partner of greatness that Macbeth must be deeply connected to his wife. One of the reasons for Macbeth’s collapse is that he ignored his wife’s suggestions, which caused to the situation to spiral out of control. Macbeth said, “She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,” This quote indicates that Macbeth was very upset about his spouse’s death and felt that the future is hopeless. However, if Lady Macbeth is still alive and accompanies Macbeth, the outcome of Macbeth would at least be less miserable if not a whole lot less. Thus, the lack of companionship from Lady Macbeth was the reason for the downfall of Macbeth. In conclusion, the contrast between of Lev helping CyFi from losing his mind and Macbeth’s failure because of the lack of Lady Macbeth’s accompany proves that companionship could support one at their weakest stages and deter them from making vital mistakes.

In the book Unwind, Roland demonstrated how loneliness could drive a person further down into the road of despair. Roland is protruded as a very oppressive character in the book. He would only use others for his own benefits; this kind of manipulative behavior left him with no trustable companions that would save him from his downfall in the end of the story. In the story, Roland says, “‘I had things under control before you got here. It's gonna stay that way.’ Then he hands Connor a can of Spam.” This quote justifies how Roland was being very arrogant and ruling over others, thus, he was not able to form a stable form of companionship that would later deter him from making the wrong decisions. At the end of the story when Roland is in his unwinding, he said, “I'm alone. And I'm crying. And no one's coming to the crib. And the nightlight burned out. And I'm mad. I'm so mad.” This quote shows how the lack of companionship can drive a character further and further down the road of mistake that would ultimately cause failure. In the end, Roland is an example of how a lack of companionship could lead to making the wrong decisions that would ultimately cause failure.