American Olympian, Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can’t stay down. We can 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 Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken, the determined Louis Zamperini proved Devers’ words. Although he returned home from war, bruised, broken, and mentally exhausted. If it wasn’t for Louis’s quick thinking, survival instincts, and his determination, he probably would not have survived the war.
In the beginning of his life, Louie seemed to find mishap wherever he went. Whether from the sides of bakeries, or the tops of churches. …show more content…
Not only is he being idolized for his accolades, but he is flourishing morally as a person as well. Later on in his career, this drive for survival and success will bring him great eclat in the harshest of the surroundings.
A few months later, he is asked, yet again, to face an obstacle that he is not familiar with: war; “Those who enlisted prior to being drafted could choose their service branch. In early 1941, Louie joined the the army air corps.” (66) Louie shows that even though he is a star, athlete, and an Olympian, he is determined to protect his country from those who seek havoc on it. Louie, knowing that he isn’t the only patriotically inclined individual, decides to become friends with a pilot whom he is assigned with. His name is Russell Allen Phillips, or as Louis called him: Phil. Louis and Phil would later become really good friends and serve together in multiple occasions, But on a simple Search and Rescue mission, Louie and Phil’s ship was shot and destroyed. The only known survivors on that ship was Louie, Phil, and the newcomer, Mac; “The ocean was a jumble of bomber remains. The lifeblood of the plane-oil, hydraulic fluid, and some one thousand gallons of …show more content…
The broadcast began to play. Louie was suddenly screaming. Sylvia jumped up, Louie swore at the voice, yelling something about propaganda prisoners. Sylvia snatched up the record, and Louie yelled at her to break it. She smashed it and threw it away.”(334) Given that Louie had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) he became very impressionable towards the topic of “war in the Pacific.” Likewise, Louie could not handle anyone or anything that included Japan. This constant behavior of unconscious temper tantrums became a big role in Louie’s alcoholism. His self-esteem as well as his mental stability was deteriorating by every drink he swallowed. Louie had enough of his selfish actions; he wanted a change. That change for him wasn’t rehab, or therapy, but it was something more personal: God: “Louie found himself thinking of the moment at which he had woken in the sinking hull of Green Hornet, the wires that had trapped him a moment earlier now, inexplicably, gone. And he remembered the Japanese bomber swooping over the rafts, riddling them with bullets, and yet not a single bullet had struck him, Phil, or Mac. He had fallen into unbearably cruel worlds, and yet he had borne them. When he turned these memories in his mind, the only explanation he could find was one in which the impossible was possible. What God asks of
In the beginning of his life, Louie seemed to find mishap wherever he went. Whether from the sides of bakeries, or the tops of churches. …show more content…
Not only is he being idolized for his accolades, but he is flourishing morally as a person as well. Later on in his career, this drive for survival and success will bring him great eclat in the harshest of the surroundings.
A few months later, he is asked, yet again, to face an obstacle that he is not familiar with: war; “Those who enlisted prior to being drafted could choose their service branch. In early 1941, Louie joined the the army air corps.” (66) Louie shows that even though he is a star, athlete, and an Olympian, he is determined to protect his country from those who seek havoc on it. Louie, knowing that he isn’t the only patriotically inclined individual, decides to become friends with a pilot whom he is assigned with. His name is Russell Allen Phillips, or as Louis called him: Phil. Louis and Phil would later become really good friends and serve together in multiple occasions, But on a simple Search and Rescue mission, Louie and Phil’s ship was shot and destroyed. The only known survivors on that ship was Louie, Phil, and the newcomer, Mac; “The ocean was a jumble of bomber remains. The lifeblood of the plane-oil, hydraulic fluid, and some one thousand gallons of …show more content…
The broadcast began to play. Louie was suddenly screaming. Sylvia jumped up, Louie swore at the voice, yelling something about propaganda prisoners. Sylvia snatched up the record, and Louie yelled at her to break it. She smashed it and threw it away.”(334) Given that Louie had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) he became very impressionable towards the topic of “war in the Pacific.” Likewise, Louie could not handle anyone or anything that included Japan. This constant behavior of unconscious temper tantrums became a big role in Louie’s alcoholism. His self-esteem as well as his mental stability was deteriorating by every drink he swallowed. Louie had enough of his selfish actions; he wanted a change. That change for him wasn’t rehab, or therapy, but it was something more personal: God: “Louie found himself thinking of the moment at which he had woken in the sinking hull of Green Hornet, the wires that had trapped him a moment earlier now, inexplicably, gone. And he remembered the Japanese bomber swooping over the rafts, riddling them with bullets, and yet not a single bullet had struck him, Phil, or Mac. He had fallen into unbearably cruel worlds, and yet he had borne them. When he turned these memories in his mind, the only explanation he could find was one in which the impossible was possible. What God asks of