Unbroken Essay Papers

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

Enduring and persevering through the snares of life is not always easy. Perseverance is not giving up despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. In the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the characters face troubles and difficult situations. Louie in particular does not give up although all hope seems lost. Louie exemplifies perseverance through his experience in Olympic running, in the army, and in the ocean.

Hillenbrand argues that Louie preserving his dignity is as important to survival as food and shelter while being in dehumanizing situations at the Japanese POW camps. Even before Louie arrives at the camps, he establishes the importance of dignity when Mac becomes selfish and eats all of the chocolate. “He unties the raft pocket and looked in. All of the chocolate was gone. He looked around the rafts. No chocolate, no wrappers. His gaze paused on Mac. The sergeant looked back at him with wide, guilty eyes” (Hillenbrand 138). Another issue of dignity took place on greater weight on Louie and Phil when they were captured and brought to Japanese camps. Since the Japanese saw the POWs having no dignity, the Japanese guards treated the POWs as anything but human. During an interview with CBS, Mutsuhiro, known as the Bird says “War is a crime against humanity” (Hillenbrand 401). Persevering one’s dignity is similar to insisting on one’s humanity. Since the Japanese guards tried to deprive Louie of his own dignity by making him feel worthless, Louie’s power singled him out for protection and restored his dignity and self-

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

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

As a young boy, Louie Zamperini is a major troublemaker in his hometown of Torrance, California. He steals food and runs away. Pete, his older brother, helps Louie by training him and help develop his love for running after getting into trouble one too many times. Louie trains non-stop and breaks many school and state records. He gets so good that he is able to try out to be a 5000 meter olympian. Louie makes it to the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Unfortunately, his running career suddenly ends as World War Two begins. Louie enlists in the air corps, and he becomes a bombardier. He and his crew bond through training and battles and going to an island where his crewmates help him keep up his training by driving next to him in a car to keep

Louie kept fighting and believing in himself throughout the movie which portrays the archetype of warrior. In the beginning of the movie, Louie was qualified into the Olympics in Tokyo. When Louie was running a race, someone hit his shoe with their shoe spike. He slowed down because he was hurt, but his brother encouraged him to keep going in which Louie ran the fastest lap in history. Louie was taken down when he was competing, in which he lost faith. But his brother, Peter, helped in believe in himself to keep going and keep fighting so that he can do great things. Louie believed in himself and kept fighting which shows that Louie is a warrior. Again, Louie was taken down, but not by someone else. Towards the middle of the movie, when Louie was running against a Jap soldier at the prisoner camp to prove his Olympic ability (was organized by The Bird, a commander who was jealous of Louie), he fell down because he was so weak but he got back up to finish. Louie was tired and exhausted. He was weak. But Louie knew that he couldn’t give up know, he had to keep fighting. He got back up to show his strength, to show that he won’t stop and this identifies a warrior. Lastly, Louie showed his strength towards the end of the movie. At the

Consequently, Louie looked up to his brother Pete, who almost never got in trouble: ‘’Pete never got caught’’ (8). Pete had been in athletics, and wanted Louie to join also; in an incident involving Louie letting people into a basketball game for free, the principal banned Louie from athletics for a time: ‘’When basketball season began, there was an inexplicable discrepancy between the number of ten-cent tickets sold and the considerably larger number of kids in the bleachers’’ (13). When Pete talked to the coach, he convinced the principal to give Louie another chance. This event had an enormous impact on Louie’s life. Once joining track, he used his determination to do good in school so that he could participate in the sport. Determination in his sports life led Louie to evolve as a man, and make him a genuinely hard worker. This hard work and determination would later lead him to the Olympics in Germany, working hard like a man getting revenge and using all his tools to get to his goal. This occurred before World War 2, so the conflict would not begin until later on. This moment could be considered another crucial part in Louie’s life, as the event foreshadows the war that would lead Louie to become stranded in the Pacific Ocean and later tortured as a

Robert H. Schuller once stated, “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” In the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie struggles with fitting in anywhere and staying out of trouble. He was constantly doing things to cause trouble and making mistakes. Pete, Louie’s brother pushes him to run to escape his troubles. Throughout Zamperini’s life, he gains perseverance which gave him the ability to survive through life.

