Unbroken By Laura Hillenbrand: Chapter Analysis

The first 5 chapters of Laura Hillenbrand’s book “Unbroken” it tells the story of the main character, Louie, when he was a child/teenager. Louie was a troublemaker as he grew up, who smoked, stole and fought. When he entered high school, his brother, Pete, made him participate in cross-country. They found out that he was very talented at running, so he continued to train endlessly. He won many medals, broke many records and achieved the level of an Olympic athlete at just the age of 19, but he only got the 7th place in the Olympics. Louie was determined to win the 1940 Olympics, so he trained endlessly. However, it was cancelled because Germany and Japan started WWII. He was devastated and lost race after race, soon he became a bombardier for the US Marines.

Although, in the beginning of the book, he is not in a life threatening position, he still faced the theme of survival and perseverance. When he trained getting into the Berlin Olympics, he persevered through endless training, in which he had to endure many hardships. For example, when Louie just finished a 5000m race and, “the injured toe in training opened up again” (23). This shows us how Louie trained endlessly to pursue his goal and had to survive all the hardships he faced, even though it was not life-threatening. Another instance when Louie was near the edge of survival was in the Berlin Olympics when he was almost at the finish line when he remembered what his brother said, “A lifetime of glory is worth a moment of pain” (34). After this he ran with all his might and his dying breath to run the best he could. When he was almost at the finish line, Louie, “With the last of his strength threw himself over the line” (34). This shows how he persevered with all his strength and on the edge of survival to run the best race he