A Brief Review Of Laura Hillenbrand's 'Unbroken'

When authors write about World War II, most set their stories in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, but few would give a moment of thought to the atrocities perpetrated by the Imperial Japanese Army in East Asia and the Pacific region. However, Laura Hillenbrand has brought us this heavily neglected side of the tragedy. By following the vicissitudes of a USAAF lieutenant named Louis Zamperini in her bestseller “Unbroken”, she pays tribute to all ex-POWs and soldiers that lost their lives on the Asian battlefield.

The American industrialist Henry Ford once said, “ Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes of bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character , and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction book Unbroken, the fearless Louis Zamperini epitomized Ford’s words when, he survived imprisonment for over 2 years only after his World War II bomber crashed into the middle of the Pacific . Thankfully Louie’s fearlessness helped him return home and share his story with the world.

The French emperor and arguably one of the best military tacticians Napoleon Bonaparte once said, ‘’Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.’’ In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie goes through trouble and fame as his life progresses from being a small town boy to a famous athlete and competing in the Olympics. Later, Louie joins the military when the Axis powers Germany and Japan declared war on the United States. This results in Louie’s Bomber crashing and him being both stranded in the Pacific Ocean and captured by the Japanese, where he must endure torture as a POW. Miraculously, Louie survives in these camps

The art of survival is something that is not easily learned. For some, however, it is something that comes from a natural desire to be defiant and rebellious. In the novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louie Zamperini fights for survival through a number of trials that are presented to him. His life takes him from being a troubled child, to an Olympic runner, to a bomber lost at sea, to POW in some of the worst camps Japan could conjure. Louie not only survives these trials, he stands up and goes directly against the normality and ease of submission and faces his adversity head on. Throughout the novel, Louie shows that his ability to survive stems from his natural urge to rebel and defy anything that he deems too controlling in his life.

Louie Zamperini is the type of person that has been through a lot of pain and happiness, making Louie much more complex of a person than most people. Louie is a person who started off as mischievous and then turned that into power for running, and won a lot races breaking records. He went to join the Air Force for the army, and then one day his plane crashed into the ocean and only him and 2 others survived the crash. He was next the found by the Japanese and was sent to a POW camp, and was a victim of many war crimes. The book “Unbroken ” by Laura Hillenbrand, shows Louie’s two character traits that most defines Louie are tenacious and fractious.

Michael J. Fox said, “One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized, and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s novel Unbroken, the author tells the story of the main character Louie’s life. Growing up, Louie always had a strong mind. He became a well known track star and with the pressure of running, he never gives up what he was passionate about. Louie Zamperini suffers through a difficult time as a POW, yet he is able to gain back his dignity by having stubborn optimism and a tenacious will to survive.

Laura Hillenbrand’s biography titled Unbroken recounts the life of Louie Zamperini and major events that occurred throughout it. Hillenbrand’s purpose was to emphasize the inspirational story of heroic Zamperini as he qualified and participated in the Olympics, as well as describe the endless struggle of pain in the plane crash and in the Japanese POW camps. She also portrays the importance of dignity and resilience and how without it, the chances of surviving the cruel events Louie experienced during World War II would have been minimal.

In Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, Louie Zamperini experienced many situations that were both lucky and unlucky. These events helped shape him into who he is and prove that sometimes luck prevails. The Green Hornet crash, the rescue from the sea, and the aftermath of the war are all examples of lucky and unlucky instances that Louie Zamperini faced that left him “unbroken”.

Courage in simple words means an act of bravery. Everyone has their own definition, for some the meaning is much more complicated for others it's very simple. When I think of someone who is courageous I think of my Dad and military individuals people who have fought for their country. People like doctors and scientists people who don't think about themselves when faced with a choice to give up. My definition of courage is a person that has the strength needed to do the unthinkable. Certainly, that is not just it. Courage takes a bigger picture of an act of bravery. When one is courageous enough to do what is right, he earned the utmost respect of human spirit. While some may see being courageous has to be doing a big thing, it boils down to a thing as small as saying “Sorry, I was

Even when the weight of the world is coming down and doubt is setting in, there still are powers to help carry on. Louie Zamperini, a famous Olympic athlete, was dragged down to a low level when he was captured by Japanese forces and suffered under horrendous conditions in the many POW camps he stayed at. Throughout all of life’s trials, he survived, due to his strong resilience and agency. He wanted to live, and even though he may have wanted to give up, he had plenty of things to live for. In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show the theme that people can stand up against enemies even when the odds seem stacked up against them.

In the book “Unbroken” written by Laura Hillenbrand is the full story of Louie Zamperini’s life. Published on November 16, 2010 by A Random House Trade publisher in New York that is a non-fiction. Hillenbrand, who could not travel to meet Louie because she has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, interviewed Louie over the phone for seven years. The book is five out of five stars for me because I truly am in love with the story of Louie and how devoted this book is to his whole life. This book shows you can start with little and make yourself rich from that.

9a. Courage and bravery- the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty,danger, and pain; making a fine appearance

Laura Hillenbrand chose to present Unbroken as the life story of an Olympic runner who happened to be captured as a prisoner of war, rather than a man whose only story is that of the war. However, much of the focus is his experiences in several different Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, and how it affected the rest of his life. Hillenbrand walks the reader’s through Louie’s life to help them understand and empathize with what he went through. The time spent on his childhood and career is meant to get the

People were mistreated during WWII and were tortured in POW camps. Louie Zamperini, a character and a real person from the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, was in the army during WWII and had to go through the torture of being a prisoner at a camp in Japan. In the book Unbroken, Louie was going to be a famous Olympic runner until the Olympics were cut short when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and caused World War II to start. Louie drafted in the air force and crashed on a mission; he had to live on a raft for 47 days without any food or water. He was washed ashore on a Japanese island and became a prisoner of war. He then had to go through many painful experiences until the war ended September 2nd, 1945. Internees also had to go through harsh times during the war. Both POWs

Robert H. Schuller once stated, “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” In the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie struggles with fitting in anywhere and staying out of trouble. He was constantly doing things to cause trouble and making mistakes. Pete, Louie’s brother pushes him to run to escape his troubles. Throughout Zamperini’s life, he gains perseverance which gave him the ability to survive through life.