Unbroken Quotes

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.

Louie Zamperini is the type of person that has been through a lot of pain and happiness, making Louie much more complex of a person than most people. Louie is a person who started off as mischievous and then turned that into power for running, and won a lot races breaking records. He went to join the Air Force for the army, and then one day his plane crashed into the ocean and only him and 2 others survived the crash. He was next the found by the Japanese and was sent to a POW camp, and was a victim of many war crimes. The book “Unbroken ” by Laura Hillenbrand, shows Louie’s two character traits that most defines Louie are tenacious and fractious.

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.

In part one of Unbroken begins with Louie’s childhood and his young adulthood. In chapters 1-5 Hillenbrand introduces us to Louis Zamperini who was born in 1917 to Italian immigrants. Louie grew up in Torrance and was not the best behaving child. Louie started smoking

As indicated by Laura Hillenbrand in Unbroken, ¨A month earlier, twenty-six-year-old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead¨ Louis’s life had gone to pieces all in two or three months. He was tormented, stranded, and broken. He was broken until he was saved and it make him come to a realization of his life. No individual ought to be abandoned or regarded as the way he seemed to

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

From the beginning, Hillenbrand highlights a series of specific details to exaggerate Zamperini’s uncontainable personality that would carry him through the war. Page fifteen states, “To get even with a railcar conductor who wouldn’t stop for him, Louie greased the rails. When a teacher made him stand in the corner for spitballing, he deflated her car tires with toothpicks. After

First of all, the theme of survival was demonstrated throughout the book. Starting off with Zamperini surviving from the eugenics by transforming himself into an Olympian athlete in Part I, to the plane crash in Part II, next the 47 days of drifting in the Pacific Ocean in Part III, then the Japanese POW camps in Part IV, and finally overcoming his mental illness in Part V were all examples of the theme survival being demonstrated. In addition, the theme of resilience was part of the protagonist Zamperini’s personality. At the Japanese POW camp, Naoetsu, the Bird, a sadistic Japanese POW guard, tortured him and stripped away his dignity. The Bird has let Zamperini perform tasks such as holding up a six foot beam after discovering Zamperini was desperate for medical care. Being told to hold the beam or else being whacked by the guard’s gun, Zamperini held it for 37 minutes. Considering his physical condition during that time period, it was incredible how Zamperini’s mental state helped him through the difficulties of the Japanese POW camp. Lastly, Hillenbrand integrated the theme of redemption mostly in Part V. The following quote from that section explains it all. “It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over” (p.386). After the war, Zamperini had nightmares of the Bird, sank into

During the second World War, an olympic record holder, Louie Zamperini, was one of the few men that got shot down into the ocean and was stranded for 47 days on a lonely, little raft. The great American hero we all have heard of didn’t start out like you would have thought. He was a young scoundrel who was influenced by his brother to run for something better than away from is problems. After years of running and going to the German Olympics to set the best lap run in the 5,000 meters, Louie had gone into the Air Force and had gotten into trouble at a Japanese POW camp after a crash. The book Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, expresses Louie’s life exceptionally well, especially

Louie believed in himself which drawed him to fight even harder for the things he wanted. This demonstrates a warrior because he believed that he could do something and he fought for it.

Despite everything that Louie endured at the camp for prisoners of war (POWs), he was alive, he was always moving forward and the main thing - he stayed strong. Once, the chief of the camp the Bird forced Louie “to lift it (wooden beam) high and hold it directly over his head” (p.301). For Zamperini it was more than hard but he did it. “He felt his consciousness slipping, his mind losing adhesion, until all he knew was a simple thought: “He cannot break me”.

Louie Zamperini, some of you may know the legend filled name, but some others don’t. Who is this man? Well, he’s a man who fought in World War II, a man who, at the age of nineteen, was invited to compete in the Olympics, but what he’s most known for, is his journey of being a captive and his ‘unbroken’ spirit. Louie as a young boy, was a renowned troublemaker in his hometown, however with the encouragement from his brother, he trained his hardest to become a competitive runner. His work paid off, after a race in Berlin against Lash, he was invited to compete in the Olympics as the youngest runner to make the team. However, just as he was training to make the next Olympics, all was lost as America was at war, and he joined the Army Air Corps. His amazing journey was put together by Laura Hillenbrand, in the book Unbroken. A book that shows us the strong and defiant

In the book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini is a person who does not give up and is determined to get through anything. Along Louie’s journey in life he is faced with many obstacles. Although some are harder than others he gets through them. Having this trait from childhood had paid off when he had crashed and when he was captured as a prisoner. There was a time when Louie did almost lose hope and gave up.

Louie Zamperini, an Olympic track star, B-24 bomber, and a prisoner of war. Few people have all those titles. From trying to beat the four minute mark on the mile, to holding the heavy wooden beam above his head in front of the bird, Louie drive and determination never changed. Louie would never break no matter how bad the situation was and that is what makes him such an inspiring hero. People around the world come across problems every day, some worse than others. Louie teaches the people that no matter how hard the situation is, we must drive to get through it, we must be unbreakable, and in the end good things will come.