Kaitlin Bullock 06/15/2018 Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand. Chapters 1–5 introduce an average boy who would become a remarkable man. Born in 1917, Louie Zamperini was the child of Italian immigrants. Growing up in Torrance amidst poverty and anti-Italian bias, Louie got in the habit of running outside the law. He started smoking when he was 5 years old and drinking when he was 8. He stole anything he wanted—mostly food, money, and whatever else he could find. He ran small scams and vandalized property. Pete, Louie’s older brother, became concerned.
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.
There comes a time in life when perseverance shows one’s true potential. The story“Unbroken” written by Laura Hillenbrand shows legendary runner Louie Zamperini and showed how he truly represented that. Throughout this story it displays what the true meaning of perseverance; whether, it’s something as little as staying committed to track or fighting in World War Two and trying to fight for life even if there seems like there’s nothing to fight for. If someone is commited no matter the time or the difficulty that doesn’t just show perseverance, but it shows one’s true ability to fight for and try for something they want to accomplish.
Persistence means to not give up and keep trying, and both Louie the main character and other characters demonstrate this. “Unbroken” is about Louis Zamperini an olympic runner who joins the military and is shot down and stranded along with two other crewmates. The first reason as to how this theme is shown is that Louie survived forty seven days on a raft in the middle of the ocean. After Louis was shot down, he was stranded in the middle of the Pacific ocean on a raft. Instead of freaking out like one of his crewmates he stayed calm. One quote that proves this is when Mac, one of Louis’s stranded crewmate says “We are going to die!” (Hillenbrand 128). After Mac says this Louis calmed him down and assured that they would stay alive. To add on to this, instead of giving up like other may have done Louie resorts to whatever means possible to live. Even if this includes eating albatross and raw shark (Hillenbrand 149). This portrays that Louie was so persevered to live that he resorted to eating disgusting things so he would remain
Hillenbrand and the author of the text about Mine’ Okubo explain how perseverance and resilience are essential for surviving difficult times. Throughout both texts, the authors use several methods to develop this central idea. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand provides a detailed description of how Louie Zamperini survives being a prisoner
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
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a historical biography about the life of Louie Zamperini. Louie began as a delinquent and soon became a track star. Heading into the battlefield, Louie Zamperini became a bombardier. On a search-and-rescue mission, Louie’s B-24 crash landed into the ocean. He became a castaway with two other crew members. Louie was captured by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp. After two years, Louie was reunited with his family. During his childhood, Louie was troublesome turning into a resilient individual during the war, then developing into a forgiving person after the war.
Thankfully, Louie’s determination to survive helped keep him and one of his crew members alive to see their family again. After capture, forced into working and starved nearly to death at camps they found themselves in an even more difficult situation. Triumphant in his efforts to survive, Louie withstood more than his physical and mental strength should have allowed. Like Rosa Parks, a determined Louie fought for what he believed, through the pain he kept a bar raised over his head when “The Bird” wanted to punish him: “Five more minutes passed, then ten. Louie’s arms began to waver and go numb. His body shook. The beam tipped. ...Louie had held the beam aloft for thirty-seven minutes “. (p302)Louie also showed this determination when he tried to keep his crew's mental state in check, he told them of his mother's food: “So began a thrice-daily ritual on the raft, with pumpkin pie and spaghetti being the favorite subjects. “(p153). Courage allowed him and his crew to survive longer; staying alive provided more challenges. Louie once hung the side of a raft, dodging bullets and kicking away sharks even when weak and starved. “As quickly as he could, Louie pulled himself along the cord until he reached the raft. He grabbed its wall and lifted himself clear of the shark “.(p162) This shows Louie, weak physically, was able to withstand what seemed almost
One piece of text evidence is “Louie groped for the patching kit, and as Phil and Mac pumped and fought sharks, he began the laborious task of gluing patches on the bullet holes” (p.122). This quote resembles the character trait resilient because Louie and the other two people are acting quickly and recovering from a difficult situation rather than just waiting for the raft to deflate all the way. A second statement from the text is “At last, on the third day without water, down came rain.... They had to find a way to save the water. The water tins, opened to the downpour, caught virtually nothing.....spread fabric into bowls, and let the rain pool, sucking it up and spitting it in the cans” (p. 112). This quote models the character trait resilient because Louie or the group in general are not letting themselves die. They had a rough patch but finally found a way to save some water. The last piece of text is “Minutes passed. Louie stood, eyes on the Bird. The beam felt heavier and heavier. The Bird stared, mocking him” (p. 213). This resembles the character trait resilient because it is saying that Louie is not going to give up and is recovering quickly by not thinking about what’s happening. These are just some of the multiple ways that shows how Louie is
Unbroken, A book written by Louie Hillenbrand, is the story that follows Louie Zamperini’s life. He was a troublemaker at the beginning of his life, but, when a friend that his brother was tutoring was deemed feeble-minded, he decided to change his ways.
Hope is one of the many traits that all people have in order to continue with life. It's that person having faith that they will get what they want, and even if that means they have to suffer in order to do so, they will do it because they have that hope, that perseverance of faith (Tyrell, 2014). Louie had a hope all throughout the story, he was the one at the Japanese execution camp that had a hope that he would not be executed and he would get to return home to his family (Dalrymple, 2011). Without that hope Louie wouldn’t have made it through the execution camps, without that hope he would have given up when his plane crashed and the sharks began to attack. The quote used previously to describe perseverance can also be used to describe the hope perseverance holds. After all, throughout all the pain everyone has to hold onto that hope in order to return to that glorious lifestyle they want (Dalrymple, 2011). Louie did exactly that and that is why he returned home and led a content lifestyle after the war. That is why he goes around to schools preaching about the benefits and true meaning of perseverance. Without it, failure is
Francisco Chavez The word “unbroken” often refers to many things like behavior, toys, or even the characteristics in people who are not willing to give up if things are difficult. Feeling unbroken I could relate to it when my best friends passed away when I was a kid. There were two times in my lifetime that I actually felt unbroken, It was when my best friend Bob and my uncle Martin passed away.
The Man of Forgiveness and Persistence Louie Zamperini was a troubled boy who grew up to become a forgiving and persistent man. When Louie was a child, he would run from his problems, but soon his brother, Pete, noticed his potential. Louie ran for the track
The American Olympic Champion and inductee of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can't stay down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we didn’t think we could be that strong”. In Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken, the determined Louis Zamperini exemplified Devers’ words when, against all odds, he survived his bomber crashing into the Pacific where he was marooned for 47 days during World War ll. It goes without saying, it was Louie’s own will to survive that Hillenbrand refined to tell his distingué story.
Those with the highest of talents can sometimes seem like they have it all, going through life with no problems. Louie Zamperini worked hard to get to the point in his life where he was one of the best long distance runners in the nation-fans viewing him as a superstar, not seeing many of the challenges he faced. Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken although also showed the hardships of war as well, Louie surviving from the worst of conditions when faced upon the evil of the Japanese at the time. From the start of Louie’s childhood to his days as a college student, his exhibition of resiliency and perseverance such as stubborn childhood acts and running for a living, helps Louie to learn to cope and survive throughout his service as an airman during