Louis Zamperini was a very troubled child. He was the total opposite of his brother, Pete. He loved to get in trouble and mess around. He started drinking and smoking cigarettes before he was 10 years old. ALl of this changed when he found his love for running.
Louie himself began to worry as well, and he even takes to reading western novels and dreaming about running away from home. Eventually, Louie does try to run away from home, but his plan fails miserably when he is kicked off of a train and is forced to walk home over the spam of two days. Louie’s brother Pete convinces him to join track at school. Although Louie hates running, he is very good at it, and he enjoys the feeling of winning.
“Unbroken”, the story of an unforetold tale which includes a young man, who went by the name Louis Zamperini. Louis starts off in his birthplace of New York in 1917, then growing up in his hometown area of Torrance, California with his family after moving in 1919, two years after Louis birth. He was a young boy of Italian descent, living with father Anthony, mother Louise, sisters Sylvia & Virginia, and older brother, Pete. Being in the household of the Zamperini 's they’d lived strict Roman Catholic lives. Louis did not favor the strictness, which led him to be quite the troublemaker.
In the second section of the book, “Unbroken”, the author talked a lot about the experiences of the crew that Louie was with when he joined the army. Louie ended up with Phil and several other men to form a crew with their plane, a B-24 model, which they named “Superman”. They were all great pals who went through thick and thin together, but they believed the chance of survival was slim. One day, they barely managed to get it back to home base on one mission when the enemy relentlessly attacked their plane. However, one crew member was beyond help and several more had injuries that rendered them unsuitable for battle, their plane was also unrepairable.
By being beaten and enslaved through no fault of his own, this was a very trying time for him. Louie shows his agency by reminding himself constantly that he can be stronger than Watanabe and not bend to his will. He shows this with the quote “All he knew was a single thought: he cannot break me”(Hillenbrand 213). Louie’s rebellious side was also shown in his time in the camps, forming a meeting with other officers to capture and kill Watanabe. He shows his rebellious side against Watanabe as well when he, within the previously mentioned group,
Even though, everyone had heard of him, Louie was notorious for stealing (8-9). Because of his raucousness and heritage , Louie became a candidate for an increasingly popular procedure called eugenics. Page 12 explains that “eugenics was forced sterilization, a surgical procedure that rendered patients unable to have children.” The thought of being an ‘unfit’ member of society scarred Louie tremendously. After a failed runaway attempt “Louie went upstairs, dropped into bed, and whispered his surrender to Pete.
The novel Unbroken is set in Torrance, California in the summer of 1929. Louis Zamperini is a twelve-year-old delinquent who is struggling to find his way as an Italian immigrant in a small town. The theme of redemption and forgiveness are shown throughout the book and in each area of Louie’s life. Every aspect of Louie’s life shows how he redeems himself and how the ultimate act of forgiveness is the most powerful resource for redemption.
James Baldwin is a man who faced many hardships throughout his life. He has found a way to overcome these challenges which led to his success. He over came being a gay African American in a very controversial time by moving out of the country. He overcame all the challenges that life threw at him and because of that he went from coming to Paris with forty dollars in his pocket to when he died in 1986 being was worth 65 million dollars. Life is full of obstacles we need to overcome, but once you find a way around them doors will open that you thought would always be
Louie started a camp for boys named “Victory Boys camp”. He would take boys who had been in prison or juvenile school and be a mentor and attempt to put them down the right path for their life. He also spoke of the free gift God gives to everyone of eternal life. “He went easy on Christianity, but laid it before them as an option. Some were convinced, some not, but either way, boys who arrived at Victory as ruffians often left it renewed and reformed.”
His dad gets visibly upset about the situation and Philip responds and says, “Just because you did it doesn’t mean I have to” (Nothing 29). Although Philip tried to make it about his dad forcing him to run, that really wasn’t the case at all. He wasn’t on the track team because
He moved on from high school and set his eyes on the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Louie “lived and breathed the 1,500 meters and Berlin. ”(22) Louie couldn’t get into what he could do best which was the 1,500 meters because “he couldn’t force his body to improve quickly enough to catch his older rivals by summer. He was heartbroken.
The American politician, diplomat, and activist Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built”. In the Biography Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, the main character, Louis Zamperini, sets a great example to represent this quote. Louis shows his confidence by once the “bad kid”, soon Louie realizes he needs to change his ways with the help of his brother, Pete. As a soldier in World War II, he faced many challenges with his crew and within himself. Over time
Louie Zamperini was stranded in the middle of the ocean, on a raft for 47 days, then endured over 2 abusive years in POW camps. Louie was born a troublemaker and became a troublesome boy, but his brother, Pete, led him into the career of running, which loomed in his life until he passed. Later, he enlisted into the army and his bomber went down, Louie and Phil made it to Japanese camps, unlike the third crewmate, and luckily survived the harsh treatments of the camps for 2 years. Louie came back to America and decided to live his life to the fullest and take nothing for granted. In the novel Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, she uses Louie’s real life experiences to show his two most important traits: courageousness and determination.
This proves Louie is defiant because he stole the flag with complete disregard for authority, behavior that can be described as defiant. That is how Louie is defiant in Unbroken. 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
When World War II started, he stopped his running career to join the army. He was very courageous to leave his family, his friends, and his running behind to serve in the military. Louis has survived many war battles and was good at doing it, so they called him back on another tour, but this time a tragedy happened. Louie's plane crashed and never made it to war. He survived because he landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean stranded with just a raft.
