Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

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.

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.

How would you deal with living in a community in isolation, feeling lost with those around you, and having your whole life changed with one drop of blood? FOUR by Veronica Roth displays all this with a story of a young man named Tobias Eaton. This book demonstrates the drama and strategy which keeps readers involved. From being placed in one environment from birth and choosing something precisely different, readers can see what Tobias had to go through. The main elements of this book are conflict, style, and mood.

Laura Hillenbrand, author of Unbroken, tells the story of Louie Zamperini, a World War Two veteran. Hillenbrand’s purpose is to share the struggles that Louie went through and show that not all is hopeless. Unbroken is impressive, effective, and interesting because of its thoroughness, literary techniques, and rhetorical techniques.

In the beginning of Hillenbrand’s story of Louie Zamperini, Louie’s courage and bravery would become immediately obvious. His sister Sylvia said, “‘You could beat him to death, and he wouldn’t say ‘ouch’ or cry’”(9) . In spite of Louie’s strong character and bravery in his

“I'm attracted to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it” said Laura Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand overcame her suffering. by writing books and short little stories and not going out and staying home. Hillenbrand is best known of her biographies and writing about famous runners. After taking a look at the life and work of Laura Hillenbrand, it is apparent that this writer deserves recognition as a profound American author.

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

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

Through my understanding of the book, Homeward Bound by Elaine Tyler May explores two traditional depictions of the 1950s, namely suburban domesticity and anticommunism. She intertwines both historical events into a captivating argument. Throughout the book, May aims to discover why “Post-war Americans accepted parenting as well as marriage with so much zeal” unlike their own parents and children. Her findings are that the “cold war ideology and domestic revival” were somewhat linked together. She saw “domestic containment” as an outgrowth of frights and desires that bloomed after the war. However, psychotherapeutic services were as much a boom then as now, and helped offer “private and personal solutions to social problems.” May reflects her views on the origin of domestic containment, and how it affected the lives of people who tried to live by it.

Laura Hillenbrand’s biography titled Unbroken recounts the life of Louie Zamperini and major events that occurred throughout it. Hillenbrand’s purpose was to emphasize the inspirational story of heroic Zamperini as he qualified and participated in the Olympics, as well as describe the endless struggle of pain in the plane crash and in the Japanese POW camps. She also portrays the importance of dignity and resilience and how without it, the chances of surviving the cruel events Louie experienced during World War II would have been minimal.

In the book Unbroken the author, Laura Hillenbrand, uses the central idea that perseverance is the key to a successful outcome. Laura Hillenbrand starts the book by talking about Louis “Louie” Zamperini as a kid and how his brother Pete made him join the track team to keep him out of trouble. Louie kept saying he wasn't good enough to make the team but Pete motivated him to keep training. Laura Hillenbrand explores political and spiritual issues and ideas throughout the book as well.

Reading a variety of novels throughout my educational career has been an essential portion of my life furthermore; I believe the Irvine Unified School District should teach the novel “The Outsiders” by Susan Eloise Hinton. This novel has many themes and morals that fit perfectly with it, but the main one is to show how our society segregates people based on their looks and appearance. I believe this novel is suitable for young adults between the ages of twelve and sixteen because this novel gives them an insight to the contemporary segregation issues that they face in life. During this age group many kids get judged based on their looks and style. I would teach the themes and ideas to the kids in a way that they would be able to understand

As Winston Churchill once said “We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.” Through the hard times when you feel like nothing is ever going to get better the pain and suffering kills but it leads to survival and a better road ahead. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the account of a pacific prisoner of war (POW) Louis Zamperini as told through and researched by Laura Hillenbrand. The book follows Louie’s life from his birth and troubled upbringing to his glorious carrier as an olympic track athlete to the time he spent as a bombardier in WWII and almost dying as a castaway at sea leading to his long journey as a POW. By explaining how Louis Zamperini suffered as a young kid, a castaway at sea and being tortured as a POW, Hillenbrand brought to light how he survived the hardship and survived all the hills he had to overcome.

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

I recently got done reading a book called The Unnamables by Ellen Booraem, and I have read the whole book. In that book, there were three main characters named Medford, Prudy, and Goatman. This book is about an island, and everything on this island has a name. Things that are given a name, are supposed to live up to that name and do nothing more or less than that name. For example, their island is called Island, their city hall is called City Hall and so forth. People are also given names that they are to live up to, like Baker, Pickler, Carver, and so forth. I think this book takes place in the past. The reason I think this, is because the people in this story uses words like thou, thus, and phrases like "I fare well". The main character,