The Determined Louie Zamperini
From a troublesome child, a 19 year old Olympian runner, a bombardier lost at sea, then captured by the enemies! Louie Zamperini has had quite the adventure in life. He grew up in a small town of Torrance, California. He lived with the perfect brother, Pete, who his parents adored. As an outsider, Louie was attracted to misfit. When Germany introduced eugenics to the world, he got scared and decided to change his actions by training as a runner with Pete. Throughout his life Louie, from the novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, illustrates traits of deceitfulness and determination.
The polar opposite brothers may have looked similar, but couldn’t have acted more different. Louie was drawn to being the rebellious,
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Here are some reasons that Louie was deceitful, as an adult. “On the dance floor, Louie spotted the hated lieutenant who’d ordered them to fly on three engines. He found a bag of flour, recruited a girl, and began dancing near the lieutenant, dropping flour down his collar with each pass. After an hour, the whole club was watching. Louie snagged a glass of water, danced up behind his victim, dumped the water down his shirt, and took off.” (63-64) Even with the expectations of a role model, Louie still loved getting revenge. When he was captured by the Japanese, he risked his life just to pull a prank on one of the cruel guards. Louie was being starved, and he was desperate enough to become a barber for the guards, in exchange of food. “A notoriously cruel guard called the Weasel came to Louie for shaves but never paid him the rice ball. Louie couldn’t resist evening the score. Shaving the Weasel’s forehead, he thinned his eyebrows to a girlish line.” (166) Although Louie loved to see an eye for an eye, he used his vindictiveness for the benefit of the other prisoners. He used his …show more content…
Pete pressured him very hard. Then, Louie was starting to crack. He even ran away for a little bit with a friend. After a miserable time, he came home and agreed to continue training. He was growing this amazing, determined side to him. Later in life, he was training for the 1940 Olympics. He had his heart set on winning, and he began to work harder than he ever did before! “Focused on the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, he smashed record after record. By spring of ‘38, he’d whittled his mile time down to 4:13.7, some seven seconds off of the world record which now stood at 4:06.4… Every night, he climbed the Los Angeles Coliseum fence and ran the stairs until his legs went numb.” (41-42) Louie practiced self-discipline by pushing himself to greater feats than he ever could’ve imagined! When he was captured by the Japanese, the guards found out he was a former runner. To humiliate him, they brought professional Japanese runners and forced Louie to race. He felt awful! Since he was starved so bad, he had little to no strength in his legs. Then once particular race in the camp, he felt a burst of energy! He felt the intensity he needed! “Louie knew what would happen if he won, but the cheering aroused his defiance. He lengthened his stride, seized the land, and crossed the line. The captives whooped.” (158) This shows how Louie determined because he did not give up in that race. He felt he owed it the other captives a win.
The awakening is plenty of characters that describe in a very loyal way the society of the nineteenth century in America. Among the most important ones there are Edna Pontellier, Léonce Pontellier, Madame Lebrun, Robert Lebrun, Victor Lebrun, Alcée Arobin, Adéle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz.
In the events of September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945 world war 2 erupted and up came a man his name was Louis Zamperini. During Louie's life as a young adult, he decided to join the army to defend his country. Then during one of his missions on the way to the bomb site two, two of the four engines on their b-24 malfunctioned sending them plummeting into the ocean. In the book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the life experiences of Louie Zamperini to show the traits of optimistic and resourceful.
“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson.That quote is my favorite because it shows you that everyone is the same ,but there is some people that stand out more than others like my hero Fernando Valenzuela.
