Unbroken: Story Of Survival, Resilience, And Redemption

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.

The art of survival is something that is not easily learned. For some, however, it is something that comes from a natural desire to be defiant and rebellious. In the novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louie Zamperini fights for survival through a number of trials that are presented to him. His life takes him from being a troubled child, to an Olympic runner, to a bomber lost at sea, to POW in some of the worst camps Japan could conjure. Louie not only survives these trials, he stands up and goes directly against the normality and ease of submission and faces his adversity head on. Throughout the novel, Louie shows that his ability to survive stems from his natural urge to rebel and defy anything that he deems too controlling in his life.

The story “Unbroken” by Laura hillenbrand is an excellent book about Louis Zamperini a world class track star who gets drafted into the military during World War Two. During a routine flight Louis along with his crewmates they engines fall and their plane suddenly comes crashing down into the Pacific Sea. Only two other crewmates survive the crash and they are then stranded on a raft. They all knew that only through sheer willpower would they survive. Just as things started to look down a ship approaches flying a white flag with a red circle.

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.

Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is impressive because of her thoroughness and attention to details. One way in which Unbroken is impressive is through anecdotes. One anecdote states “In 1992, Poon Lim survived for 133 days alone on a raft after his ship was sunk by a German submarine. Lim’s feat was a record, but his vessel was a large, wood-and-metal “Carley float boat” raft,

When she states, “There’s nothing more I can do” (119), readers quickly jump to the conclusion of death and sorrow. This immediately affects our emotions, and how our minds are racing to find an escape route for Louie because we are emotionally attached to him and his survival. This statement also connects back to Louie’s ideal of never giving up because even though Louie said he was giving up, he fights for his life and in the end he survives. With this specific diction and profound imagery, Hillenbrand adds the emotional touch to round out Louie’s

During the seminar, someone asked: “Was Louie truly unbroken throughout the book?” Although this book was titled Unbroken, I believe the protagonist Louie had the spirit of being unbroken but didn’t stay unbroken throughout the book. First of all, one example of Louie having the unbroken spirit was when he was told to hold the six foot beam by the Bird. When Louie was slowly sliding into unconsciousness holding the beam, he thought: “He cannot break me” (302). Malnutrition, sickness, and other physical conditions were possessed by Louie that day, but he somehow managed to hold the beam for 37 minutes. However, Louie did not stay unbroken throughout the novel. Furthermore, the author lets us see the ‘broken Louie’ in Part V. In the beginning

World War II had a lasting impression on not only the countries but on the soldiers and people as well. POWs and internees had to experience things that would make a grown man cringe in fear. In the stories ”Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, and “Manzanar” by Jenne Houston Wakatsuki, tells the tragic story of how these men are stripped away of their human rights. As they try to struggle their way out of insanity, their stories will forever echo in history to show the outcome of war.

Hillenbrand, L. (2010). Unbroken: A World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption. New York: Random House.

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

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.

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

Hillenbrand tells the life of Zamperini’s humble beginning in Southern California from being a dangerous young kid and becoming an Italian-American Olympic runner, with help and encourage of his brother Pete Zamperini. After the Olympics, Zamperini join the Army Air Forces, where he became a pilot. He went on to fly on several combat missions, until 1943, when Zamperini’s B-24 bomber crashed into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Him and two members survived, the pilot Russell Phillips, the tail gunner, Francis McNamara. McNamara died on their 33rd day at the sea, and on the 47th day Japanese sailors picked up Zamperini and Phillips. Over two-and-a-half years Zamperini was a P.O.W. until he was rescue by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After his rescue he became and alcoholic, until he had the strength to forgive what he had suffer.

The Brave and Forgiving Louie Zamperini survived on a raft in the middle of the ocean, for 47 days, with a finite supply of water, and no food! Louie was born in 1917, and was a troublemaker from the beginning. Louie’s older brother, Pete, encouraged Louie to run. Eventually Louie was on his way to the Olympics in Japan. However, fate had different plans for Louie, instead of Louie going to the Olympics, he was stranded on a raft for 47 days in the middle of the Ocean, and was sent to brutal POW camps for 2 1/2 years.

In Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand we plunge in to the life and battles of Louie Zamperini’s life. In his voyage through childhood, adolescence, soldier life, World War II, and his later years we see many traits of his identity. His friendships, his competitiveness, his resourcefulness, his honesty etc.… All of these great characteristics, but the ones that resonates with me the most and makes me admire him are his determination and with that his persistence. That determination that helped him continue and power through many hardships, this is what truly makes him admirable in my eyes. Through Hillenbrand’s writing this trait is well developed.