Character Analysis: Life After Star Wars

Visualize the worst day a person could imagine, multiply that by 46 days and become starving, dehydrated and fighting off sharks, that’s Louie’s exact life on the raft. Life before the war, an Olympic athlete in his prime, had his dreams crushed when the Olympics had been cancelled due to an uprising in the Eastern part of the world. Hitler and his army had invaded Poland, after that Louie was sent to war. He became a military officer and was highly praised because of his past. Then, he was captured by Japan and sent in to many POW camps and was thoroughly interrogated. He just like many other POWs didn’t budge, and was beaten for it. Also, after the war had ended and he was sent home, he had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

Next, Louie needed to use his agency to gain control in the POW camps, because he was sick of being treated poorly, and after the war he had to gain control and change his habits. On page 175, “From the moment Watanabe locked eyes with Louie Zamperini and officer, a famous Olympian, and an inherently defiant man no one obsessed him more” (175). Then, Louie’s life was being taken away by Watanabe as Louie lost his dignity, Watanabe gained more pride.In the chapter named Hunted, “The Bird tried to knock Louie down; Louie wouldn’t fall. Other prisoners told him to give in or the Bird would beat him to death. Louie couldn’t do it” (181). Louie’s dignity would be stripped away if he didn 't take action and use his agency. On page 269, “ Cynthia watched Louie all the way home. When they entered the apartment, Louie went straight to his liquor, carried the bottles to the kitchen and emptied them into the sink. In the morning, he woke feeling cleansed” (269). Finally, he had used his agency to take control, and was inching towards gaining back his dignity and sense of purpose. If Louie didn’t use his agency his traumatic after war life, would’ve been a lot harder to overcome if he would’ve

Louie had been resilient by changing his lifestyle, since he had been habituated to his lifestyle in the POW camps, Louie’s wife made him come to Billy Graham’s tent to hear him preach. After hearing him, he had then decided to clean up his act. The text says, “In the spring of 1948, Cynthia became pregnant. Louie was excited, but the prospect of more responsibility filled him with guilt and despair. He drank ever harder. His only hope of pulling himself together, he believed, was to kill the man who’d taken everything from him” (263). Louie needs to use resiliency to overcome what had occurred with the Bird, he needed to see the bright side of things and look at the new opportunity it created. In chapter 39, “At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful, effortless, and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over” (273). Watanabe had beaten him, after an enormous amount of time he had finally forgiven Watanabe for his torturous acts and beatings, Louie after an enormous amount of time he had finally forgiven Watanabe. Louie had forgiven, “In bewilderment, the men who had abused him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile on his face” (273). He was willing to rejoice with his former captors and forgive them for what they had done. At last, he had successfully used his resiliency to fix