How Did Louis Zamperin Survive

After reading the biography of Louie Zamperini’s life by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie’s leadership led him through many obstacles. Being the leader Louie is he conquered insurmountable odds without breaking, proving to audiences that an ordinary man can transform into the hero of his own life

Resilience means the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. It is being able to come back from a terrible situation in good spirits. In the book Unbroken, the theme of resilience is used many times. It is used most all throughout Louie’s time at the POW camps. Laura Hillenbrand has developed the theme of resilience through describing how Louie and the other POWs survived at the POW camps, which included his speaking out against the actions and trying to prove the Bird wrong, and also showed what the Japanese were going through during this time.

The art of survival is something that is not easily learned. For some, however, it is something that comes from a natural desire to be defiant and rebellious. In the novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louie Zamperini fights for survival through a number of trials that are presented to him. His life takes him from being a troubled child, to an Olympic runner, to a bomber lost at sea, to POW in some of the worst camps Japan could conjure. Louie not only survives these trials, he stands up and goes directly against the normality and ease of submission and faces his adversity head on. Throughout the novel, Louie shows that his ability to survive stems from his natural urge to rebel and defy anything that he deems too controlling in his life.

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

The American industrialist Henry Ford once said, “ Life is a series of experiences, each of which makes of bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character , and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction book Unbroken, the fearless Louis Zamperini epitomized Ford’s words when, he survived imprisonment for over 2 years only after his World War II bomber crashed into the middle of the Pacific . Thankfully Louie’s fearlessness helped him return home and share his story with the world.

Leadership, Sacrifice, and Hope, these are the three things that saved the sixteen survivors from the Andes.

Louie and Phil used all of their strength to overcome the obstacles they went through, both physically and mentally. Their physical strength was tested throughout their entire journey. Being stranded on the ocean took the initial toll on Louie and Phil’s bodies by diminishing them down to 67-87 and 80 pounds, respectively. Both of them had weighed around 150 pounds when they had crashed. Louie’s mental strength was tested as well. He started to have hallucinations of people singing in the clouds, most likely due to dehydration. The two retained their strength though, by focusing on their survival and trying to remain sane. Their optimism also had a great influence on how strong they were. In Ruth Robertson’s (2016) article “The Strength of Optimism” she states, “There are many benefits to having a more optimistic mindset. Research tells us that it can lengthen your life, determine how you overcome life’s obstacles, build resilience and manage the risks of developing depressive disorders and other mental health issues” (para. 3). Robertson is saying that optimism can help you through the hard times that life throws at us. A positive mindset can transform a life or death situation. Louie even retained a lot of physical strength while he was in the prisoner of war camps. Near the end of his imprisonment he would have to carry literal tons back and forth for hours. The Bird, one of the Japanese guards and Louie’s worst

One way he used his resources was when they were hungry on the raft and they had run out of food so louie being the resourceful person he was, “He had an idea. He used fishing line to tie large hooks to his pinky, middle finger, thumb, orientating them like claws.” he used his resources to catch a shark. (115) Louie used the resources that were provided to keep them alive, “Each man would eat one square of chocolate in the morning, one in the evening.

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

Phil uses his faith, and "as he sang hymns over the ocean, conjuring up a protective God, perhaps rescue felt closer, despair more distant." (Hillenbrand). Phil was able to use his unique belief in God to raise the crew's morale and make them feel more optimistic about their situation and rescue. While they may not seem as important as food or water, morale and sanity play a big part in survival when faced with situations like this. Being able to stay optimistic and happy contributes to the crew's overall wellness and allows them to survive longer. While at sea with nothing to talk about, "Phil asked Louie to describe how [his mother] made a meal. Louie began describing a dish, and all three men found it satisfying, so Louie kept going, telling then (sic) about each dish in the greatest possible detail. Soon. Louise's (sic) kitchen floated there with them: Sauces simmered, spices were pinched and scattered, butter melted on tongues." (Hillenbrand). Storytelling, one of Louie's apparent strong points, allows the crew to pass the time while unable to find food or water. It's very important, again, to the happiness and sanity of the crewmembers if they have something to do while absolutely nothing is happening - with nothing to do, humans can resort to unhealthy tendencies. Louie's vivid description of food also helps to sate his crewmate's hunger,

Olimpica athlete, Survived 2 plane crashes, cast away for 47 days, P.O.W for two years, three books, Louis Zamperini went through a lot before he died at the old age of 97. His actions and achievements were so amazing there were three books and a movie made about him. And this is going to show just how accurate that move was compared to the true events.

support his family. Also, Louis was starting to notice music. He always would admire the

(E) On page one of Unbroken says, “The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days.” (A) Louis would have to persevere to stay alive with little food and water stranded in the ocean for twenty-seven days. It also made it harder since there were people with him and they still had to eat and drink. He had to push through to survive to long twenty-seven days. (E) Additionally, on page five of Trapped it says, “With five days of gritty buildup pasted to my contact lenses, my eyes hurt at every blink, and wavering fringes of cloud frame my dingy vision.”

Have you ever experienced being alone? Everyone has, or likely will, at some point in their life. But how about for 94 days, carrying a backpack that weighs nearly as much as you do containing all you have to survive off, by foot? Or what about 227 days, floating through the ocean on a tipsy life boat, with limited supplies, little to no sense of direction, and a huge Bengal tiger to watch out for? Probably not. Both of these scenarios involve extreme human conditions. On the theme of a person’s conditions both challenging and shaping who they are, there are two novels that stand out in the exploration of this topic, and they are Life of Pi and Wild By Cheryl Strayed.