Louie was always getting in trouble in and out of school. Louie wasn’t aware of what smoking and drinking was doing to him, but his brother Pete was. On page 15, when the author explains why Pete got Louie into running, Pete said that he did it so Louie would stay out of trouble. The fact that Pete was able to get Louie into running was pretty amazing, considering what Louie had already gone through. Louie found a love for running, and stuck with it after wanting to quit multiple times. What Pete did for his brother probably saved his life, and I’m sure Louie probably knows that as well. Once Louie really started to get into running, he never wanted to do anything but run, and his goal was to make it to the Olympics. On page 17, “ When Louie set out to see what training

During the time Louis Zamperini served in the military, World War II was at a devastating point, affecting millions of Americans and others throughout the world. At this time, World War II was one of the most tragic wars, with hardship, pain, trials and triumphs. This brave Army Air Force bomber proved that there were many heroes and some of their stories longed to be shared. In May of 1943, Louis Zamperini's life changed for the worse during a flight over the Pacific Ocean. Louis Zamperini showed significant amounts of courage by experiencing a terrifying plane crash and survival, being a Japanese Prisoner of War (POW), and enduring brutal treatment by Japanese Sergeant Mutsuhiro Watanabe (The Bird.) His story tells of extreme acts

Track star Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can't stay down. We can’t allow life to beat us 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 the nonfiction book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, the determined Louis Zamperini showed that life could not beat him down, and never gave up, not even in the light of the impossible. Louie’s strong minded determination continues to be a factor in his survival until the very end.

Louie was able to survive by not losing his self worth by being rebellious and not telling the Japanese any information that was true which could affect the United States. A great example of this is on page 143 and 144 when it says “It was all a lie. The “bases” Louie identified were the fake airfields he’d seen when tooling around Hawaii with Phil.” This explains that Louie was being restless by sharing false information with the Japanese who could have eventually harmed the U.S. In addition the captives and Louie had to survive by stealing food and other materials that they needed to supply their body and their self needs. One quote that talks about it is on page 181 it says “Deaths from illness and malnutrition were once commonplace, but after stealing school was created, only two POWs died, one from a burst appendix.” This shows that a lot of the prisoners of war were able to sneak food from the Japanese and then hide the supplies for a later time which was needed for their survival. Equally important was when Louie could have gotten killed by the Bird for not following directions. An example is “The Bird demanded that Louie look him in the eyes; Louie wouldn’t do it. The Bird tried to knock Louie down; Louie wouldn’t fall” (181). Instead of Louie giving up, he saw there was light at the end of the tunnel to survive. He stood there

Unbroken is the story of the life and hardships faced by Louie Zamperini. Starting as a troublesome child Louie is a constant problem to all around him. He turns his ways around and turns to running where he is rewarded greatly, qualifying for the olympics. After his reign of fame, Louie joins the air corps where he struggles with fear and boredom. During one mission his plane fails and he and two other crew mates are stuck stranded in the ocean.

An exercise that would later prove very useful on the raft. Louie would go on to win numerous awards, wristwatches and medals in his home town, succeeding in part to his determination to keep practicing and practicing until he was the best one in town. He persevered through many pains, injuries and disappointments with himself, he was amazed at himself but he knew he could do better. This would make him go onto the Olympics in 1936. Later we see Louie at war, an air force bomber. Sadly, for Louie he and his plane got shot down. Phil, Louie’s great friend, warned him “Prepare to crash” (Hillenbrand 118). The plane crashed, water was everywhere, Louie fainted. Louie felt hopeless, he felt like he was going to die; but, he wouldn’t give up he was determined to survive this. He fought the wires, put his feet on the frame and kicked it off, then he swam out. The plan sank away. He kept swimming towards the sky, he had reached the surface. Louie had survived, but his fight was far from over. On the raft Louie had to deal with a lot of troublesome issues. Mac was not in condition to help, there were limited rations that would later have been eaten by mac in a moment of panic, and few chances of survival. Many