Resilience In Unbroken

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.

Months passed with little action, however one day on a mission in search of a missing plane , Louie’s plane crashed in the middle of the Pacific due to engine failure. With little supplies, Louie ,Mak , and Phil survived 33 days , before sadly Mak passed away. On July 14 Louie and Phil were captured by the Japanese; thus turning them into P.O.W.S . Moving from prison to prison, Louie faced his biggest problem yet: The “Bird”. Despising Louie, “ the Bird” treated him like dirt.”Pick it up , the Bird said. With some effort, Louie hoisted it up, and the Bird ordered him to lift it higher and hold it directly over his head. Louie heaved the beam up” (301).This happened to occur after louie was assigned to watch and make sure a sickly goat would not die. With no food to give the goat, Louie shared his although he had minimal to share. This was his punishment for the goats death. After 37 mins, “ He felt his conscious slipping, his mind losing adhesion, until all though knew was a single thought; He can’t break me. Across, the bird had stopped laughing”(302). Holding up the beam was a hard to do, considering he was also getting hit by an officer at the same time. As Fearless as Amelia Earhart, Louie stood up against cruelty and injustice, even when it “threatened “ his life .4 and a half years of being a P.O.W, later Louie was freed from the

What I Think: After yet more humiliation and abuse from the Bird, Louie loses all but a single thought: “He cannot break me.” I think it is incredible how, after so much exhaustion and agony Louie only thinks about how he will not succumb to it all.

Louie never was the one to break down and give up. The Bird took a huge toll on the way that Louie felt internally. The fact that Louie was brutally beaten, degraded, and dehumanized, Louie’s spirits remain unbroken. As a child, Louie always seemed to be a rule breaker and having some type of secret defiance. Louie kept a diary which to the guards, was a punishable offense . Louie wrote in the diary daily, while hiding it under the floor in his barrack. Throughout the novel, it is clear that Louie’s dignity is the most important thing enabling the men to survive. Although their bodies were broken, they refuse to allow their dignity to be taken away as well with their survival

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.

After conquering horrific tragedies during World War Two, Louie Zamperini commented, “I didn’t know it then, but my persistence, perseverance, and unwillingness to accept defeat when things looked all but hopeless were part of the very character traits I would need to make it through World War II alive.” (Hillenbrand, FIGURE OUT IF AND WHERE IT IS IN THE BOOK.) In Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken, he showed absolute determination to survive insurmountable obstacles. Throughout his life and everything he endured, he was determined he was going to make it through. In fact, Louie decided he would be whatever he put his mind to. If he was going to run, then by golly he was going to run, and if he wanted to make it out of a POW camp, then

World War II was the deadliest worldwide conflict in history. It was estimated to cause over 70 million fatalities.(NEED SOURCE) What many people may not consider though, is how World War II affected people's inner self, not just casualties. In Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini suffered imprisonment, beatings and is neglected essential/basic human rights. Like so many other American prisoners of war (POWs), Zamperini is dehumanized and his dignity is taken away. Japanese-Americans were also treated equally horribly during World War II. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps throughout the United States. Miné Okubo was among these citizens who were unjustly accused/judged and mistreated. Zamperini and Okubo alike resisted the attempts in World War II camps to make them feel dehumanized and isolated.

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

“The Bird was no longer his monster, he was only a man” (Page 379). This stated quote explains how Louie went from plotting to kill the Bird, to forgiving him which was due to the speech that Bill Graham had spoken. Louie remembered a prayer he made on the raft quoting, “If you will save me, I will serve you forever” (Page 375). This memory caused Louie to find God and realize that he is “unbroken” from surviving the plane crash, to living on the raft, and finally through the torture gave by the Bird at the POW camps. Not only did Louie forgive the Bird for his actions against him, but he had forgiven Sasaki and the other guards at the POW camps as

He lived in a tiny prisoner of war camp by the Japanese for two years being fed very little and often unfit things to eat in general. Harsh labor was forced upon him and the other prisoners which broke them down the very last bit. An old friend that Zamperini met during his time at the olympics ended up being on of the prisoner guards at his prisoner of war camp. He treated Louie awfully, beating him, scolding him and forcing pain upon him in multiple ways. However, Zamperini, being the strong, independent, and determined person that he is he persevered past him not matter what challenges he was thrown into. The Bird, was what Zamperini and the other men in the prisoner camps named his old friend that he met at the Olympics, he treated Zamperini awfully and made him hold a wooden beam over his head and if he dropped then he would be shot. In the novel the author writes about his experience while holding the beam “Louie locked his eyes on the Bird’s face, radiating hatred.”, he showed perseverance and determination in this quote because even though he was being threatened with his life he would not accept defeat from his enemies (Hillenbrand 301). When Zamperini was finally released home after World War II finally ended he was relieved yet still had horrible nightmares from his time spent on the prisoner camp island, Kwajalein. He was unable to overcome his fears

The 8th amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment in the United States. However, this amendment did not protect Louie in the Japanese prison camp where he was repeatedly beaten and tortured. Louie, the main character of the novel Unbroken, was a normal, naughty and rebellious kid when he was growing up. Afterward when Louie developed into an adult he became a pilot and was sent on a mission to find a lost plane, but instead his plane crashed into the Pacific ocean and he was stranded. Louie and two other guys were forced to live on a raft out at sea for 47 days until Louie and Phil floated into a boat and were captured. They were taken to a Japanese internment camp and there their

In her book, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand vividly illustrates the suffering surpassed by the protagonist, Louie. By doing so, Hillenbrand depicts the cruelty of Japanese prisoner of war detainment camps throughout the duration of the Second World War. Louie's interminable determination and perseverance reveals the concealed dexterity of human nature while exploring not only American political and social values, but also the global spiritual contingency throughout moments of disdain.

Sergeant Louis zamperini from WWll stated ¨Where there´s still life there's still hope¨ he stuck with it will spending three years in a Japanese prison camp. Louie and mine okubo were both held against their will by japan and the U.S.A in complete different condition and under different circumstances. In spite of the Japanese and American governments to make POWS and Japanese-American internees feel invisible, they use these acts of dehumanization and isolation to regain their self-worth and dignity.

An estimated 60 million people--3% of the world population in 1940--were killed or wounded in World War 2. 16 million of these people served for America, and of those 16 million, over 90,000 lived behind barbed wire during the war. One of these POWs was Louie Zamperini, who was captured and brutally tortured for half of WWII. Louie Zamperini lived in war throughout all of his life. Mentally and physically, Louie fought with humiliation, anxiety, and later in his life, starvation and even death. And no matter how much he fought and hoped and won, this took a toll on him, along with the other thousands of POWs. By illustrating Louie’s years in a POW camp in Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand proposes that war

When you read "Unbroken", you can't do anything but feel bless and be thankful for life, like he did. When you read his story you can't do anything but trying to start to forgive those who hurt you or just try to be a better person by being positive and be thankful and try to make others feel that way. The Victory Boys Camp was a way to do it. Make a person better by making them realised that they are worth it. And that the biggest value of this book, "YOU ARE WORTH IT AND YOU ARE BETTER THEN YOU