In Unbroken: A world war 2 story of survival, resilience, and redemption- by Laura Hillenbrand; young Louie Zamperini is a delinquent of Torrance, California. He steals food, runs around like hell and even dreams of hoping on a train and running away for good. However, Pete, his older manages to turn his life around by turning his love of running from the law into a passion for track and field. Zamperini is so fast that he breaks his high school’s mile record, resulting in him attending the olympics in berlin in 1936. His running career however was put on hold when World war 2 broke out, he enlisted in the the Air Corps and becomes a bombardier. During a harrowing battle, the “superman” gets hit numerous times with japanese bullets destroying
“The commandant announced that we had already covered 42 miles since we left. It was a long time since we had passed beyond the limits of fatigue. Our legs were moving mechanically, in spite of us, without us” (Wiesel 83). Elie was forced to run at two in the morning on a regular basis, and if anyone slowed down or stopped they were immediately shot or beat. Elie was mentally fit and told himself that he wouldn’t give up, however, his father was slower and a lot older, making it much harder for him to be quick on his feet. In Unbroken, the quickness that Louie showed as a child and while growing up, helped him prepare for the future of being quick on his feet as well as being mentally and physically strong. “The same attributes that had made [Louie] the boy terror of Torrance were keeping him alive in the greatest struggle of his life” (Hillenbrand 34). In many of the conditions that Louie faced on a daily basis, only someone with his faith still holding together and can persevere through the struggles in his life is going to make it out
When Louie was a teenager he wanted to find ways to stop people from bullying him. His father helped him learn to defend himself with a punching bag and homemade barbell (Unbroken 9). He soon defeated his bullies. This toughness also helped him during his running career. During a NCAA meet, some runners tried to sabotage him in the middle of a race. The men used the spikes on their shoes to stab and cut Louie. Though he was bleeding and in pain, his toughness helped him to win the race and set a new NCAA mile record of 4:08.3 seconds (Unbroken 44). This would never equal the toughness Louie needed to survive at the POW camps. At these camps, he was locked in small, confined spaces, beaten, humiliated and forced to work hours to just receive small rations of food. Louie could have easily given up and accepted his impending death; instead, he kept his head held high and did not give up. His toughness kept him ready to take on whatever life threw his
Another fear erected from this novel is the power of seduction over feebleminded women. Evident in a passage from Zofloya, Victoria was swooned even by the sound of his voice, ‘Oh, Flattery, like heavenly dew upon the earth, gratefully dost thou descend upon the ear of woman! Indescribable pleasure dilated the bosom of Victoria, as she listened to the honied accents of the delicate Moor’ (Dacre 156). This villain had a hold over her making it easier to push her towards evil deeds. He promised her security after committing the crimes she wished, ‘…you shall see your desire fulfilled, and I will preserve you from every danger and suspicion’ (Dacre 181). Victoria had wished Berenza dead and Lilla out of the way but required the extra push from Zofloya.
This justifies that he is clever because in a pressure situation he needed to catch water. Even though they had canteens, they didn’t catch nearly enough water to survive two more days. With limited time he was able to create an apparatus to save him and his crewmates. As a child he was untameable and did anything to get attention, “Louie crammed the pay-phone coin slots with toilet paper, then returned later to feed wire behind the coins… and fill his palms with change,” (9). Because he stole from most of the people he worked for, Louie wasn’t able to earn money so he stole from the pay-phone. Louie still wanted to buy things that any child would want like action figures so he composed a device that he could steal money without having to work. It was clever because nobody would look down a coin slot. It also proved he was clever because no one would question a child in the phone booth. As Louie was slowly dieing of starvation in the POW camp
The novel, ‘Between shades of gray’ written by Ruta Sepetys was published in 2011. In the novel, various character traits can be distinctively seen between the protagonists and antagonists. In the book, the main protagonist, Lina Vilkas is one of the characters with various traits such as hopeful, brave, caring, helpful and determined. Within the book, these traits can be thoroughly seen from the beginning to end.
After reading the novel As I Lay Dying, I was able to gather some first impressions about Jewel Bundren. One of these impressions is that Jewel Bundren is aware that Anse Bundren is not his father,. One reason why this is evident is because when Jewel half brother, Darl, is questioning him about who his father is, Jewel doesn’t answer, meaning he might know that he isn’t related to Anse. Another reason this is evident is due to the way Jewel acts when he is talking to Anse, as he is continuously disrespectful to him. Even though it’s shown Jewel is aware that Anse is not his father, there is no indication in the novel that he is aware that Whitfield is really his father. Another first impression I was able to gather about Jewel
After getting caught in the wrong crowd, his brother Pete, manages to turn his life around by taking his love for running from the law, and turning it into a passion for track and field. Louie breaks his high school records, and goes to the Olympics in 1936, and trains to beat the four-minute mile. His running career was put on hold when the World War broke out. Louie enlisted in the army as an air corps and becomes a bombardier. While over the Pacific Ocean they were shot down. Only three men survived, Louie, Phil, and Mac. Louie and Phil continue to fight for their lives at sea for forty-seven days, only to be captured and tortured by the Japanese. After being transferred from camp to camp each one worst than the last, Louie was the only one to survive when the war ends. Louie is finally able to return home and reunite with family. Louie fights hard, but cannot let go of the past and winds up with a drinking problem to forget what he had been through. Louie is able to find faith and have the will power to quit his drinking problem, and turn to motivational speaking. Many years later, Louie was able to forgive all of the men who did him wrong, and carried the Olympic torch past Naoetsu in 1998, leaving his dark past behind
Zamperini quit his life of crime when some girls encouraged him to join the school track team. With the help of his brother, Zamperini got really good at running and set a high school record for four minutes and twenty one seconds. In 1936 he New York for the 5,000 meter Olympic trials, naturally he made it. At the Olympics
Louie Zamperini has several traits, one of them are optimistic. “Confident that he was clever and bold enough to escape anything, he was almost incapable of discouragement.” (9) Louie was young, flagrant. He thought he was incapable of discouragement and his greatest fear became legend. Accordingly, to this character trait he was confident
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