Secondly, Louie is now stranded in the Pacific Ocean and is defiant to the thought of giving up on himself and the others that are stranded. In this example, Phil shows how defiant he is in Louie. Out of all the crewman on the plane, Phil portrayed that Zamperini was the man he wanted beside him on the raft. Unlike Mac, whose actions indicated weakness. Additionally, the quote is showing us that Mac was a pushover compared to Louie’s heroic actions. This quote explains that Louie, having a rebellious attitude that he and Phil survived on a crippled raft for forty six days. Even though his body was failing, his mind was getting sharper and he was remembering parts of his past. The determination he had to acquire through surviving the long stretch
The novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand stands as a biography that captures the real-life experiences of Louie Zamperini, a man who went from living as a troubled boy, to an impeccable runner, and then into a United States soldier. This novel defines the definition of survival. Not only has it sold millions of copies, but is read in many high schools across the world, and became a huge major motion picture. In the book, there is a character who is very close to Louie named Allen Russell Phillips, or better now as Phil. From the beginning of the story and until the end, Phil has changed dramatically. Furthermore, one of the main symbols shown was sharks. Additionally, one of the themes displayed was survival and resilience. In this paper, the
Some events that do not describe a hero in Louie Zamperini in the novel Unbroken is when he was young he stole anything edible, and he also ran away often. Louie was a kid that snuck into games and was letting people get in for free. Louie started to drink at the age eight. Another thing Louie did was rob people he had stashes of food loot and even alcohol; he would spit spit balls around the class and his teacher would make him stand in the corner so he deflated his teacher's car tires. Usually hero’s have good grades always follow rules never do anything bad, but Louie was the complete opposite you would not expect anything good from a kid like him. Zamperini did many bad things, as he got older he started
Being resilient in tough situations can be substantial in some cases. To be resilient means one has great wit, especially in a 'finding a way out ' scenario. It can even be the key to survival, as can be shown in a short excerpt from Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. It gives a great example of resilience based off of a situation that Louie Zamperini finds himself and crew in as their plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean. What characteristic is most important in helping Louie survive? Well, once one reads the excerpt, they can be given a great feeling of being a problem solver, or for short definition, skillful. To be skillful is very similar to being resilient, but it comes more into fact of being related to past experiences and knowing of
Louie’s life in the army wasn’t going to be easy and chapter 8 proves that true. The men who he gained close relationships with and highly respected him were involved in a plane crash over Pearl Harbor. Ten men were killed and this scared Louie. Again, he began to lose sight of his reason to live. To cope with the pain, he began to listen to music and drink
Elie Wiesel lived during the holocaust. He stayed in a consentration camp and lived. He wrote the book Night. Wiesel had to overcome 1.Faith , 2.Looseing his dad , and 3.Bad living conditions . These adversities made Elie Wiesel become the man he is today; he is truly a humanitarian.
One of the first obstacles that Louie and his friends face while they were stranded in the ocean, was the possibility of a shark attack. The tired men were an easy
Combat, loyalty, enmity, bloodshed, and duty, all words that fit under the category of war. The novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about Louis Zamperini a strong willed man raised in Torrance, California. He started as a young troublemaker until he discovered his passion for running in high school. That very passion led him to compete in the Olympics. Later he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, a brave decision that would change his life. War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath.
“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man 's soul in his body long past the point when the body should have surrendered it” (Hillenbrand 189). In the novel Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini goes through several life-threatening experiences. After being a troublemaker as a child, and an Olympic athlete, Louie straps up his boots and becomes a bombardier for the Army Air Corps. 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.
All in all, the life of Louie Zamperini portrayed in the novel Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, clearly illustrates Louie as being determined, compassionate, and defiant. These attributes are what made him such an incorrigible child, a prodigious athlete and what kept him alive in his journey through World War II. These personality traits and the story of Louie’s life are the true meanings of the word
Louie went through many hardships during, and after the prison camp. Through the whole time, though, Louie was resilient and strong. He was making a positive situation out of a negative one. Louie’s experiences show how humanity can learn from their difficult experiences and use that knowledge to help others
He married and was trying to move past his experiences as a POW. However, nightmares and flashbacks of The Bird haunted him. They made him focus on revenge and anger. One night while sleeping, he had a vision that he was strangling The Bird, but it turned out to the his pregnant wife. This PTSD caused Louie to become divorced. His wife began going to Billy Graham’s services, and encouraged Louie to attend as well. After Louie decided to attend, he continued to talk with Billy Graham and accept that forgiveness would be the only way for him to escape the terror of The Bird. Finally, Louie was able to look beyond the torture he has endured, and learned to believe in his Christian faith and forgive The Bird. Although, I feel Louie would have been justified in killing The Bird, I do not feel like it would have been a moral act the Louie was capable of. For a man to have endured so much pain to forgive, shows tremendous strength and bravery. I also don’t feel that Louie would have ever found true peace if he would have killed The Bird. The thought that he would have been guilty of committing the same abuse that he witnessed daily would have put him over the edge. “He felt something he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful, effortless, and complete. For Louie
The film Unbroken honors Louie Zamperini’s ability to persevere the utmost cruel situations. Unbroken was a fairly accurate representation of Louie Zamperini’s life and his survival during World War II, with only minor alterations such as timing. Overall, the director, Angelina Jolie, was not able to capture every detail accurately, yet the details altered only reinforced Louie Zamperini’s extraordinary story of resilience and perseverance.
It is widely stated that veterans are heroes for what they have done. War is nearly never necessary, and killing for whatever cause should not be considered positive. While it is true that veterans have defended our country, most wars in which our country partook were for our country’s gain, and not a defense of our country, but instead an expansion of its resources and land. Our country and its soldiers have taken unnecessary and harsh actions during wars. Enduring the suffering brought about by war takes courage and perseverance, but does it show heroism? In the novel Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis Zamperini survives for over two years, stranded at sea and then moving between various POW camps. He shows the strength to not give away American secrets. However, I would not say that these actions made him a hero. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, has a more accurate depiction of war. In Slaughterhouse-Five, war is shown to damage soldiers’ mental states. While Unbroken shows that soldiers are damaged, it depicts them as heroes. War
endure in their entire life. In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner. He was drafted during World War II . During the war, his plane crashed in the middle of the ocean and he was stranded with little resources to survive. This book follows his incredible story battling starvation and abuse in Prisoner of War camps (POW). The suffering he went through ultimately led him to his newfound faith. During Louie 's time on the life raft and in the POW camps he suffered an unbelievable amount of pain and desperation, but out of that suffering came faith.