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Book Report On Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand

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“A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don't ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren't blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.” In Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfiction book Unbroken, the competitive spirit of Louis Zamperini is demonstrated when, against all odds Louis goes, from being a thief as a kid to competing in the Olympics in Berlin. Tragically as a young adult during World War II his bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean Louis’s future started to head for the worst as he was stranded for 47 days. Needless to say it was Louis's own competitive spirit that allowed him to live to tell this unforgettable story. In the beginning of his story, Louie constantly stole …show more content…

During one of his missions, his B-24 plane suffered damage and some of his crewmates suffered injury. Awaiting reassignment, in Hawaii, the healthy men received a different B-24 “The Green Hornet”. Unequipped for the air, Louie’s superiors ordered that his crew to complete a search and rescue mission. Experiencing mechanical difficulties, they crashed into the Pacific on May 27, 1973. Only three of the men onboard survived : Louie, Phil, and Mac. During the crash Louie got tangled up in the parachute wire and said: “I was being tangled in the wires like spaghetti.”(__) The men had two rafts and they used whatever supplies they could to catch fish and collect water. Competing with the sea and massive wreckage, Louie restarted. Despite the odds against him, Louie mustered the same competitive spirit he embraced while racing to overcome tragedy. Mac died on the 33rd day, Louie and Phil were deteriorating; Louie knew he had to stay sharp or he will go insane. So while his body is deteriorating his mind is getting sharper. While waiting for rescue he had to fight off the sharks that were surrounding the rafts: “If the sharks were going to eat him, he was going to eat them.”(168) Showing his competitive spirit to beat our time he has survived for 47 days. But when they reached land they were immediately

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Louie Zamperini. He was a legend if you ask me. Not many people know who it is. Louise and Parini was an Olympic runner who is also fought in World War II. Louie Was captured by Japan to become a prisoner of war where he would be put through the most gruesome, brutal months of his life.

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As Louie grew up, he straightened himself. Pete his older brother was trying to get Louie into track. Louie eventually joined track, he set records in his school then

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In the biography, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, the protagonist, Louie Zamperini was exposed to a horrifying experience of being in a Japanese POW camp. A POW camp is a containment area meant to hold enemy combatants in time of war. These camps were all run differently, but in the prisoners in Japanese camps were badly mistreated. Louie was in multiple POW camps during the war after his crash in the pacific. The first camp was located on a native island called Kwajalein.

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As a boy who frequently found himself running away from the police, Louie’s perseverance defined him even in childhood. Louie stated, “‘...and then I ran like mad.’ He was often

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After the Olympics, Louie was drafted in to the Army Air Corps. Furthermore, Louie was sent on a rescue mission accompanied by pilot and friend, Russell Allen Phillips, and other enlisted soldiers. Their plane malfuncitoned and crashed into the ocean. The only surivivors were Louie, Phillips and an enlistee known as Mac. Tragically, Mac died weeks after the crash, but Louie and Phillips survived on the life raft for forty-seven days at sea before being captured by the Japanese.

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In the book Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand the author described Louie so well. Louie can be described in so many ways but the two biggest traits that stick out are his rebelliousness and his resilience. Louie was very rebellious as a child and when he was an adult. “At five, he started smoking, picking up cigarette butts while walking to kindergarten” (pg. 7). This shows that even at age five Louie would try to do the wrong thing such as smoking which could have messed up his whole career as a runner.

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When Louie does return home, he finds that his eager spirit has not been forgotten: “Three years worth of Christmas and Birthday presents sat ready for opening” (341). Although the Zamperini family was missing Louie from the family Christmas celebrations and Louie's birthday, they always celebrated as if he was there right along with them. At the Deauville club on Miami Beach, Louie would find the love of his life, Cynthia Applewhite: “Louie drank in one long look and, he later told Sylvia, he had the sounding thought he had to marry this girl. Although they seemed frequently happy Louie suffered with a drinking problem hoping it would cure his daily occurring nightmares. Louie was no longer the Louie people would recognize for being the eager hero or runner he was, they would see him as an alcoholic throwing his life away piece by piece.

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In the novel Unbroken written by Laura Hillenbrand, the B-24 crashed straight into the Pacific Ocean, resulting in Louie and Phil becoming stranded on a raft for forty-seven days. With strength and determination, they survived. Louie and Phil did many remarkable things on the raft to stay alive during the forty-seven days. When the plane first crashed, Mac was with the men but died later on the raft. On the first day the men were on the raft, Louie had set a rule to eat one square of chocolate a day.

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As time passes on by, Louie discovers that he is having a troublesome time falling asleep because of everything that he had to experience in the different types of camps. Cynthia decided to divorce Louie when he started drinking again and because she caught him multiple times a day shaking their child insanely. Cynthia came to a realization to take Louie to one of her friend’s tent preaching sessions to help him feel better emotionally and physically after everything that he had experienced during the war. After many of years had passed, Louie decided to forgive everyone that abused him during the war. In the end, Louie was able to carry the Olympic torch in 1998 and has never looked back to those days in the Japanese

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1144 Words | 5 Pages

Have you ever thought of yourself as a person who has the guts to do anything, but in reality when it comes time to actually do something you back out of it? In the book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand Louis “Louie” Zamperini had partaken in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Not long after Louie had competed in the games he had continued on his path to success to join the U.S. Air Forces in 1940, right around when World War II had begun. When Louie and his fellow crew members were flying over the Pacific Ocean in their B-24D Army Air Forces bomber one day in May of 1943, they had crashed into the ocean due to two engine failures. After crashing into the Pacific there were only three survivors; Louie, pilot Lieutenant Russell Allen

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“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.

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War can have a big impact to people alone and to society. Louie Zamperini from “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand is isolated, dehumanized , beaten and imprisoned from the soldiers of the POW camps of japan. Mine Okubo a Japanese American is taken from society and into a internment camp for Japanese American citizens. Louie as a POW and Mine as an Japanese American internee both experienced being invisible in the camps while they were putting effort to resist.

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974 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of the war, many accidents were due to mechanical problems with planes, bad weather and errors in navigation. Louie called the B-24 that they flew on a “Flying Coffin.” “Flying the B-24, one of the world’s heaviest planes, was like wrestling a bear” (Hillenbrand 55). On Thursday, May 27, 1943, Louie, his friend Phil and Cuppernill were headed to Honolulu for their day off. Before they left, a lieutenant flagged them down and told them there were going a mission to search for a missing pilot.

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Louie Zamperini went through more pain and suffering than most people will ever 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).

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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

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