Unbroken: Perseverance And Survival

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. The crew turned into 4 men without a plane, so they got several replacement crewmen. However,

As a member on a small plane, Louie faced mental/physical survival constantly. One example was when one of the engines stops working when they were on their plane after a mission, but they miraculously managed to land safely. After they thought, “Had the route been only slightly longer, Superman would have hit the ocean” (76). That thought took a huge toll on their state of mind, and on how close you were to death. Sometimes survival depends on luck. Another example was when Superman’s brakes failed on landing when they were coming back. “By the time Phil got the plane stopped, the bomber was three feet short of the runway’s end” (81). Showing us yet again where your mental state of mind is heavily assaulted and where luck is a very important asset for survival. Afterwards, when they were on a mission and one of the crews man had been severally injured when he felt that, “the urgency of the moment drove the pain into a distant place” (100). Pillsbury didn’t have the luxury of feeling pain since he had to act to survive. That created a lot of mental and physical stress to Pillsbury. After the ordeal had past, and one of the crewman got fatally injured. Louie thought, “Everyone knew he was almost surely dying. No one spoke of it” (102). They now faced such a huge mental pressure, the thought of your comrade is going to die, just after the crew had just faced such a huge physical/mental assault

Such as how the main characters faced death countless times. When Louie was being surrounded by 3 enemy planes which filled his plane with 594 holes, and when Pi was dying of hunger. Instead of regretting and despairing, Pi and Louie both persevered to live on. However, there are more differences than similarities. Such as how Louie was in a plane, and Pi was in a lifeboat. Louie had companions and commanders, while Pi had only animals aboard. Louie had connections to the outside world/lived in society, while Pi did not. Louie had enough basic resources to survive, while Pi was struggling to obtain his basic needs. There are endless more connections, but those are just some