Unbroken Left To Tell By Immaculée Ilibagiza

Thomas Hardy believes that stories are written to tell an account of an important event whether it is personal or secular. He states that we look to books to find something greater than ourselves, we seek knowledge. If there is anything that is in the least bit more extraordinary than our own mediocre lives, we seek it. If a story does not include any unique phenomena it is considered unnecessary. “A story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling; it must have something more unusual to relate than the ordinary experience of every average man and woman.” I support this statement given the fact that most people read and listen to stories that have certain remarkable element for their own pleasure. Laura Hillenbrand presents Unbroken
Ilibagiza shows us that life can change quickly and unexpectedly. She wants us to value our time with our loved ones and cherish those memories. Amidst her “perfect” life a war was occurring within her beloved country, yet she knew nothing about it because of the blinding love of her parents (Ilibagiza 3). This part of the story rapidly submerges us and we begin to relate. We feel like everything used to be perfect but now things are going horribly wrong. We want to continue reading the story because of how much we relate to it. Although Ilibagiza’s experiences are something we hope to never go through, we justify it because it shows a part of who we are. We cheer as she overcomes all struggles through her faith in God, Ilibagiza never ceases to do the right thing. She overcomes the tempting humanity inside her and dedicates herself entirely to God (Ilibagiza 130,131). As we read this, we see her character and we begin to idolize certain characteristics such as faithfulness, determination, and forgiveness. We love the story of Ilibagiza because we not only see her overcome, but we see ourselves overcoming all obstacles to improve
We relate to these books because they bring out a part of our humanity, the part that makes the universe revolve around us. We always find a way to make anything about us and then we relate to it in order to feel good about ourselves for showing empathy. We want to feel good about ourselves and in order to do so we empathize with the subjects in the books. We are also drawn to these books because they show qualities that we idolize. We see how those with the qualities we covet respond to situations and how well their outcomes turn out. After reading these books we become inspired to possess these qualities and make our lives better. Overall, books appeal to us because of their relatability, the incredible journeys they overcome, and the qualities we glorify in the