This quote from the novel demonstrates how Louie struggles to preserve his dignity. During the war, Louie faced harsh times where he had psychological wounds from getting beat by the Japanese. Being captives and a POW (Prisoner of War), Louie learned how to cope with being treated as a subhuman or trash. By using small acts of resistance against the guards and rebelling, like stealing anything he can find mostly food, mocking the guards behind their back, and trying to escape showing them he was still not scared. Those acts tested/reclaimed what little dignity he had left from what the guards tried to take (Florman
Examples of redemption and forgiveness are evident throughout the book. In his childhood, Louie repeatedly caused trouble in his neighborhood. The community, in which Louie lived, resented his menacing behavior. As his community learned to forgive Louie for his petty crimes, Louie redeemed his negative reputation by channeling his energy to run for his school’s track team. In Unbroken, Louie grew to forgive Mac for eating all of the chocolate after they fell into the sea (Hillenbrand,
Louie dissolved into hard, racking weeping. He muffled his sobs so the guards wouldn’t hear him” (Hillenbrand 182). This was just the beginning of Louie’s suffering as a POW. After time, Louie along with other POWs were transferred to another camp. Louie become a target to a man referred to as the Bird.
Louie believes that God saved him so Louie could serve him. This realization transforms his life, this allows him to past all his demons haunting him. “...If you will save me, I will serve you forever...It was the last flashback he would ever have” (Hillenbrand 382). Louie then keeps his promise and devotes his life to Christianity. He had gone home that night to dispose of all his liquor, and the next day started reading his
After a traumatizing crash and a forty-six day survival at sea, Louie is taken captive by Japanese officials. Shortly after being captured, Zamperini is taken to a POW camp where he is abused physically and mentally. Throughout the novel the readers learn that the hardships of war effect Louie, causing the loss of his dignity. After Louie was captured by the Japanese, he was taken to a POW camp ,Ofuna, they began to deprive Louie of human essentials such as food and water. To make matters worse, they started to conduct experiments on him and his comrade Phil, “The doctor pushed more solution into his vein, and the spinning worsened.
“There was a cake with Welcome Home Louie inscribed in the icing.” (Hillenbrand 342) He even married a woman by the name of Cynthia Applewhite. But, that couldn't last, Louie began coming undone. He dreamed about seeing The Bird and to drown this fear, he turned to alcohol. “His addiction was soon so consuming that when he and Cynthia went to Florida to visit her family, he insisted on bringing home so much liquor that he had to take out his Chevy’s back seat to fit it all in.” (Hillenbrand 371) Cynthia was on the verge of leaving him. Then one day she heard a man by the name of Graham speak of Christ, thinking of Louie she encouraged Louis to talk to Graham, after a short disagreement about attending Louie finally gave in and went to talk to the man about God.
Despite not bearing any responsibility for the crash, Phil’s strong moral conscience makes him feel guilt for the dead crewmen (LitCharts, int.). He was Louie’s pilot and one of his great friends. He endured very much, almost as much as Louie, and his name should go unheard. A symbol displayed in the novel was sharks. The sharks represented ever-present danger, and how the characters in the story were always in danger.
For the first quote is when louie was when he was in Torrance California “You could beat him to death,” said Sylvia, “and he won’t say ‘ouch’ or cry” (10). The reason this fists as a example is because he is being punched and kicked and does not say ow or ouch. The second quote that is showing that Louie is courageous is “A farmer, furious over Louie’s robberies,, loaded his shotgun with rock salt and blasted him in the tail” (11) That would hurt being shot from a shotgun no matter what hard object is inside but Louie did not feel the pain. For are last and final quote we have “ why you no look me in the eye? The corporal hissed.
They were false alarms, but something was coming. Louie watched the sky and hoped the americans come before bird kills him” (Hillenbrand 181) He had hope even though the bird did all sorts of things to him like whip him, starve him, give him diarrhea, etc. but he kept going with the little bit of pride he had left. In conclusion, I think that the Japanese-Americans and Americans did a good job on holding the little bittest of pride they had left, they were in harsh environments and they endured all of it. Although history had hard times we are sure not to ever repeat our mistakes because repeating mistakes lead to the same disaster.
camps; he made it through the war. After the war Louie found someone to fall in love with; her name is cynthia. Soon after returning home Louie developed a drinking problem since he was usually going somewhere to talk to groups of people; he used it for his anxiety. Nightmares of the bird haunted Louie in his dreams but that did not stop him from living his life, and showing off his skills. It was his skillfulness that got him married to cynthia and you can find this out by reading; “‘ Along came Louie.