Herschel Marcelo

Herschel Marcelo

Language Arts 8

4/12/2017

 

 

Unbroken

Courtesy of Louie Zamperini

 

War is a troubling subject, filled with anger and revenge on those who torture others and those are are being tortured. The topic of World War II can be very troubling for people who have experienced it full force and have taken a first seat to living the horror in real life. POW or Prisoners of War have the worse experience out of any soldier working out on the front lines. These guys  get tortured every single day only to get executed on a day when you would win the war. This is what has happened to many POW soldiers (American Side) who were stuck in Japan to only be tortured and beaten every single day because they were on the enemy’s side. It was worse for some, Louie Zamperini talked about in the book Unbroken is one of the most famous people who would go down in war history because of the amazing feats he has accomplished in his life. From being stranded in the ocean for 46 days to entering  Japan and getting ripped of his dignity and to have everything taken away from one of the guards (the Bird). Louie still manages to hold on to his life which is barely hanging on the edge, and to be Unbroken. Louie has definitely taken a big beating in his life even at a young age but he manages to find the good inside of himself to fully understand the situation and to be able to overcome the hurdle to matter how big the jump must take. Even though all the punishments he was able to survive and even forgive those who have inflicted pain throughout his body. Lets see how Mr. Zamperini has overcome these hurdles to finally understand to what made him hold on to his life and what made him stand the punishments and was never broken, even in moments where anybody would give up all hope.

 

Let’s start from the beginning, as a child Louie was always a very troubled child, drinking at an age of 8 and smoking at a younger age at 5, on top of that Zamperini was bullied and hated by the public because of his addictive urge to steal food from everyone, thankfully his family was very well respected by the public and whenever the local cops would come around and catch Louie doing something bad the cops would just bring Louie back and give him to his parents, this would lead to his father giving him a beating to teach Louie a lesson but it never gets through his thick skull and his stubbornness, you would think that a good beating would get through to his head but this skill would eventually help him in the future. Anyway Louie as a child would never learn his lesson and would keep on doing the bad things he was doing but thankfully Louie had someone to guide him to the light. Louie is renowned for his achievements during his time in the olympics and his records, you may wonder what drove him to become the man he is today? Pete Zamperini has guided Louie to take the hobby of running which turned Louie whole life around for the better and even landed him in a spot in the olympics. This just shows that things will soon go in his favor and when things turn for the worst Louie just holds on and things will go for the better, this just shows that everything will not brake Louie.

 

Now after the childhood that was somewhat horrific for any child it actually turned out better. Louie then tried out for the military and lands a spot, now everything is going for him and he is in the best shape in his life for the olympics but this is where his life makes a wrong turn. He is in one of his plane with his squad mates inside a B-24 plane for a mission and “BOOM” engine failure. People are panicking  and going into their crash stations waiting to land in the middle of the ocean. Against of all the odds Louie and two of his other plane mates has survived (Phil and Mac). Now they are out here in the middle of the ocean with limited rations and having serious injuries with no way of communicating with the outside world. To even survive in this situation seems impossible. A few days after crashing they run out of their rations and they don’t have food, it has also been a week now with no sign of people coming to rescue them now it seems like they are going to die. Now this goes on for months, they get a little bit of food from here and there but only scraps, this goes on for 46 days out in sea. Things go downhill from here, sharks are surrounding their raft and all of a sudden they see a plane, everything seems like they are going to be saved after such a long time but after a few moments of flying around them bullets start showing up and aimed at them. Now they head into the water and somehow survive the plane attack, the plane finally goes away and they are untouched. They may have survived by an overhead plane attack but they are weak to the bone but Louie his friends survive through everything and manage to get captured and sent to inland. This may sound good but they were sent to a japanese execution camp and things go wrong.  Even after though all the hardships in water, Louie hold on and nothing breaks him to the point to survive multiple days out in the water.

 

The ultimate example is the Bird, a high positioned prison guard in one of the Japanese prison camps. Mutsuhiro Watanabe is a prison guard that likes to break people of their dignity and everything they think they are worth until they are nothing. The Bird has a special connection with Louie however because he has found out that he is an olympic athlete and so this makes the Bird want to break Louie even more. The Bird tortures and beats Louie every single day just to see him suffer, war laws say that this is a charge called war crimes and the bird is committing all of them because he can’t punish the POW soldiers that harshly. The Bird does so anyway and put Louie in the worst position ever. At this point you may think that Louie is done for, all of these punishments would surely kill him which was the Bird’s intention but Louie survives. Louie holds on to his life, Louie has gotten multiple illnesses and multiple bruises and cuts during his time in the POW camp. One point in time at camp (Naoetsu) Louie loses all of his strength and falls to the ground from doing excessive work and is lead to a spot with lots of wooden planks. Knowing how weak he is the Bird tells Louie to get the plank and to hold it above his head, if the plank ever touches the ground then the guards shoot him, Louie starts of with a rough but is able to hold it high, Louie remembers remembers all the hardship he has gone through and reminds him that he must live and fight for what is right, this gives him energy to lift up the plank really high, the Bird then proceeds to beat Louie for doing that. After all of that he survives, at this point we can observe that Louie cannot be broken no matter the position he ends up in.

 

After through all of this Louie survives and America wins the war against Japan, the POW soldiers are sent to the water to be executed but American planes then pop up and save the soldiers and Louie is sent home safe and sound. Louie has definitely has gone through a roller coaster filled with misery, anger, sadness, etc. With all of these emotions filling him up throughout his journey and experience he is able to hold on knowing that things will always end up better in the end. The title of this book is unbroken because it illustrates the power and the willpower of a man to survive the harshest conditions from being more than mistreated from the bird to being left on the ocean from months on end, this story captures the reader to show the will of man and there perserverence. Nothing might not fully explain on how Louie was able to survive through all of this but one thing is for sure that he will not break even through the mightiest hands. Time goes by and Louie decides to let go any emotion against people who have inflicted pain on him because he decided that by getting revenge would do nothing and only inflict pain upon himself, as trying to forgive the bird by going back to Japan the Bird refuse because he could not brake Louie. Though the answer is because the power of will and the thought of someone worth living for, Louie cannot be broken because of his pure heart and that's why the title reflects on what Louie is.