Essay On Unbroken

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After getting many recommendations to read Unbroken by Hillenbrand, I was glad to see the book on our school reading list. I had high hopes for this book and it did make most of them.
Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is a biography of one man that was an athlete for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, an airman in the Army Air Forces, and a Japanese POW. That man’s name is Louis Zamperini.
Just from the beginning of the book, Zamperini was special. He wasn’t the nice, obedient student who excelled at sports that I pictured. Young “Louie” Zamperini was a full out delinquent. He was great at breaking into people’s homes and running away, which eventually led into him becoming a runner. An Olympic runner. I really enjoyed this part of the story because of Louie’s …show more content…

But by the wrong people. The Japanese. The Japanese takes Louie to a POW camp where he gets tortured and experimented on. But he still survives. It was around this point in the story where it got slow for me. However, this part really made me understand the title. Over and over, Zamperini gets tortured and yet still survives. Louie is almost like he’s invincible, unbreakable. He is unbroken by any of the obstacles that he encountered.
Hillenbrand’s writing gives off a feeling of someone who has done their research properly. One example is that she tells the readers about the characters’ whereabouts after the war. Hillenbrand also puts in descriptive paragraphs and pictures to help readers understand the situation.
However, I found that I couldn’t connect to Louis. The Hillenbrand’s writing made me picture everything clearly but not emotionally feel. The third person narration was too monotone for me. “Louie saw something bizarre.” (157) “Louie gave his name… then a fist thudding into Louie’s head. Louie staggered” (238). I wanted the thoughts and feelings of survival, death, family, anger, pain, hope, and revenge that he had while being stranded at sea, being tortured, or seeing his family after the war. I wanted more of Zamperini’s

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