‘unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand – a Life Story of an Olympic Athlete

‘Unbroken’ written by Laura Hillenbrand is a story about Louis Silvie Zamperini. Throughout his life as a young boy, an Olympic athlete, a soldier, a POW prisoner and the aftermath that had effects on his life. Born in 1917 being a son of Italian immigrants his life was a rocky start from being a teenager stealing booze and smoking to running track and being at Olympic athlete. Pushing through his limits and defying defeat he worked hard to be the best. And when it came to the Olympics even Adolf Hitler noticed him with saying the best finish and shaked his hand and met him. After the Olympics stopped because the war he went and joined the Air Force. While Louis was in the Air Force he got nicknames of being called Lucky Louie for cheating death.

Then on May 27, 1943 Louis went on a search and rescue mission and got the last resort plane called the green hornet wish they reluctantly did not want to get on but they told them they had to and it passed inspection. But why are flying over the ocean two of the engines failed and they landed in the water and out of the 11 men 3 men survived. After a long time drifting away in the ocean on a raft they finally get rescued by the Japanese and they get put on an island called death island but about 43 days later they go into a POW camp in Japan where they met the bird. His life is a POW was hell being tortured on the daily being malnourished losing about 40 to 50 pounds and the bird that was fixated on Louis. The bird was even transferred to another POW camp and Louis was transferred to the same camp as him for his life is a POW was a living hell.

After the war leaving the POW camp Louis found the love of his life Cynthia Applewhite and proposed 10 days after meeting her. After getting married they had a little girl but even then Louis couldn’t shake his demons screaming at night from his dreams being hunted by the bird even one night strangling his own wife and his dream. His wife filed for divorce until she turned Christian and because of this stop the divorce and Louis attended the Billy Graham preaching and his life changed and he became Christian. Then in 1950 you return back to Japan to forgive all the prison guards that tortured him but he could not meet with the bird probably because the bird felt terrible for his actions and some guards even turn to Christ as their Savior.

Louise life was a very passionate one driven by never giving up or giving in he even has his own catch phrase that his brother told him if you can make it you can take it and he followed those words throughout his life and with his heart. There are three powerful messages in this book and the first being perseverance to push through your limits, the second one resilience to not be broken and does still have a good heart, and the third forgiveness to forgive those who have done wrong to you even if they put you through hell. Throw the beginning of his life and even through the POW camp you can see the perseverance as he broke his own record in the Olympics as he stop drinking and started to run and as he always looked for towards the future in the POW camp even when he got out even when his life was still a wreck he wanted to make it right but didn’t know how but he wanted to make things right.

Throughout the story you can see Louise resilience to not give them to not be broken to always keep fighting when the bird tortured him day after day night after night he never came in he always thought about strangling the bird and his dreams but he never did it he would never give the satisfaction of letting the enemy see him broken that is really powerful message even throughout hell he never came in he always worked never stopped always pushing through no matter what. Even throughout hell he found a savior and he began the road of forgiveness going to Japan and forgiving all of his captors to forgive what they’ve done to him and even forgiving himself for being lost in the madness. Louis had a passion spark in his soul that made all these three messages work. From a man that went from nothing to something throughout his passionate life is an inspiration for all the life of stealing to a life of valor and honor and the quote “ if you can take it you can make it” words to live on.

Throat the book it teaches these life lessons and surprisingly a chronicle logical order and one of the biggest lessons was to never give up to always look for a brighter side. And with Louise life in this book it has inspired millions of people throughout the years to push past their limits and to never give up. Also while researching whenever the bird got interviewed not once did he say he’s sorry the only thing he said was that what driven him to do those things was his passion at the time never once said anything about being sorry and died two years ago in 2016. Also on a sidenote my favorite part in the book is win in the POW camps they were talking about the slaves that word sabotage supplies and sabotaged a railway system so whenever a train to win on it it toppled and flipped over and they made a black market I thought that was a great little detail to add to show how they survived throw the POW camp.