Zamperini's Experiences In Unbroken, By Laura Hillenbrand

In her World War II novel, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand interprets her theme of persevering through the suffering of hardships through the many adventures and experiences of Louis Zamperini. Hillenbrand is able to express how she was coped with the situation she was in during the publication of the book. She is able to make Zamperini’s story very entertaining, and at the same time, she indirectly shares her feelings about her situation to us. When first described in the novel, Zamperini was the naughty kid turned good through the persuasion of his brother, Pete. After being his high school superstar in track, “shattering the national high school record… by more than two seconds” (Hillenbrand 21), he went on to compete at the Berlin Olympics

For Hillenbrand, it was college. The hardships Zamperini went through are portrayed starting with his first near death experience on his mission to Nauru. Things only get worse when his plane crashed (ironically when he was going on a mission to save people) and “the ocean [became] a jumble of bomber remains” (Hillenbrand 131). This was an oppression that Zamperini never would have expected. Hillenbrand’s experiences nearly parallel those of Zamperini’s. After she served a normal life until college, things started to collapse in the sophomore year of high-school, when she became seriously ill with chronic fatigue syndrome. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a condition where one becomes extremely fatigued and has other symptoms, including loss of memory, unexplainable muscle pain, and extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physically or mentally exercising. Hillenbrand’s conditions were bad - perhaps so bad that she couldn’t leave her dorm; she was forced to drop out of college, and she returned home. Back home, her conditions only worsened, and doctors told her that there was no cure and no real treatment to the