Book Report On Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand

Imagine nearly achieving your greatest dream that you have devoted your entire life to, only for any chances of achieving it shattered in the worst possible way. The book “Unbroken”, by Laura Hillenbrand, is about an athlete named Louie Zamperini who was an Olympic runner during WWII, and he was one of the fastest milers alive at the time. He already got the fastest time for a single lap in a mile, clocked at 56 seconds, and he was expected to be the first ever man to run a four minute mile. But before he gets the chance, he is drafted into the war in the Air force. While flying with a search party to find a missing ship, one of the engines breaks down, which the ship needs to fly. The ship goes down, bringing Zamperini and the crew with it.

This book reminded me of many others stories of POWs and people in Nazi Concentration Camps. There was one story I read called “Making Bombs for Hitler” about a Ukrainian girl who is taken to a concentration camp. The Nazis thought there was no such place as Ukraine, so they gave her the least amount of food like the Russian prisoners, which was nothing compared to the meat, potatoes, and carrot soup with pudding that the Germans got. Louie Zamperini similarly got less food than other POWs since he was sent to a camp that was not classified as a POW camp, allowing the Japanese to treat him in any way they wanted because he had none of the rights that a normal POW would have. Unbroken also reminded me of a book called “Into the Killing Seas” about 3 boys during WWII, Benny, Patrick, and Teddy, who are on the USS Indianapolis when it is hit by a Japanese torpedo. They manage to make it on to a raft with nothing but the clothes on their back, but even though they survived, they are alone in the ocean far from land with no food or water, and worst of all, they are constantly being bombarded by

The characters from both of these stories are both very similar situations during WWII and must face the ultimate atrocity to survive. The author wrote the book for multiple reasons, but one of her main reasons was to remember those who served in WWII. Millions of Allied soldiers fought in the Second World War, and many didn’t make it home. Those who did suffered from emotional and physical pain that stuck with them for the rest of their life. As stated by Laura, “I come away from this book with the deepest appreciation for what these men endured, and what they sacrificed, for the good of humanity. It is them that this book is dedicated” (406). This book was very heartbreaking to read because Louie had started out his life at nothing as a mischievous boy from an Italian immigrant family who got picked on and called racist names. But he pushed himself to train and focus his whole life on running from then on and managed to work his way to becoming the highest prospect to run a 4 minute