Unbroken Character Analysis

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 American industrialist Henry Ford once said, “ Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes of bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character , and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction book Unbroken, the fearless Louis Zamperini epitomized Ford’s words when, he survived imprisonment for over 2 years only after his World War II bomber crashed into the middle of the Pacific . Thankfully Louie’s fearlessness helped him return home and share his story with the world.

Within the story Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the author strongly emphasizes the idea that if one remains courageous and indomitable, they have the power to overcome any hardship. Through the use of rhetorical devices such as selection of detail, imagery, and symbolism, Hillenbrand speaks of Louis Zamperini’s life story which leaves the audience feeling empowered.

Chapters 18-33 describe Louie’s years at many different POW camps in Japanese territories. During his time on Kwajalein Island Louie is imprisoned in a solitary wooden cell that was infested with maggots, flies and mosquitos. Louie is often beaten, interrogated and humiliated. He is deprived of food, water, and any sort of medical care after he feels ill. Louie is then transferred to different POW camps and eventually ends up with Mutsuhiro Watanabe as his guard.

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.

Even when the weight of the world is coming down and doubt is setting in, there still are powers to help carry on. Louie Zamperini, a famous Olympic athlete, was dragged down to a low level when he was captured by Japanese forces and suffered under horrendous conditions in the many POW camps he stayed at. Throughout all of life’s trials, he survived, due to his strong resilience and agency. He wanted to live, and even though he may have wanted to give up, he had plenty of things to live for. In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show the theme that people can stand up against enemies even when the odds seem stacked up against them.

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 French emperor and arguably one of the best military tacticians Napoleon Bonaparte once said, ‘’Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.’’ In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie goes through trouble and fame as his life progresses from being a small town boy to a famous athlete and competing in the Olympics. Later, Louie joins the military when the Axis powers Germany and Japan declared war on the United States. This results in Louie’s Bomber crashing and him being both stranded in the Pacific Ocean and captured by the Japanese, where he must endure torture as a POW. Miraculously, Louie survives in these camps

As a young boy, Louie was a troublesome individual. He turned into a delinquent at a young age. For example, in the book Unbroken it states, “

American actress Mary Tyler Moore once said, “Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s biography Unbroken, Louis Zamperini showed immense bravery through his life trials and Hillenbrand captured his story beautifully.

One piece of text evidence is “Louie groped for the patching kit, and as Phil and Mac pumped and fought sharks, he began the laborious task of gluing patches on the bullet holes” (p.122). This quote resembles the character trait resilient because Louie and the other two people are acting quickly and recovering from a difficult situation rather than just waiting for the raft to deflate all the way. A second statement from the text is “At last, on the third day without water, down came rain.... They had to find a way to save the water. The water tins, opened to the downpour, caught virtually nothing.....spread fabric into bowls, and let the rain pool, sucking it up and spitting it in the cans” (p. 112). This quote models the character trait resilient because Louie or the group in general are not letting themselves die. They had a rough patch but finally found a way to save some water. The last piece of text is “Minutes passed. Louie stood, eyes on the Bird. The beam felt heavier and heavier. The Bird stared, mocking him” (p. 213). This resembles the character trait resilient because it is saying that Louie is not going to give up and is recovering quickly by not thinking about what’s happening. These are just some of the multiple ways that shows how Louie is

“Weakness of attitude is weakness of character”.(Albert Einstein) In Laura Hillenbrand’s Book Unbroken Louie Zampermini shows his resourcefulness when he and other POWs refuse to work outside the camp and he convinces the bird to let them work in the camp shows that Louie was a determined and this personifies Einstein's words as well as showing his resourcefulness. The proof that Louie refused to give up to stop fighting shows exactly how much character attitude and resourcefulness Louie had. This unforgettable tale of how Louie would not quite and would fight his demons directly or indirectly in clever ways to his own breaking point through the toughest of times that we cannot even imagine.

While Louie was in the camp he was able to withstand and actually rebel against the Japanese. In chapter 24 the POWs would steal from the camp. Chapter 24 page 250, “One group stole all the ingredients for a cake, only to discover, upon baking it, that the flour was actually cement.” In Chapter 28, Louie almost broke

The character of Louis Zamperini possesses the traits of resourcefulness and determination which result in his survival. He demonstrates this through his problem solving and overcoming physical and mental challenges. Louis Zamperini puts his problem solving and resourcefulness into use in moments of scarcity. Zamperini experienced many difficult situations in which he must be creative. Louis and his comrades were on a raft, with no food and an inadequate amount of water, and struggled to survive.

Beginning as a small-town runner, he rose to superstardom as a collegiate and Olympic athlete, becoming one of the fastest and youngest competitors of his time, but, soon, he was a malnourished prisoner-of-war, fighting for his life. He still persevered, despite all of the hardships he faced, and he came out of the second world war and his PTSD-related alcoholism as a motivational speaker, showing “things do always get better,” as the maxim says. Louis Zamperini is regarded as in inspiration for his resurgence as a being, growing from the state of a “dead body breathing” (p. 135) to a Christian speaker, who forgave not only his captors, but the source of all his fears: Mutshuiro “The Bird”