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Unbroken Themes

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Olympic runner Louis Zamperini was quoted after WW11, “To persevere is important to everybody. Don’t give up, don’t give in. There is always an answer to everything” (Louis Zamperini Quotes). In the novel Unbroken, written by Lauren Hillenbrand, American Louis Zamperini’s incredible life story is told. Growing up Louie is painted as a defiant, stubborn kid, who is always getting into trouble. As he grows and matures he hangs on to that part of his childhood through being a runner and the war. He survives the death of his friends, being stranded on a raft for 47 days, Kwajalein ‘execution’ Island, varius POW camps, and alcoholism after the war. Louie kept his dignity through immense hardships because of the resilience he had as a child. Louie’s …show more content…

Still his greatest challenge was ahead; Mutsuhiro “the Bird” Watanabe. Under his reign Louie would be pushed past his breaking point, humiliated, and beat, but still stay true to himself. “Of all the violent and vile abuses that the Bird had inflicted upon Louie, non had horrified and demoralized him as this did. If anything is going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it” (Hillenbrand 291). Louie was taken off work duty because his is injured, but begs for a job so he can keep a higher food ration. The Bird forces him to clean up after a pig with his bare hands. Although pushed through this Louie was able to find small victories such as racing civilians which boosted his moral immensely. “He knew what would happen if he won, but the cheering and the accumulation of so many months of humiliation brought something in him to a hard point. He lengthened his stride, seized the lead, and crossed the finish line” (Hillenbrand 216). He was knocked out with a club after this, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of his win. Louie was later punished by holding a beam above his head for as long as he could for supposedly letting the goat that he was taking care of die. “He felt his consciousness slipping, his mind losing adhesion, until all he knew was a single thought: He cannot break me. Across the compound, the Bird had stopped laughing” (Hillenbrand 302). Severely starved, underweight, and scarred; Louie held the beam for 37 minutes. Because of Louie’s defiance he held on to his dignity though life as a

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This shows louie’s determination for freedom. Louie was willing to kill the bird even though it would’nt of gotten him actually free from the camp it would let him be free from the torture and the fear of death the bird made him endure during his time at the

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“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man 's soul in his body long past the point when the body should have surrendered it” (Hillenbrand 189). In the novel Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini goes through several life-threatening experiences. After being a troublemaker as a child, and an Olympic athlete, Louie straps up his boots and becomes a bombardier for the Army Air Corps. After a traumatizing crash and a forty-six day survival at sea, Louie is taken captive by Japanese officials.

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Bird was brutally sexually assaulted and then set on fire in a dark parking lot. She then woke up in a hospital in Edmonton, Alberta after having to be flown there due to the extent of her injuries (McCue, 2017). Bird woke up in a hospital have lost much of the vision in her eyes and woke up to realize that both of her legs had been amputated due to the severity of the burns. The impact of the assault committed against Bird lasted for years. She had to re-learn how to do many things in her life now without the use of her legs, and hardly any vision in her eyes (McCue, 2017).

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This was until Louie noticed a bird flying, got an idea, and slowly inched his hand closer and closer to the bird. All in one go, Louie closed his hand, and while the bird is pecking he closed his hand and then snapped the bird 's neck. In order to get the meat from the bird, Louie

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Unbroken centers around a soldier named Louie Zamperini. Louie is on the American side fighting for peace in the South Pacific against the Japanese during WW2. Louie was a lieutenant in the U.S Air Force ,and served as a crewmember on the Green Hornet(B-24) Louie functioned as a bombardier who took pride in his duty. He was a true patriot.

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Louis Zamperini is a well known hero for his deeds. As a child, Louie was unstoppable. When Louie was two years old and was sick, Louie couldn’t sit still and jumped out of his window, and he ran with policemen chasing after him. He was known as an one-man insurgency. As Louie grew older and joined the Army, Louie changed in some ways and stayed the same in others.

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As if riding into a four bandit mob was not enough, Rooster then made the ultimate act of true grit by sacrificing a part of himself to achieve a greater goal. Rooster showed his concern for animals when “Two wicked boys were sitting on the edge of [a] porch laughing at the mule’s discomfort... Rooster cut the rope with his dark knife and the mule breathed easy again” (126). This was a surprisingly, wonderful gesture done by Rooster because before, he had showed little concern for anything besides himself. Later, after Mattie had been bitten by a rattlesnake, Rooster needed to get her to town in order for her to survive.

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The three-time United States Track and Field Olympic champion, Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can’t stay down. We can’t allow life to beat us down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we didn’t think we could be that strong.” In the non-fiction book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louis Zamperini demonstrates his everlasting perseverance through his everyday actions. Like Devers believed, the resilient Zamperini refused to be defeated or demoralized and did everything in his power to keep his feet on the ground and his chin up.

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Louie Zamperini went through more pain and suffering than most people will ever endure in their entire life. In the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner. He was drafted during World War II . During the war, his plane crashed in the middle of the ocean and he was stranded with little resources to survive. This book follows his incredible story battling starvation and abuse in Prisoner of War camps (POW).

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Other prisoners told him to give in or the Bird would beat him to death. Louie couldn’t do it” (181). This shows how although Louie was tortured by the Bird, who attempted to make him feel invisible and dehumanized, he never let him win. Next, Louie stole food from the guards to make him feel like he was doing something. This is shown when the author explained how, “Eventually, he was so frantic to eat that he broke into the kitchen and stole chestnuts reserved for the guards, an act that could’ve gotten him killed” (165).

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Louie didn’t want the Bird to see him in pain because he wanted to take control and turn the power around. He needed to be resilient and stay mentally strong. Later, for stealing, the Bird had made every man in the camp punch Louie and a few others in the

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“He must have been coming for the child, but poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down” ( Marquez 2014). In the story because the man with the wings was different, he was tortured, and treated like an animal. People only wanted to use him rather it be for profit, which Peylayo and Elisenda did by charging to look at him. Then there were people who would pluck his

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In the biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the story of an extraordinary man is unmasked. Louie Zamperini is a World War II survivor who inspired others with his utmost resilience and redemption. The poem If by Rudyard Kipling, expresses the value of masculinity. Furthermore, it does not depict one individual from a crowd.

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Unbroken, is a story about Louis Zamperini who has has survived many war battles. Louis has gone to war and survived, then was called back to keep fighting; however, this time, their plane crashed, and he landed in the middle of the ocean on a raft he had with him. Throughout all of this, Louis was brave and resilient to be able to stay alive in the ocean for 40 days. In Unbroken, by Hillenbrand, Louis had fought to stay alive after a rough patch in his life, and shows the audience that overcoming obstacles makes people better and stronger in the end.

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