Louie Zamperini

Louie Zamperini
Going from an olympic athlete to being injured, having to retrain, and not being able to accomplish a goal? As a child Louis Zamperini was a troublemaker. Louie’s brother, Pete, introduced him to running, he qualified to compete in the olympics but he had to go into training for flight school. The crew Louie was with went on a search for a missing plane, and got stranded out on the ocean. After being stranded out in the ocean and tortured in Japan POW camps, Louie returned home as a heavy drinker. His wife eventually got Louie help through the church. Throughout Laura Hillenbrand’s book, Unbroken, the two traits that are the most defining for Louie are sturdy and forgiving.
Louie is sturdy in many different ways. Hillenbrand states, “The corporal seemed compassionate and regretful, and Louie felt grateful. The relief was just entering his mind when the buckle, whirling around from the Bird’s
One example would be when Hillenbrand writes, “Told that Louie wished to come to offer forgiveness, Watanabe said he would see him and apologize.” (280). Louie wanted to confront the bird and apologize. Secondly, “Louie reeled in astonishment, his cheek bleeding.” (220) Louie just took the beatings from the bird. Lastly, after Louie and his wife visited the church he cleaned up. “When they entered the apartment, Louie went straight to his liquor, carried the bottles to the kitchen, and emptied them into the sink.” (269). Louie physically wanted to change. Lastly,
Throughout Laura Hillenbrand’s book, Unbroken, the two traits that are the most defining for Louie are sturdy and forgiving. Louie is forgiving because after coming back to America he was going to travel back to Japan to apologise to the bird. He is also sturdy because Louie never gave up on life. Forgiving and sturdy allowed Louie to go back to Tokyo and run with the torch at age 80 with other fans running beside him. Because of this Louie is sturdy and