Unbroken Theme

During Louie’s time at the POW camp, one guard, called the Bird, was out to get him. Louie showed resilience in this trouble by speaking up to avoid getting himself and others hurt.

With P.T.S.D( Post Traumatic stress disorder) this made problems with most his relationships. Being married to the lovely Cynthia Applewhite, their marriage went south at the alcohol problems causing nightmares that became memories. As Cynthia recalls , “[she] pleading with Louie to stop drinking. It did no good”(372).The alcohol has been the effect of their partnership, especially after the abuse passed back and forth from each other. Eventually with his wife filing for divorce, Louie sobered up and got help from Billy Graham. Louie had once said , “If you look into the heavens tonight, on this beautiful California night, I see the stars and can see the footprints of God,...and he’s not too busy running the whole universe to count the hairs on my head and see a sparrow when it falls, because God is interested in me … God spoke in creation” (381). Allowing this to heal his drinking and abuse problems, and concentrate on god,his family, and future.However he was still stuck on finding “ the Bird”, up until October 1, 1950 when he passed on. Relieving him from the final weights resting on his shoulders.

What This Says About the Book: First, Louie forgave the Bird, next, Louie felt compassion for the Bird. But now, Louie has returned to where he suffered through the worst possible emotional and physical pain, and did not feel any of it return to him. It turns out that Louie’s “moment of pain” really did result in “a lifetime of glory.” It was nice to see the main theme introduced in the beginning of the book be concluded in the end.

As soon as he was captured Louie was beat and tortured. The main enemy he had was the bird. Every day he would beat him for no reason. He went to camp after camp being followed by the bird. In the novel Unbroken it says on page 244, “From the moment that Watanabe locked eyes with Louie Zamperini, an officer, a famous Olympian, and a man for whom defiance was second nature, no man obsessed him more.” Another quote on page 301 is, “Lying on the ground before them was a thick, heavy wooden beam, some six feet long. Pick it up, the bird said...The bird called a guard over. If the prisoner lowers his arms, the Bird told him, hit him with your gun… Louie had held the beam aloft for thirty-seven minutes.” This first piece of evidence shows that the bird was out for Louie from the start. The second piece evidence shows that Louie was pushed to the max but had resilience and was able to go through this. After the time Louie was in the prisoner camps he still was not broken. Even if his physical state showed

Watanabe, who’s nicknamed is “The Bird” beats Louie daily with his fists, a kendo stick or even his belt. The Bird would often starve the prisoners, humiliate, and use them for slave labor. When the allies finally defeat Japan Louie and the camp members are recused and the Bird disappears and goes into hiding to avoid being punished as a war

To start off, we will start to talk about Who is the caged bird and why. I think that according to the story, “The Long Walk Home”

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

Pg 366 “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come when they make their tormenters suffer. In seeking the Birds death to free him, Louie had chained himself once again, to his tyrant.”

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.

Time ticked on, and still Louie remained in the same position, conscious and yet not, the beam over his head, his eyes on the Bird’s face, enduring long past when his strength should have given out. “Something went on inside of me,” he said later.

They thought it was over, that he was finished and done with, but failure was not an option for the “Brown Bomber”. “Champion of the world” is an excerpt from the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; written by Maya Angelou. This chapter/essay takes place in the late 1930s, before African Americans started their movement for equal civil rights. Maya Angelou was born in 1928, living through these times of civil inequalities, Angelou shares her personal experiences in this chapter. Angelou descriptive imagery, diction, and detail to recall her vivid memories of Joe Louis fighting as a symbol of hope for the black community. The apparent fear of Joe losing the fight demonstrates the desperation of the African American community to rise above the racism and inequality of the time.

Probably the most notable use of birds occurs when after ten years, Sula returns to the Bottom accompanied by a “plague of robins”(89). The word plague indicates that the birds represent a wave of sickness that Sula brings alongside her. The citizens of the Bottom recognize the birds as a sign of evil, but choose to accept its wickedness rather than try to rid of the robins. “But they let it run it’s course, fulfill itself, and never invented ways to either alter it, to annihilate it or to prevent its happening again. So also were they with people” (90). Here, Morrison is comparing the townspeople’s feelings both towards the evilness of the robins and towards the evilness of Sula. They welcome Sula’s return to the Bottom the same way they they welcome the birds. Sula’s personal experiences with wickedness are also acknowledged through the robins as Sula

In the biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the story of an extraordinary man is unmasked. Louie Zamperini a World War II survivor who inspired others with his utmost resilience and redemption. In the poem If by Rudyard Kipling, it does not depict one individual from a crowd. It can used to represent anyone, who has shown the smallest amount of perseverance despite defeat. All things considered, in both Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and If by Rudyard Kipling, the themes of sanity, defeat, and self dignity are present.

Some believe that birds help express spiritual freedom and psychological liberation with the different colors of birds that are associated with various meanings; specifically the yellow bird means you should keep your guard up. In the novel, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, John Bartle becomes guarded and isolated because of his internal battles created by his experiences from war. Bartle struggles with the lack of control he has over the events that happen to him in during his time in the military. He fights with his helplessness when he tries to transition to his lifestyle at home. He also cannot control how he changes as a person. When we think of war we think of the physical damage we see on the exterior but what we cannot see is the psychological damage in the interior of a person.

his ego in his attempt to rescue the bird. The repetition of ‘I can’t get out’ over and over helps