Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand : Book Analysis

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.

Written by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken is an astonishingly detailed tale or triumph and redemption. The thesis of the book is that the key to survival is through the preservation of human dignity.

Being held captive during a time of War can be traumatic and torturess or silent and subtle. It can take an effect on the person experiencing it in very complex ways. Overcoming traumatic events in POW camps can be extremely difficult. If they return home they can struggle with a wide range of illnesses like PTSD and traumatic war flashbacks. Louie Zamperini was unfortunately that person. He was taken in as a prisoner of war during WWII by the Japanese. He relied on his inner strength and self worth to get him through traumatic beatings, and dehumanization over a period of years. In the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, it shows the detailed struggle of Louie Zamperini’s experience and how he regained strength.

Jones, Sam J. "Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41 -

The Pacific Theater of World War Two and the European Theater were very similar in the fact that both included an enemy with beliefs of superiority over other peoples. In the European Theater there were the Germans and their Aryan Race and in the Pacific there were the Japanese with their Yamato Race. The main difference between the Germans and the Japanese however were their ruthlessness, while the Germans would attempt to follow laws of war when it came to captives the Japanese would kill everyone and take no prisoners or when they took prisoners would use abuse. The war in the pacific sparked a race and ideology war between the United States and the Japanese that came to a bitter end when neither were willing to give up the fight.

World War 2 was already deadly enough but then America took it to another level with the atomic bomb. In total over 200,000 people lost their lives from the atomic bomb. Instead of America using the atomic bomb there were many other alternatives America could have used. After the atomic bomb hit there was a lot of damage done to Japan that left the country in so much damage and bad levels of radiation. Many people describe the country after the atomic bomb hit saying how everything disappeared and there was nothing left. In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand she writes about a bombardier Louis Zamperini and his experience in the war. Towards the end of Unbroken Louis describes the damage from the bomb. Louis says “ It was all gone like there was nothing there”. The atomic bomb made many people suffer even years after it hit since the damage was so bad. American should have thought about the how the damage of the

Louie Zamperini was a troubled boy who grew up to become a forgiving and persistent man. When Louie was a child, he would run from his problems, but soon his brother, Pete, noticed his potential. Louie ran for the track team and was accepted into the Olympics. The Olympics were canceled and he decided to join the air force. When on the plane, it went down and he was now stranded at sea with two other men. They were rescued many days later, and imprisoned by the Japanese soldiers. They went from camp to camp, abused almost all the time. This book, Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, contains the very true information about Louie Zamperini and his life journey. Throughout it you can see that Louie

During the second World War, the United States government produced and circulated several forms of propaganda with varying intentions. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, posters and leaflets dehumanizing the Japanese promoted racial and cultural hatred towards an entire country. Though the targets of American WWII propaganda varied, a major sentiment expressed throughout the war was a cultural and racial hatred toward Axis powers which emphasized stereotypes and harbored an unfounded hatred for an entire culture that acted as a short term causation for more Americans to support the war effort at home but also catalyzed long term effects such as the establishment of Japanese internment camps within the United States.

The American olympian 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 Laura Hillenbrand’s biography Unbroken, the determination Louis Zamperini possessed, personifies Gail Devers’ words when, Undoubtedly, Zamperini’s will to survive helped him reunite with his family after World War II, after he fought against the brutal and sadistic beatings he endured in Japanese POW camps.

The American Olympic Champion and inductee of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can't stay 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 Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken, the determined Louis Zamperini exemplified Devers’ words when, against all odds, he survived his bomber crashing into the Pacific where he was marooned for 47 days during World War ll. It goes without saying, it was Louie’s own will to survive that Hillenbrand refined to tell his distingué story.

Louie is like a great, inspirational person, why? Well because in the beginning he started to steal,smoke at a young age,and getting in trouble. But then his brother Pete taught him to become a track runner for the track team, and he raised up and light up the sky as he ran and later on, he became an olympic runner. As mentioned Louie had lots of difficulties throughout his life. For example, smoking,stealing,drinking and in such a young age he did all that. While his brother Pete was the good kid. It was like Louie was the bad side, and Pete being the good side. Throughout the story of Unbroken,(by Laura Hillenbrand), Louie Zamperini evinces his character traits of resilient and optimism throughout his actions.

Many regard World War II as the best war ever, but why? It seems the one fact that stands out in American minds is that the Allied Powers were fighting against people who were perceived as "evil”, such as Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito. Many disregard all the casualties and hardships and only think about the big picture: victory. Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dissipate all of the misconceptions of the Second World War. Americans came out of the war with a positive view of all the years of fighting. This myth was born from several factors, mainly due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood’s glamorization, and widespread economic

On December 7, 1941, with Japanese attack on Perl Harbor, all debate over avoiding war and the policy of American isolationism was gone. It was the beginning of a great war that brought death, devastation and finally the victory and power to United States. At the time of Roosevelt’s appointment in 1933, historically crucial events were taking place in Japan, Italy and Germany which had to shape the future and the fate of United States. This paper studies and analyses the major factors which contributed to American success both at home and abroad during WWII in addition to world’s view about American participation in war and bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

World War II was a horrible event that will be remembered as one of the darkest Points in human history. With estimates of deaths ranging from 60 to 80 million, it is unthinkable to imagine that this chaos was allowed to grow and erupt as it did. Many Americans in the United States, simply thought the madness in Europe would be contained to that continent. However, a new enemy brought the war to our shores.

“Suddenly, in the early morning of December 7… the carriers released their planes, each stamped with a red sun representing the Japanese flag, swept down on the unsuspecting American naval base… dropping torpedoes and bombs.” President Roosevelt described Pearl Harbor as “a date which will live in infamy,” and launched the neutral United States into World War II. As every AP United States history textbook states, Japan suddenly attacked Pearl Harbor. Yet each book fails to mention a comprehensive explanation behind Japanese motives, such as Japanese politics, nationalism, and the divided nation. Although Pearl Harbor had one of the most significant impacts on the war, not much was mentioned from the Japanese perspective. If the United States adhered to their policy of neutrality, given the exceptions of the Lend Lease Act, shooting German u-boats at sight etc., why would the Japanese illogically decide to provoke the US? Every coin has two sides, and I wanted to learn about Japan’s perspective, instead of accepting the simplistic one sentence explanation I learned previously. This book certainly did not fail my expectations, for it provided a timeline of the complex year for Japan, detailed the failures of the government, the warring government officials, and thoroughly explained the decision behind why Japan decided to wage an unwinnable war, further slimming their chances of victory by inciting the United States to join.