Blair Donaldson

March 11, 2015

English blog.                            Unbroken. By: Laura Hillenbrand

            For our independent reading book, I choose Unbroken by: Laura Hillenbrand. Since the book is based on true story I was captivated right from the beginning. The whole book itself keeps you wondering what is going to happen in Louie’s life and the events he endures.  Louie Zamperini is the main character that the book is about. The book is about survival and inspiration and World War 2. Louie was also an Olympic runner which makes it even more inspiring to me personally and he becomes a Christian. Throughout the whole book you feel like your with Louie and feeling the pain or suffering that he had. For some reason something about a book being a true story makes it easier to relate too and intriguing. It’s also very inspiring which makes you want to be like him, because he is so strong and makes it through such difficult times.

            Some quotes that I loved from Unbroken that help you in vision what Louie sees. “Such beauty , he thought was too perfect to have come about by mere chance. That day in the center of the pacific was, to him, a gift crafted deliberately, compassionately, for him and Phil.” (166) These are Louie’s thoughts as they are drifting along the Pacific Ocean after their plane crash, and have been on the ocean for weeks and are floating into the world of starvation and dehydration. This quote I think is an essential in this certain chapter and part of his life, because Louie was on the edge of death, and yet he takes the time to see the beauty of the sunset and thinks of all the blessings he has, he said it was like a gift to them, Louie kept so positive and saw the beauty in everything even during such a hard time like this. Louie and Phil had been on the ocean for 47 days and survived, through having a Japanese plane shoot at them to having sharks lunging themselves out of water, Louie and Phil lived through it all. But then they were captured by Japanese and taken too a POW camp, Louie had gone through I think 2 camps before he came to his last 3rd camp. All camps were nightmares for Louie, he was tortured and beaten over and over again. There was one Japanese POW sergeant named Mutsuhiro Watanabe nicknamed by the POW's "The Bird." The Bird had an obsession with Louie. He tortured Louie constantly he even had every prisoner punch Louie in the face. But there was this one time were The Bird made Louie pick up a six foot beam and the book quotes, "Louie stood in the sun, holding up the beam.....Louie locked his eyes on the Bird's face, radiating hatred.(295) "He felt his his consciousness slipping, his mind loosing adhesion, until all he knew was a single thought: He can not break me." (296)  This quote is so important and there is so much strength in it, Louie was weak and starved and beaten and yet could hold up this six foot beam for around 30 something minutes. It's something so amazing, it shows Louie's strength and how he was not going to let the Bird brake him. You feel like your there with Louie and watching him, sometimes the book even makes you feel you are him. One last quote I find important in the book when Louie was seeing Billy Graham ( a preacher) he had a flashback of the day on the raft. "....He was on a body raft, dying of thirst. He felt words whisper from his swollen lips. It was a promise thrown at Heaven, a promise he had not kept, a promise he had allowed himself to forget until just this instant:If you save me, I will serve you forever. and then , standing under a circus tent on a clear night in downtown Los Angeles, Louie felt rain." (375) This quote is so important to this book and so beautiful and powerful, because it shows that he  remembers this promise, and he goes on to full fill it, and finds peace and forgiveness with God, he even forgives the Japanese sergeants who beat and tortured him. Louie's devotion to God is so amazing and his story of what he went through and how God helped them is so inspiring.  Louie even takes up his running career once again.

                  In the end this book is so inspiring most definitely the best book I have ever read. I would recommend this book to everyone. It shows you how tough life can be, but you just have to push through it and not let anything break you. It's very reflective and reminds you how lucky your are, to be where you are and to have what you have. This book is so amazing and if anyone has the chance to read it, they most definitely should. You get so captivated in the book that you can hardly put it down, I never wanted to stop reading. Unbroken is inspirational and everyone should get the chance to see the life of Louie Zamperini.