Who Is Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken?

It was apparent, throughout the story, that Louie was a survivor. There were countless events throughout the story in which Louie´s ability to survive is seen clearly. One of these occurred when Louie clocked the fastest time for the mile in NCAA history. Louie was able to do this despite being spiked, clubbed, and trapped from moving forward in the race. This is apparent when Hillenbrand writes, “He burst through, blew past the race leader, and, with his shoe torn open, shins streaming blood, and chest aching, won easily”(44). Another example of his survival trait appearing strongly in the story occurred in the raft. After lying in a raft for weeks, Louie was still

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.

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 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.

Louie never was the one to break down and give up. The Bird took a huge toll on the way that Louie felt internally. The fact that Louie was brutally beaten, degraded, and dehumanized, Louie’s spirits remain unbroken. As a child, Louie always seemed to be a rule breaker and having some type of secret defiance. Louie kept a diary which to the guards, was a punishable offense . Louie wrote in the diary daily, while hiding it under the floor in his barrack. Throughout the novel, it is clear that Louie’s dignity is the most important thing enabling the men to survive. Although their bodies were broken, they refuse to allow their dignity to be taken away as well with their survival

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

He became a forgiving person. Louie experienced PTSD after his experiences in the POW camp. He had horrible dreams about the Bird. One day, Louie agreed with wife to go hear a minister named, Billy Graham speak about God. Touched by Billy’s message, he realized he had to fulfill his promise and serve God. Therefore, he wrote a letter to the Bird. “ At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian (Pg. 281)”. This quote shows how Louie forgave the Bird even after the Bird tortured him every day while he was in the POW camp. This shows that Louie turned into a forgiving person due to his desire to move on and pardon those who hurt him, Another example of Louie’s forgiveness was when he visited his captors in Japan, The text states, “ In bewilderment, the men who had abused him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile smile on his face (Pg. 273)”. This quote shows how Louie wants to make peace with the people who once abused him. This shows how Louie is a forgiving person since he wanted to move on from the past and start a new life. Louie stayed like this throughout the rest of his

From when they first met to the end of the war, The Bird gave Louie just about the worst treatment possible. Louie, somehow never let the beatings get to him and cause him to lose dignity. When Louie was beaten he always got right back up. Louie knew that The Bird’s beating would get progressively worse until Louie finally showed weakness. Zamperini never showed his weakness though, and he paid the price of receiving horrible, violent

Louie from childhood to adulthood has a lot of internal and external conflicts and internal conflicts, ever since he was young he was a “marked boy”(Hillenbrand 9). He never felt like he fit in. He, like his parents spoke italian which made him an easy target for bullies.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is a story about Louie Zamperini and his journey throughout World War II. Zamperini went through being stuck on a raft for forty-seven days and two years in Japanese POW camps, where he survived beatings, starvation, and dehydration. One of the themes of this book is hope. While Louie was on the raft, in order to stay alive he had to have hope. If he did not, he could have easily given up and died.

As a young boy, Louie caused much mischief and frustration every where he went, making away with nearly anything that he could get his hands on. When he recalled his childhood antics, many ended with a quick escape: “...and then I ran like mad” (6). Causing him to be seen as nothing but a troublemaker. Many of Louie’s schemes

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand is a World War 2 book about survival, and how far ones willing to go in life. The story follows a young man Louie Zamperini, who was the son of two Italian Immigrants, and the book follows the plot of Louies life experiences. Born in Torrance, CA Louie was young when he first started to get in trouble. First it was smoking at age 5, and drinking at age 8. He stole just about everything that was possible to steal. In simpler terms, he was the troublemaker of Torrance. His family was convinced he would end up in prison or on the streets, and because of this and the help of his brother Pete, he turned his life around.

Louis Zamperini’s life, he had some difficulties, and may be different from others, but he still had made through all of the difficulties he’ve been through. For him he made it through with a blink of an eye, well at least that’s how it showed the readers. Louie was different from other kids. He would drink beer and smoke at a young age. He then grew little by little becoming a runner. He was the best runner people have ever seen in forever. He was best known for that, he went to the Olympics, but it got canceled because of war, their war against Japan. His two character traits that stood out the most was being strong and fearless. This story is based on real life, and on a book called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

Louie had felt trapped in the Birds authority, but his perseverance pushed him forward to fight Watanabe’s horrendous beatings. Somehow, through all of this, Louie was able to stay resilient and not lose all hope that he would survive. While at sea, Louie and his crew had suffered greatly, principally with the lack of sustenance. The best thing they had as food was thinking about having dinner with their families. Yet, against it all, Louie stayed

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born February 7, 1867 in Pepin County, Wisconsin to pioneers Charles and Caroline Ingalls. She was the second of five children. She had three sisters, Mary, Grace, and Carrie, and a brother, Charles that died when he was 9 months old. As a child, she moved quite often as settlers did. The family lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Walnut Grove, Minnesota, Burr Oak, Iowa, and De Smet, South Dakota. With moving so often, Laura rarely attended school, she learned from her sisters and by teaching herself. At 15, in an attempt to help earn money, she got her teaching certificate and went to teach at a school, Boochie School in South Dakota. Laura taught for 3 years before marrying Almonzo