Louie Zamperinis story is one of perseverance, strength, and courage. The central idea of this book is to never give up and keep on going, even in the darkest situations. This novel explores many issues and ideas, but the one that stands out the most is the personal one. Laura Hillenbrand uses the themes of suffering and perseverance in the novel Unbroken to show how if a person believes he/she can do it, it can be done. The author demonstrates this in many ways telling the story of his childhood until adulthood. Since Louie was a child suffering was nothing out of the ordinary. Getting into fights and problems with other kids was always an issue since they wanted to get under his skin for him to curse at them in Italian. "Louie was a marked boy. Bullies drawn by his oddity and hoping to goad him into uttering Italian curses, pelted him with rocks, taunted him, punched him, and kicked him."(Hillenbrand) Some times the suffering was worse …show more content…
He learned this from his brother when he was told this as he got on the train, "A life time of glory is worth a moment of pain." This is where perseverance comes into play. Even with all this suffering he still strived until the end. Starting off when he first began to run, he didn't think he was any good and wanted to quit, but his brother wouldn't let him. Louie went from somebody with a dark future to a superstar in his home town, because of how bad he wanted to be a great runner. "Louie trained so hard that he rubbed the skin right off one of his toes, leaving his sock bloody."(Hillenbrand) Perseverance kept him alive in times of need, like being stuck at sea for 47 days. Or other times like being stuck in a Japanese war prisoner camp, and being harassed by "the bird" because of his competitive attitude. This same perseverance helped Louie survive the war and make it home alive after all the suffering he went