Who Is Louie Zamperini A Rebel?

Laura Hillenbrand chose to present Unbroken as the life story of an Olympic runner who happened to be captured as a prisoner of war, rather than a man whose only story is that of the war. However, much of the focus is his experiences in several different Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, and how it affected the rest of his life. Hillenbrand walks the reader’s through Louie’s life to help them understand and empathize with what he went through. The time spent on his childhood and career is meant to get the

Louie’s athletic career definitely prepared him for what he would encounter in the war. Through his extensive training and unprecedented success, Louis gained a wide variety of traits and abilities that can be predicted to be essential for him as he faces the challenges of war. One obvious and major way that his athletic career prepared him for the war was by increasing his physical ability. In the novel, Louie is a long-distance runner in the 1936 Olympics, in which he placed eighth (Hillenbrand 35). Through his all encompassing physical training, Louie became extremely competent in physical endurance and strength. As it can easily be assumed, having good endurance can prove to be life-saving in war, especially in Louie was ever in a situation

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

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of Louis “Louie” Zamperini and the many challenges he faced throughout his life and his will to survive. Unbroken was an incredible and inspirational read. The main theme of Unbroken is when faced with challenges the human need to survive and the resilience that is needed to survive is powerful. There are many examples of the theme in Louie’s story which Hillenbrand broke down into five different periods of Louie’s life.

During the seminar, someone asked: “Was Louie truly unbroken throughout the book?” Although this book was titled Unbroken, I believe the protagonist Louie had the spirit of being unbroken but didn’t stay unbroken throughout the book. First of all, one example of Louie having the unbroken spirit was when he was told to hold the six foot beam by the Bird. When Louie was slowly sliding into unconsciousness holding the beam, he thought: “He cannot break me” (302). Malnutrition, sickness, and other physical conditions were possessed by Louie that day, but he somehow managed to hold the beam for 37 minutes. However, Louie did not stay unbroken throughout the novel. Furthermore, the author lets us see the ‘broken Louie’ in Part V. In the beginning

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

As indicated by Laura Hillenbrand in Unbroken, ¨A month earlier, twenty-six-year-old Zamperini had been one of the greatest runners in the world, expected by many to be the first to break the four-minute mile, one of the most celebrated barriers in sport. Now his Olympian’s body had wasted to less than one hundred pounds and his famous legs could no longer lift him. Almost everyone outside of his family had given him up for dead¨ Louis’s life had gone to pieces all in two or three months. He was tormented, stranded, and broken. He was broken until he was saved and it make him come to a realization of his life. No individual ought to be abandoned or regarded as the way he seemed to

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

First of all, the theme of survival was demonstrated throughout the book. Starting off with Zamperini surviving from the eugenics by transforming himself into an Olympian athlete in Part I, to the plane crash in Part II, next the 47 days of drifting in the Pacific Ocean in Part III, then the Japanese POW camps in Part IV, and finally overcoming his mental illness in Part V were all examples of the theme survival being demonstrated. In addition, the theme of resilience was part of the protagonist Zamperini’s personality. At the Japanese POW camp, Naoetsu, the Bird, a sadistic Japanese POW guard, tortured him and stripped away his dignity. The Bird has let Zamperini perform tasks such as holding up a six foot beam after discovering Zamperini was desperate for medical care. Being told to hold the beam or else being whacked by the guard’s gun, Zamperini held it for 37 minutes. Considering his physical condition during that time period, it was incredible how Zamperini’s mental state helped him through the difficulties of the Japanese POW camp. Lastly, Hillenbrand integrated the theme of redemption mostly in Part V. The following quote from that section explains it all. “It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over” (p.386). After the war, Zamperini had nightmares of the Bird, sank into

From the beginning, Hillenbrand highlights a series of specific details to exaggerate Zamperini’s uncontainable personality that would carry him through the war. Page fifteen states, “To get even with a railcar conductor who wouldn’t stop for him, Louie greased the rails. When a teacher made him stand in the corner for spitballing, he deflated her car tires with toothpicks. After

Everyone has gone through something that alters their outlook on life. Whether it is a major event or a small occurrence, they never are the same person they were before the incident. In "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperinie goes through unimaginable circumstances that a common person would never be able to endure. He ran in the Olympics, was enlisted in the army in WWII, was stranded in the middle of the ocean for more than forty days, and was a prisoner of war in a Japanese concentration camp. Most people would never begin to imagine staying strong under these circumstances. But Louie Zamperinie remained unbroken, and transformed as a man when he turned to God.

Louie Zamperini was one of many soldiers who suffered through tremendous amounts of mistreatment and only scant amounts of food during his time as a POW to the Japanese: “ For these men, nothing was ever going to be the same,” (354). Returning home, these terrible memories of his imprisonment stuck with him; provoking him to make decisions that would only cause harm to himself.: “‘It was like he got hit real hard and he was trying to shake it off,’” (346). Meeting someone who distracted him from his pain, he became infatuated with the woman, asking her hand in marriage after only two weeks of knowing one another. Nightmares of the Bird’s constant beatings lead Zamperini to drinking, the only thing that drove his mind completely from the painful

There is a saying that says, “Things happen for a reason.” This applies to Louie Zamperini who was a boy who got into mischief when he was a child. His brother Pete noticed a talent in Louie and decided to guide him into becoming a runner and help keep him out of trouble. Louie discovered his gift as he started achieving and winning races. Louie was an amazing runner and became an Olympian in Berlin. Louie was in High School when he got the opportunity to run the Olympian race. Throughout his life journey he continued to discover things about himself and others. Unfortunately, Louie’s life did not continue to be glorious for long. While in the service, Louie and his crew were out to search and try to rescue a fallen plane and as they flew

The Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are. This face is often shown in the most trying moments of people's lives. While on a mission, Louie Zamperini crashed into the ocean with Mac in a rescue mission. Mac died on the high seas, and Louie went on to be captured by the Japanese, became a POW throughout the war and went to multiple camps. In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the characters Mac and Louie to express the theme; people often discover their true natures in their darkest moments.

Through Louie Zamperini, Jeff Bauman, and Anne Franks loss of self identity we would like to explore the idea of how their strength and faith helped them gain their identity back. Louie zamperini in his biography Unbroken:A World War 2 Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption and Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank describe how they used faith to gain and keep the identity they had lost. Also, Jeff Bauman and Louie Zamperini gain back their identity through strength and resilience. Louie Zamperini and Anne Frank both have a lot in common. Both of these brave people had been stripped away of their identity because of who they were and where they came from.