Unbroken Reflection

Throughout this film, the message to keep pushing and following your dreams even when the whole world is telling you no was emphasized through Roy Hobbs’ hardships. Hobbs, being raised in a small farm town, taught himself the game of baseball and pushed himself everyday to improve. From the beginning, his dream, he said, was that he wanted to walk down the street and have everyone say, “there goes Roy Hobbs, greatest baseball player there ever was.” Even though he was shot, laughed at, and injured, his determination caused him to be at every practice and play in the games no matter how difficult it was. He did this to fulfill himself, not to please anyone else. These points exemplify the fact that no matter what life throws at you, anyone can attain their goals; with enough perseverance and fortitude anything is achievable.

In When We Fight, We Win by Greg Jobin-Leeds it says that “comparison can block compassion both for others and for ourselves.” I agree with such statement; I think that listening is a skill you learn throughout time. One can pretend to listen without really getting anything out of the conversation that one is having with that other person. In the Compassionate Listening workshop, I got to do it with Rachel Kurland and I sit and listened to her talking about the moment her friend treason her. I tried to understand her plight, why would she not cut that friendship off, I understood she loved her friend, however, I could not resist bringing my biases to our conversation. I asked myself, why is Rachel, such a good, loving, and smart person,

Louie kept fighting and believing in himself throughout the movie which portrays the archetype of warrior. In the beginning of the movie, Louie was qualified into the Olympics in Tokyo. When Louie was running a race, someone hit his shoe with their shoe spike. He slowed down because he was hurt, but his brother encouraged him to keep going in which Louie ran the fastest lap in history. Louie was taken down when he was competing, in which he lost faith. But his brother, Peter, helped in believe in himself to keep going and keep fighting so that he can do great things. Louie believed in himself and kept fighting which shows that Louie is a warrior. Again, Louie was taken down, but not by someone else. Towards the middle of the movie, when Louie was running against a Jap soldier at the prisoner camp to prove his Olympic ability (was organized by The Bird, a commander who was jealous of Louie), he fell down because he was so weak but he got back up to finish. Louie was tired and exhausted. He was weak. But Louie knew that he couldn’t give up know, he had to keep fighting. He got back up to show his strength, to show that he won’t stop and this identifies a warrior. Lastly, Louie showed his strength towards the end of the movie. At the

Furthermore, achievements are the fuel that powers others to push themselves and set goals. It is the never ending desire to improve. Louie Zamperini spent his whole life training to be a better runner. In other words, the fastest olympic runner in the world. But what is left of someone who has been striped of everything they know and love? In Louie's eyes, the answer is nothing. When he went to war he aspired to show his dedication to his country, although he could have never predicted the outcome that he would soon receive. Throughout Louie’s journey of war, he was deprived of food, dehydrated and constantly abused and tormented. The list is never ending. Louie might had cheated death hand full of times, but when he looked at his body all “he thought, is a dead body breathing” (Hillenbrand 182). He was ashamed of what his body had become, and in a way he had lost his greatest achievement. “Legs that had sprung through a 4;12 mile over bright sande on that last morning on Kualoa were now useless” (Hillenbrand 182). In this moment Louie felt defeated the most, although his journey did not stop there. It gave him motivation. In the poem the narrator says the phrase “watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools” (Kipling 15-16). To sum it up, it means that if you can use other peoples’ mistakes or wrong doings to

His time in the military is where his real test of his unbroken heart began. Louie and his

When Louie Zamperini was young, he was considered a bad child, he would drink alcohol out of an old bottle, but color it white so it looked like he was drinking milk. He started smoking cigarettes at the age of 5 years old and he was a thief, he would steal from people and businesses anything that wasn’t nailed down and easy to grab. “I was a rotten kid. My excitement came from seeing what I could get away with.”(qtd. in brainyquote.com). His family was convinced he would be heading to prison until his brother Pete started encouraging him to run. He started breaking school records and that’s when he realized he had true potential. In the 1930s, he qualified for the Olympics in in Berlin he finished in 8th place, but he won over the crowd by setting the record of the fastest final lap. Although Louie forgot his promise he made with God, God never forgot the

