Analysis Of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken

Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption follows the story of Louie Zamperini, a rebellious child who grew up to become one of the fastest runners of the 1930s. He competed as an Olympic track runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The future was looking bright for Zamperini before World War II began, which resulted in the Olympics being cancelled and Louie being drafted into the Army Air Forces as a bombardier. Midway through 1943, his B-24 crash landed in the Pacific Ocean. For weeks, Louie and two other men drifted westward across a seemingly endless ocean, accompanied by a pack of sharks and surviving on scraps of bird and fish meat and the occasional rainfall. Eventually, he arrived in Japanese
Throughout the trials he faced, Louie remained unbroken, struggling against his captors to retain his dignity.
Louie’s story conveys the central theme of redemption. During his imprisonment in Japan, he was consistently beaten by the prison guards, especially by Watanabe, who deliberately focused his attacks on Louie. After he returned to America, he seriously injured his leg while training, making him unable to run in a future Olympic Games. However, this did not prevent him from pursuing his new goal: “he was going to kill the Bird” (361). As his murderous hatred deepened, his wife took him to see a sermon taught by Billy Graham, after which he converted to Christianity. Following this event, he had no hatred for his former prison guards. He even felt compassion for Watanabe after hearing about his supposed death. Thusly, through the process of forgiving his former captors, he redeemed his sense of dignity and left behind his thirst for revenge. Not only was Louie redeemed by the end of the book, but so were his former prison guards, who were eventually granted amnesty in 1958. Mac, one of the men floating on the rafts, had panicked and eaten all of their