Examples Of Being Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand And Night

Being Unbroken is defined as not being damaged or being fractured. Throughout the two stories; Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand and Night, written by Elie Wiesel, both Louie Zamperini and Elie Wiesel were challenged on many levels, both emotionally and physically. However, their perseverance through their struggles and their optimistic views is what truly got them through the pain and hardships and allowed them to stand tall and not let their faith fail them.

The optimistic nature that Elie and Louie displayed was what got them through the hard and degrading situations they were faced with. Both would tell the people around them that the struggle and pain will soon end. “Where there's still life, there's still hope”(Hillenbrand 116).

“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

The hardest struggle that Elie Wiesel faced throughout the story Night, was of keeping a firm hold of his religion. “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (Wiesel 63). Elie was born into a Jewish family and therefore became a jew himself. During Hitler's reign, Hitler declared a creed to relocate all jews and destroy any businesses run by them. Elie began abandoning all that he was defined by, becoming destroyed and broken within. Having nothing to cling to, he began slowly denying any hope or future that could possible be coming. The hardest struggle that Louie Zamperini faced was not the POW camps he was placed in, or the loneliness that he faced while on the raft in the middle of the shark infested water. No, his biggest struggle was Mutsuhiro “The Bird” Watanabe, and all the emotional and physical abuse that he bestowed upon Louie, as well as taking away all and any dignity that Louie had left. “Of all of the violent and vile abuses that The Bird had inflicted upon Louie, none had horrified and demoralized him as did this. If anything is going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it” (Hillenbrand 291). The quote confirms the