Lauren Hillenbrand's Unbroken

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.

Louie drinks to wash the memories away. When Louie could drink it is said “The alcohol had brought him a pleasant numbness” (347). Louie couldn’t stop himself. Sometimes “If he got drunk enough, he could drown the war for a time” (359). Louie was desperate to forget about his experience in the war. If drinking could make it better then he would drink multiple. It wasn’t until Cynthia, Louie’s wife, heard about a sermon from Billy Graham that made Louie hear about him. At first Louie was hesitant. Louie believed in science; Cynthia told Louie “Graham’s sermons discussed science at length” (378). It was enough to get Louie to go. Hearing those sermons opened Louie’s eyes. He stopped drinking and found more of Jesus. Louie had overcome his darkness. Louie’s an unforgettable leader. Leaders rise to the top and persevere. They don’t give up and quit. Louie overcame his problems and moved on with his life; Louie pushed himself to be better, like a true leader does.

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.

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.

     Many times throughout Robert’s life, all those whom he thought were close to him, while he tried stick to his ideals, had betrayed him. When Robert lost Rowena, he felt that he had failed at his duty and he feels he must make up for it by joining the army.

Louie became a bombardier in the Army Air Corps of the United States. Chapters 6-11 are about Louie’s career in the military when Louie was drafted and assigned to the Army Air Corps in September 1941. He trained as a bombardier and flew powerful B-24 Liberator planes, best described as the “flying Coffin” because of mechanical difficulties experienced. Louie was stationed in Oahu, Hawaii and his crewmates which included Russel Allen Phillips, Stanley Pillsbury, Clarence Douglas, Robert Mitchell, Tiny Frank Glassman, Ray Lambert, Harry Brooks and George Mozznette were a part of bombing raids over the pacific islands and participated in search and rescue missions. His resilience and the will to survive was also a major factor in this second part of Louie’s story.

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 The Wars, Robert and Rodwell can be seen as a patch of innocence and sanity among all the violence and immaturity. However, their humanity

Guided by his undying love for his sister, Robert’s call to action is intrinsically motivated by an ironic catalyst that leads to his own eventual death; the desire to preserve life. At the climax of the novel, Robert’s courage tempers out his Achilles’ heel of introverted moral justness. His ascendance to the position of officer is only natural considering that his resilience and persistence strengthen significantly as he begins to imitate the hero archetype upheld by most war novels, though his concealed struggles with morality and obedience as exposed by his actions confirm him to be a tragic hero. Even with his elevated position, Robert demonstrates many instances of nurturing as he develops into a strong man weathered by the war, as opposed to the typical hardening experienced by most men on the front lines. The telltale quality of morality demonstrated only by a tragic hero is a tragic flaw in itself, as it forces acts that would otherwise be self-indulgent to take on an air of humility. “The man with the broken legs was lying by the water’s edge. He was already the colour of death. … ‘Put that [gas mask] over his face.’” (124) Robert’s dangerous, selfless acts for those who are arguably hopeless are not only consistently futile, but they endanger him and jeopardize

Despite the fact that the German has let the rest of the soldiers escape unharmed, Robert’s innate violence triggers the death of an innocent soldier. Thus, Robert’s actions reveal the inherent savage nature of humankind.

Robert was once a timid individual who valued his privacy. And as noted with the encounter with Heather Lawson, we see that Robert is awkward around women. However, after thrusting himself into war he can no longer hide himself or his capacity for sexuality and violence. With the experience with Ella at the brothel he feels ashamed and now has been exposed, at such a young age, to a morally corrupting way of life. He has leaped so far, from ‘making love to his pillows’ to encounters with a prostitute. His morals are disintegrating; his childlike innocence is fading. His character is altering dramatically. When he sees his ‘role –model’ Taffler engaging in homosexual actions he is shocked, enticed and disturbed. This reaction gives way to anger and violence. The world as he knew it, one in which he could hide, no longer exists.

First, the main character, Robert Ross, was an innocent child at the beginning of the novel. He loved his sister, Rowena, and felt guilty not being able to save her. He then decided to enlist the army because he wanted to protect innocents in order to redeem himself to the death of Rowena. He got beaten up the night before he enlisted the army, “That night, Robert was lying in the bathtub, smoothing his aches and bruises with water…”(23). If he was in the army, he would have to fight people much stronger than Teddy Budge. Robert would not be able to fight them since the fight between him and Teddy was one sided already. However, Robert was only thinking about how he could redeem himself, but not his own capability to be a soldier. This showed how naive Robert was, he didn’t see the danger he was stepping into. Also, when Mrs Ross told

A significant passage, from chapter five, “Into War,” in the novel, Unbroken, by Author Laura Hillenbrand, suggests that Louie’s friend, Jimmie Sasaki, is a Japanese spy. These revealing tidbits, implicating espionage, are the tip of the iceberg, which advance the narrative’s entrance into World War II. Consequently, Mr. Sasaki unsuspectingly negotiates himself in situations that yield strategic positioning. More specifically, Jimmie’s mission appears to entail gathering key information for a calculated release to leading Japanese authorities. These activities are, in addition to, a Torrance Police Captain’s prior account noted in the records, alleging Jimmie’s broadcasting to Japan by way of a high-powered radio transmission. At last, inasmuch

Failing well is the key to success: the staggering, intellectually challenging and bold message—or part of it—of Megan McArdle’s pioneering novel, The Upside of Down. Ever since weightlifting became my undertaking two years ago, I have certainly learned to embrace and harness the power of failure to foster future growth. As such, I resonated especially well with the book—frequently nodding my head throughout in agreement with each instinctively illogical yet rationally quite logical message—and sailed through it in a single-sitting. Yet, it illustrated one particularly unsettling shortcoming of contemporary society: our cultural dynamic of perfectionism has, unintentionally, created a generation of students who are almost excessively-focused

John Wooden, the former UCLA basketball coach, once said, “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” In this, he indicates that often the character of a man is defined by the small, or big, acts done in private, without the motive of wanting to impress others.  In 1925, on the small, tropical island of Barbados, Rupert and Louise Rodgers had a son. Less than twenty years later, the young man, named Orville Rodgers, was thrust into one of the greatest armed conflicts of human history:World War II. After leaving home to serve in the Royal Air Force,  Dr. Orville Rodgers would go on to live a life defined by his smile, voice, and love for all those around him, one that truly left an imprint on the hearts of many.