Laura Hillenbrand's Unbon

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand provides a detailed description of how Louie Zamperini survives being a prisoner of war. The author uses several ways to develop the central idea of resilience and perseverance. One way the author develops this main idea is by giving vivid descriptions. During the bombings of Wake Atoll, the author uses graphic and vivid phrases like “The islands were now a blaze of garish light.” This quote is just one instance where the author highlights how much resilience was needed to survive this dangerous situation. Secondly, the author develops the main idea by using problem and solution to show the resilience, grit, and perseverance needed for this difficult situation. The text states ““Phil was fighting to get out” and

Everyone encounters obstacles in life that they feel like they can't overcome. People that have 'resilience' can take these challenges head on, stay calm in any situation, and use their problem-solving skills to take advantage of the situation and get themselves out of it. In a section of "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, a biography of war hero Louie Zamperini, Zamperini is adrift at sea after his bomber crashed in the ocean. He is left with just the remains of the plane and two others, Phil and Mac. Louie Zamperini's key characteristics of resilience and the differences between all three men allow them to overcome adversity, and Louie and Phil make it out alive.

Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand tells the story of a boy named Louis Zamperini. Who in spite of great challenges, manages to rise to the occasion during a time of war. My late grandfather, Robert J. Randle fought in that very same war. Although he is not able to tell me himself what the war was like and what he had done, I was able to find evidence of his most prestigious accomplishments. Much like Louis, Robert was unmoving in the face of adversity.

Resilience is the ability to overcome struggles. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. During his time there, Elie would not have been able to be so resilient without his father by his side. In Boys in The Boat, Joe Rantz would also have struggled to overcome his struggles without his dad. However, without Joe’s father treating him so badly throughout his childhood Joe might not have been so motivated to prove to his father that he was strong. In both books, Joe and Elie both demonstrate resilience by using their family to overcome their struggles.

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.

Everyone has gone through something that alters their outlook on life. Whether it is a major event or a small occurrence, they never are the same person they were before the incident. In "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperinie goes through unimaginable circumstances that a common person would never be able to endure. He ran in the Olympics, was enlisted in the army in WWII, was stranded in the middle of the ocean for more than forty days, and was a prisoner of war in a Japanese concentration camp. Most people would never begin to imagine staying strong under these circumstances. But Louie Zamperinie remained unbroken, and transformed as a man when he turned to God.

Louie’s enormous amount of resilience allowed him to survive in the worst of circumstances. Before the war Louie had built up a lot of resilience from his running career. He had an ability to give everything he had. During the 5,000-meter final “One by one, runners

Track star Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can't stay down. We can’t allow life to beat us down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we didn't think we could be that strong.” In the nonfiction book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, the determined Louis Zamperini showed that life could not beat him down, and never gave up, not even in the light of the impossible. Louie’s strong minded determination continues to be a factor in his survival until the very end.

When Louie was a young boy he was very mischievous and did a lot of bad things that he often got into trouble for. He would steal from families “If it was edible he stole it. He sulked down alleys, a role of lock picking wire in his pocket.” and get into fights with other kids (Hillenbrand 6). Until one day his older brother named Pete displayed the opportunity of becoming a track star for their school because he is always

“ If there is no struggles, there is no progress.” This famous quote was stated by Frederick Douglas. He was an african american abolitionist, civil rights leader, and social reformer that was born into slavery and faced many hardships in his life but eventually he overcame his difficulties and became a very famous colored man in a world full of slavery. In the book “Hope Was Here”, also several characters face struggles that require inner strength to overcome. Some examples are Braverman, Addie, and Hope. All of them had struggles but still overcame them. My great-grandmother had many obstacles in her life, but she still overcame them.

Every human being on the planet has a limit. Whether it be mentally, physically or emotionally, people all have a breaking a point, a place where the line must be drawn. This is a simple fact that all humans know, an instinctive knowledge that lives in the bones of humanity. But when people witness others enduring situations that would crush most people underfoot, the dirt, grit and struggle that these heroes crawl through to stay alive, it amazes everyone. That is why it is easy to understand how anyone might admire Louie Zamperini. A child rebel as stubborn as a bull turned into a war hero who survived what no one else could even fathom- Louie Zamperini is far from a weak man as described in “Unbroken”, written by Laura Hillenbrand. But there was

Those with the highest of talents can sometimes seem like they have it all, going through life with no problems. Louie Zamperini worked hard to get to the point in his life where he was one of the best long distance runners in the nation-fans viewing him as a superstar, not seeing many of the challenges he faced. Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken although also showed the hardships of war as well, Louie surviving from the worst of conditions when faced upon the evil of the Japanese at the time. From the start of Louie’s childhood to his days as a college student, his exhibition of resiliency and perseverance such as stubborn childhood acts and running for a living, helps Louie to learn to cope and survive throughout his service as an airman during

¨For these men, nothing was ever going to be the same¨ (Hillenbrand 251). War impacts everyone, from POWs to normal citizens. In the novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was made invisible in POW camps. He was tortured, starved, beaten, and stripped of his dignity. Opposite of Louie, Miné Okubo was an American citizen that was put in an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor because of her Japanese ancestry. Both Miné Okubo and Louie Zamperini experienced isolation and dehumanization in their situations. Even though Japanese-American internees and American POWs were tried to be made invisible in World War II, both groups resisted and made efforts to regain their dignity.

“Unbroken” is one of the most motivating stories about the resilience of a young adult bound for the Olympics when he was interrupted by World War 2. This book is a page turner and keeps the action flying at you on every page. Louie Zamperini the main character is continuously face to face with many problems meant to either take his life or destroy his resilient mindset. Although, some consider the book unbroken to be long and boring, I think it is a exciting page turner that shows the struggles faced by this talented Olympic athlete stuck in a time of war.

The challenges a person faces in their everyday life prepares them for hardships in the future. A person who beats these challenges and overcomes adversity is prepared to succeed in any circumstances. One of the greatest examples of a person overcoming adversity and succeeding is Michael Oher. Michael Oher is a NFL football player who overcame a lot to get to where he stands today. On May 28, 1986, Michael Oher was born into a life of poverty with 12 brothers and sisters, a drug addict mom, and an incarcerated father. Correspondingly Biography.com, a popular online database for biographies, states, Michael was in and out of multiple foster homes; leaving him homeless for more than a quarter of his adolescent life.(Biography.com 1) The lack