Unbroken Chapter Summaries

In the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand a passionate young man named Louie Zamperini has his life turned around by putting his efforts into track where he becomes an Olympic level athlete, but as WW2 breaks out he then enlists in the military later leaving, but only to be drafted again. After crash landing he ends up being captured by the japanese where he is tortured, and picked on by the prison commander but stays “Unbroken”. Louie is affected greatly from different cultures and ethnicities, as in this time period WW2 broke out, people who were rich were relatively untouched by the draft. WW2 in itself was the biggest clash of ethnicities, cultures, and started over anger towards other cultures.

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.

What I Think: After yet more humiliation and abuse from the Bird, Louie loses all but a single thought: “He cannot break me.” I think it is incredible how, after so much exhaustion and agony Louie only thinks about how he will not succumb to it all.

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

Phil and Zamperini suffered through many camps, with many harsh and brutal guards. Amazingly, America won the war and they were saved. Unfortunately, Louie was not the same. He had post-traumatic stress disorder and was obsessed with finding and killing the Bird. After that, he went through some tough times until he was reintroduced to God and religion. He began to find himself and started living a happier life.

On a mission, Louie’s bomber crashed into the ocean where seven of the crew perished. Louie and two of his companions, Phil and Mac, survived the crash, but were now stranded with no reassurance of rescue. To manage their inescapable starvation, Louie found a way to help hoax their stomachs: “ Louie began describing a dish and all three men found it satisfying, so Louie kept going, telling them about each dish in the greatest possible detail… they conjured up the scene in such vivid detail that somehow their stomachs were fooled by it” (153). Louie fought back at hunger using this strategy three times a day. After forty-six days and a night, Japanese forces captured Louie and Phil, and sent the men to POW camps. Beaten and starved, Hillenbrand wrote, “Louie had another, private act of rebellion… Louie either found or stole a pencil and began keeping a diary” (210). With his rebellion, it could be said that the pen is mightier than the sword, or in this case the club. Even though Louie’s family doesn’t know where he is, they know he is capable of getting through anything because they know of his resilient character. After receiving the death notice, Louie’s sister commented, “‘None of us believed it. None of us’”(226). Though Louie seems that he could get through everything by himself, Phil helped make him stronger. Without Phil to aid and encourage him, it is likely he would have gone insane. It is clear Louie, with help from Phil, had to utilize his resilience, and change, however necessary, to

How could the United States imprison thousands of innocent people without cause? During World War II, Japan may have posed a threat to Americans, however, the US government unnecessarily rounded up all citizens of Japanese descent and sent them to live in internment camps. They had not committed any crime. They had not done anything wrong. The United States simply decided it was better to be safe than sorry, on the off chance that there was a spy among them. They should not have imprisoned these Japanese descendants in part because imprisoning innocent people contradicts the purpose of a war for freedom. In addition, the US forced them to leave their hard earned homes and live in deplorable conditions.

The World War II has long passed, but it remains an endless source of inspiration for many works of art. In the category of books under the theme of World War II, “Unbroken” stands out as one of the most astonishing stories that have ever been told. This is the true story about Louie Zamperini’s life, from a troublesome kid to an Olympian, an American soldier to a POW survivor, and later, he became an inspirational Christian speaker.

A.Author's Purpose- Laura Hillenbrand’s primary purpose of writing this novel was to inform readers about World War II through the eyes of Louie Zamperini. Unbroken describes in intense detail the hardships and challenges Louie Zamperini faced with such great bravery and strength. Louie’s great odyssey attracted Hillenbrand because he had to face one of the hardest challenges in his time. Louie and, his partner, Phil had survived 46 days at sea, battling sharks, bombers, and food and water shortages, and beating the previous record of 24 days. Louie and Phil were hopeful for survival even though they, “could see the bend of their thighbones under their skin, their knees bulging in the centers of birdlike legs, their bellies hollow, their ribs stark...They held their sun-scorched eyes to the horizon, searching for land, but there was none (Hillenbrand 172).” These men were at there last stage of starvation, but were so hopeful to survive that they used every strength they had to avoid the next obstacle. Sadly, their journey does not end when they reached land because the floated to Japanese territory. Louie faces challenge after challenge and has so much motivation to keep pushing and to keep fighting which is what makes him so interesting for Hillenbrand to interview him and write her novel on his life.

Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, is a biography about a man named Louie Zamperini who lived in Torrance, California. The story begins with Louie as a boy who often gets into trouble. After maturing past his delinquent phase, he becomes a very talented runner. The idea of becoming a runner was introduced to Louie by his oldest brother Pete. Pete always had great faith in his little brother and wanted to see him do great things with his life. Louie was such a great runner that he made it to the German Olympics in 1936. Although, these Olympic games were different because Louie was not a German, and this was a big deal because Germany was currently being ruled by Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler believed in one supreme race, and when he saw

As the bird is beating Louie to death, Louie ponders, “He felt his consciousness slipping, his mind losing adhesion, until all he knew was a single thought: he can’t break me” (Hillenbrand 296). The bird was thrashing onto Louie so hard that he was losing consciousness, but this is the turning point for Louie. He took this event to turn back into his timeworn self. He was not going to allow anyone tear him down, and he was not going to express any emotion. It is important to have perseverance even through tough times.

During the wars in the United States, the prisoners who got sent to jail was treated differently by the gender. After world war II ends a thousand of prisoners ended up in mills, farm fields etc. 4000,000 prisoners were shipped to United States from 1942 through 1945 because of that 400 POW were built, in the south and in the great plains and in the midwest. The prisoners campuses were filling up, also had an labor shortage in farms and factories.

The book begins with Hillenbrand introducing her audience to a man named Louis Zamperini, living during the 1930’s. As a child, he was a delinquent and broke into houses, was always fighting, and sneaking out of his home. As he became older, he began to run more and happened to be very talented. His talent for running got him the chance to run in the Berlin Olympics. When World War II began, he signed up and became an airman. After a plane crash, Louis and a couple of his crewman were stuck in the middle of the ocean, facing starvation and thirst. Louis faces many more obstacles after this like being captured and tortured by numerous prisoner of war (POW) camps.

SNC gave a thorough 5 paragraph order that included details on how to handle medical evacuations and handle Enemy Prisoners of War and a detailed scheme of maneuver that was well planned and specifically tasked out. SNC visually checked and confirmed each fire team member physical and /or verbally received and understood their part of the mission. SNC maintained an open line of communication that allowed him to be able to receive, process, and issue effective orders, in a timely manner, that expedited forward movement and was in line with his overall mission. SNC did not maintain Tactical Awareness, during execution, as he took the weapons from his forward fire team members and placed them with him on the wall. SNC displayed a calm and collected

Geneva Convention was founded to do treatment of civilians, Prisoners of wars and soldiers. The first convention was initiated by the international committee for the treatment of wounds, the convention protected the sick soldiers during war time. The Swiss Government agree to held the conventions in Geneva. There were total of two conventions but after World War II two more Conventions were added to the original two with two Protocols. The International committee, who initiated first convention also became the International committee for Red cross and Red crescent.