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.
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
Based on Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 best seller, the film Unbroken is an inspiring, three-time Oscar nominated, World War II biography that tells the story of a young man, Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O’Connell), enduring the unimaginable brutalities of war. Directed by Angelina Jolie and produced by Erwin Stoff, this film is a story of survival, resilience, and redemption. Although this movie has some tear-jerking moments and a few memorable quotes, it seems to have fallen flat when it comes to the emotional aspect of the lead character’s experience.
Unbroken takes place during World War II in the early 40s. Most of the book takes place in the Japanese POW camps where the Japanese capture and enslave Louie in for two years until the end of the war. Unlike POW camps in other countries, Japanese POW camps guards had little care for the Geneva Conventions and worked the prisoners to death. At the camps, POWs were tortured, starved, and often beaten for pure enjoyment. Louie must suffer through the horrific conditions and stay resilient to survive the camps. Despite only being “a dead body breathing,” he is able to overcome his difficulties and get rescued.
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.
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.
They encountered many obstacles such as delaying 24 hours due to Japanese soldiers leaving the camp unexpectedly. This book shows the courage of all soldiers and prisoners involved in these events. Even with such an amazing and thrilling plot base, this book was incredibly difficult to sit and read. Readers find themselves becoming lost and rereading passages and pages. While I greatly respect all of the prisoners and soldiers for their courage and strength during this incredibly troublesome encounter, this book did their valor no justice.
Since the beginning of ancient civilizations, the topic of war has been an inevitable topic to approach. No matter how minuscule or gigantic, wars have certain key events and roles they play. When thinking about war people imagine two parties quarreling on some disagreement, but if you look under the microscope there is more to it. During war there are thousands of individuals that are taken captive by their oppositional party. These captives are known as prisoners of war or POW’s for short. Prisoners of war were a huge factor into country warfare and the way nations fight, even for today. Life as a prisoner of war was a brutal task, most captive soldiers did not make it out of the camps by the end of the war. POW’s had to undergo lack of nourishment, abuse, and labor filled jobs. In Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken readers get to receive detailed imagery about life in POW camps.
In the inspirational true story Unbroken, a teenage girl named Lauren is battling her way through neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that generally originates in the spinal cord. Although she survived and is well, the cancer has drastically changed her life by how she views the world , even though, she dealt with her issues, by staying optimistic.
While in most war stories people learn about heroism and lessons of bravery, O’Brian focuses on memories and examples of not uplifting and instructive, “He lay face-up in the center of the trail, a slim, dead almost dainty young man. He had bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely
Beginning my love of reading an early age, I was never the type of child who was drawn to fictional stories. As an 8 year-old child in West Virginia, I was recognized by the local library for my love of biographies, autobiographies and recollections of world events. This love has continued throughout my adult life, desiring to read novels such as “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young” by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore rather than watch the major motion picture “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Even though the motion picture received multiple awards, when reading the recollection of Mr. Moore’s accounts, the feeling of loss, distress, anxiety and fear can be felt in each word that he has written while reliving this horrendous war.
The book spans from about the 1920’s to the late ‘40’s or early 50’s. The book is written as a story, and is presented as such. It is an adaption of Louie Zamperini’s experiences before and during World War II. I chose this book because of a few reasons. The media has really hyped up the book, along with the movie that came after a couple of months ago, but I never bothered to read it. Now with this assignment I finally decided to read it and I am glad that I did, it’s a really telling story of some of the worse things that occurred during the war, (although it is of course at least slightly dramatized to make it a more compelling story, and fun
The plot of “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, is interesting because it gives the reader a realistic sense of what it was like to be in WWII as prisoner of war. Louie Zamperini was a troubled child. “A smoker at age 5 and a drinker by 8, he stole anything that wasn’t nailed down from neighbors and local businesses.” Zamperini blackened the eyes of any kids that dared challenge him, he also slashed a teacher’s car tires after she disciplined him and “Once even lobbed tomatoes at a cop.” One day Louie went to a track meet to try and pick up girls at this point louie's life changed. The author Laura Hillenbrand took louis troubled past and turned it into something he could use in his fight to survive when beaten and starved in the pow camps during
Upon selecting Unbroken as the book I would read this summer, one of my captains voiced his opinion about the story of Louis Zamperini, disagreeing with the fact that many considered him a hero. At the time, I had no argument to give since I had not fully read the book; however, now that I have finished it, I can both agree and disagree with my captain. Laura Hillenbrand, author of Unbroken, led readers through the life of Zamperini in biographical form, through his ungovernable youth, his Olympic running career, all of his trials and sufferings of World War 2 as a prisoner of war, and his post-war life of forgiveness and peace. Hillenbrand never actually referred to Zamperini as a hero, but instead allowed the reader to decide that upon his
Dignity, it’s what makes a human humane. It’s what powers, us, our fire, our spirit. Once removed, it kills a man, before he dies. Being raised in Torrance, and as a young boy, Louie Zamperini acted pridefully in his rebellious and risky work, He was often known for stealing, drinking liquor, and also smoking cigarettes as a young boy. He later grew to be an incredible athlete, an Olympic runner, where again his passion was impeccably strong. These actions, show Louie’s future and help him simply due to his beliefs of individual pride through his World War II experience as an Air Force Bombardier. Louie Zamperini, through the process of the P.O.W. camp-powered World War II , fought against the driving force of removing dignity, by acting
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall” – Nelson Mandela. It takes high risks and a lot of vitality to overcome oppression. In Martin Luther King’s essay, “The Ways of Oppression,” there are three distinct ways on how to deal with oppression, which are acquiescence, violence, and non-violent resistance. All of these strategies of dealing with oppression are established in both the film and novel adaptation of the “Unbroken,” as Louie Zamperini spends many years as a POW in Japan enduring cruel oppression. Throughout the story, the three strategies alternate amongst Louie and his fellow POWs, however, towards the end it’s clear that non-violent resistance is the most successful form of overcoming oppression because it makes Louie the bigger man in learning how to forgive and understand more openly.
A World War 2 story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The film strives to motivate and experience the audience of the olympic champion Louis Zamperini during his torture in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp. Unbroken is beautifully crafted even it its brutality.