A Critical Analysis Of Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand

Chapters 1–5 introduce an average boy who would become a remarkable man. Born in 1917, Louie Zamperini was the child of Italian immigrants. Growing up in Torrance amidst poverty and anti-Italian bias, Louie got in the habit of running outside the law. He started smoking when he was 5 years old and drinking when he was 8. He stole anything he wanted—mostly food, money, and whatever else he could find. He ran small scams and vandalized property. Pete, Louie’s older brother, became concerned.

Unbroken is a true story of a war hero who defied all odds of living during World War II. Laura Hillenbrand promotes the memoir by stating it is "An Olympian's journey from airman to castaway to captive." There are many literary techniques used to explain the story to the reader in a more unique way that makes the story their own or more relatable. In the memoir, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand promotes three techniques to make the eventful and complex story a page turner, irony, symbolism, and the four elements of humor.

Well-known nonfiction author Laura Hillenbrand, in her best-selling biography, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, describes the chilling reality faced by those living in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. As the title suggests, this is not the typical World War II tale of hardship that ends in liberation; rather, it follows the main character, Louis “Louie” Zamperini, through his childhood, Olympic performances, and military career leading up to his captivity, as well as his later marriage and many years of healing. Hillenbrand's purpose is to impress upon her readers the scale of this tragedy as well as remind them of the horror that so many nameless soldiers endured. She adopts an emotional yet straightforward tone in order to get readers to sympathize with the characters and truly understand what they went through. To do so, she manages to make the unique story of one man represent the thousands of others going through the same tragedy.

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis “Louie” Zamperini and the many challenges he faced throughout his life and his will to survive. Unbroken was an incredible and inspirational read. The main theme of Unbroken is when faced with challenges the human need to survive and the resilience that is needed to survive is powerful. There are many examples of the theme in Louie’s story which Hillenbrand broke down into five different periods of Louie’s life.

Comparatively Lindsay Murdoch presents an article, They were only 19 ... and some were even younger published by the Sydney Morning Herald on the 16th of February 2012. It explores the non-fictional sorrowful memories of the Australian veterans of WWII stationed at “Singapore, the Fortress of the Empire” before being captured. The visual is of the five men along with their evocative but accurate comment drawn from memories of an absolute reality. Ultimately, these texts provide the individual histories of men and women that were captured by the Japanese during WWII. Thus displaying their joint suffering on and off the battlefield as that is the reality of their situation.

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

During World War II, thousands of POWs experienced isolation and dehumanization in an Japanesethe attemptefforts of the Japanese to make them feel invisible. In Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, American POW and former Olympic runner Louis “Louie” Zamperini rwas just one of the many soldiers who was dehumanized while in Japanese

As we, Americans, look back on our country’s history, there are many proud moments, but there are other moments that we can all admit are a bit shameful. One of these shameful moments in American history is the Japanese internment during World War II. This time in history can be revisited in Toyo Suyemoto’s memoir, I Call to Remembrance of her and her family’s time in an internment camp during the war. She writes of the feeling of distrust the majority of the country felt towards the Japanese prior to being relocated, the process her and so many others went through to be relocated, as well as life in the camps. Suyemoto had a deep interest in poetry from very early in her life, and

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldiers, and the civilians. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-Americans citizens in the Unites States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POW’s, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné

Among this group of “Nisei” was the Uchida family from Berkeley, California. Yoshiko Uchida, the youngest daughter in the Uchida family was a senior at the University of California at Berkeley at the time of the attacks. Years later, Yoshiko became a prolific writer of children’s books (Sato 66). In her book, “Desert Exile”, published in 1982, Uchida gave a personal account of the evacuation and incarceration of her family during World War II (Sato 66). Uchida’s book raises awareness to the specter of racial prejudice and the hope that no other group of Americans would have to endure this type of injustice and violation of their human rights (Sato 66).

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.

The Japanese-American author, Julie Otsuka, wrote the book When the Emperor was Divine. She shares her relative and all Japanese Americans life story while suffering during World War II, in internment camps. She shares with us how her family lived before, during, and after the war. She also shares how the government took away six years of Japanese-American lives, falsely accusing them of helping the enemy. She explains in great detail their lives during the internment camp, the barbed wired fences, the armed guards, and the harsh temperatures. When they returned home from the war they did not know what to believe anymore. Either the Americans, which imprisoned them falsely, or the emperor who they have been told constantly not to believe, for the past six years imprisoned. Japanese-Americans endured a great setback, because of what they experienced being locked away by their own government.

In the first half of the historical nonfiction novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini endures many hardships in his life. These struggles make me feel sorry for him and the trouble he is in. As a child, he was unable to fit in, his peers considered him “a bad kid”. Louie would unfortunately steal things on the streets, and consistently get into fights with others, commonly for no reason at all. However, the positive side to his actions, was the speed and running ability he built up. I felt relieved when his brother encouraged his participation on the school track team. In a nutshell, Louie was a natural star. His large, skinny frame and long frame gave him ideal running characteristics. No longer was Louie a bad kid, he was a

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand was a very interesting story to read for the reason that the researcher does not revolve around one or only her outlook, so you get to hear everyone’s perspective on what was going on. I love how it tells from a researchers point because although she is telling the story of what was happening back in WWII she adds in things from the future. Some quotes in the text were said or written by the people whom she wrote

John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."