The movie Unbroken was about an Olympic athlete who participated in the war against Japan. His name was Louis Zamperini. Louis is from Italy and he started off being a trouble making rascal in the town that he lived in Torrance, California.  Louis's brother Pete one day saw him run and decided that Louis should get into track. Pete made Louis start practicing even though Louis did not want to cause he thought that he wasn't anything and wanted to keep being nothing. Pete told Louis a very important quote which Louis would later mention on. This quote was” If you can make it you can take it”.  After much practice, Louis grew up to be an amazing athlete and managed to hit a time of 4:21.2 in the mile. Louis later when on to his country as a Bombardier. He had a close death experience when he went up in the

Unbroken: The Story Of Resilience, Survival, and Redemption Unbroken is a book about how a single man in World War II portrayed resilience, survival, and redemption. Louie expressed all of these traits throughout the entire book. Louie relied on God to help him, and his belief in the immortal being alleviated him during World War II. Not many men were as strong-willed as Louie, but he was a fantastic icon for the other soldiers.

This quote about Louie Zamperini during one of his races aids in defining his character. This characterization shows Louie’s perseverance. It also provides insight on the upcoming war by including a personality trait that Louie will often express while he is deployed. This aspect of Louie’s personality is also a common theme throughout the book.

In the first half of the historical nonfiction novel, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini endures many hardships in his life. These struggles make me feel sorry for him and the trouble he is in. As a child, he was unable to fit in, his peers considered him “a bad kid”. Louie would unfortunately steal things on the streets, and consistently get into fights with others, commonly for no reason at all. However, the positive side to his actions, was the speed and running ability he built up. I felt relieved when his brother encouraged his participation on the school track team. In a nutshell, Louie was a natural star. His large, skinny frame and long frame gave him ideal running characteristics. No longer was Louie a bad kid, he was a

Pain can come in many forms, but it is shared among all heroes- that is, shared between Hemingway’s and

The biographies that make history are not those that present fortune or treasures, but those that demonstrate the moral and mental strength that one possesses. Through out Louie Zamperini’s experience one of the most prominent motifs was the strength he had to never be broken down; no matter the atrocity, the evil, the abuse, his being never faltered. With this trait, Louie was able to inspire those who aren’t able to live his experiences, that through any battle, to remain unbroken, is bigger than any victory. Through out the novel, Louie remained unbroken by always staying optimistic, resourceful, and never giving up, thus allowing him to counteract any horror life threw at him.

The last part of the poem talks about the relentlessness of being lost at sea and not knowing what could happen. The anxiety relates to the both the speaker from “A Man Adrift” and the men in Unbroken being lost at sea. In Unbroken their puffy raft is struggling to kept inflated, losing color and the males are slowly sinking more and more into the ocean. In fact, they are so close into sea that Louie punches a shark while hiding from the Zeros in chapter 15. The ocean does not stop for the war-men or the speaker because in the ocean they are nothing more than another item, another adrift boat or even another

This semester I learned a lot about writing in English 151. It has been a roller coaster ride with these essays for me this semester. I learned step by step how to write a good essay and how to have your readers be engaged in what you’re trying to tell them. Each essay I did has taught me something valuable I can take to the next level of English. I feel as if as the semester went by I did not take my writing that seriously and that reflected in my grades I received in each essay. It made me a better student and writer and it will reflect next semester. In this essay, I will reflect on what I learned throughout this semester that you should apply in your writing when you begin English 151.

“But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated. (Hemingway 103).” This quote, written by Ernest Hemingway in the short story The Old Man and the Sea, captures the theme perseverance in numerous ways. This quote describes when the old man Santiago was struck down physically, with the injuries of his hands and the pain of staying awake for a number of days. However, he mentally kept pushing forward, leading to his ultimate survival and his arrival home. Ernest Hemingway wanted the readers of this story to learn about the rewards of perseverance because of the hardship Santiago and the marlin had to endure, rather than themes such as luck, pride, and suffering.