By: Laura Hillenbrand (New York: Random House, 2010).
Summary:
Louie Zamperini was a lieutenant in a WWII Army Air Forces bomber, which once landed with 594 bullet holes. He was also an Olympic runner, a childhood vandal, and a man who survived 47 days in the Pacific Ocean on a raft followed by two and a half years in Japanese POW camps, where he was regularly beaten. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend, is a story of the themes in its subtitle: survival, resilience, and redemption. Zamperini, who died in 2014 at the age of ninety-seven, converted to Christianity after his POW camp survival and a period of alcohol abuse. Hillenbrand writes in a straightforward style that captures the many instances of pride, pain, and hope in Louie’s life. Angelina Jolie directed the film of the same name.
Themes:
- Redemption. The novel moves in an arc, from the Creation of Louie as a rambunctious child, to put it mildly, to the Fall of his place crash, to his Redemption at the Billy Graham revival.
- Suffering. Louie is shot at, beaten, stranded, starved, nearly drowned, punched, and placed in solitary confinement.
- War. WWII is the setting for much of the book, which focuses specifically on the Pacific theater.
- Heroism. Many of Louie’s actions could be described as heroic, but there were other instances of heroism to which Louie was a witness.
- Forgiveness. Louie has a chance to confront many of the guards from the POW camp later in life.
- Dignity/self-worth. In his letter to the Bird, Louie writes of how his rights and dignity were stripped from him.
Discussion Questions:
- How did Louie’s experiences in his childhood impact him as an adult?
- Consider how Louie forgave Watanabe, the Bird. Does forgiveness require repentance? Is forgiveness “selfish” if one person forgives another without the latter acknowledging his or her wrong?
- Compare and contrast Louie Zamperini’s experience with forgiveness in Chapters 38 & 39 of Unbroken with Corrie ten Boom’s in Chapter 15 of her biography The Hiding Place.
- What motivated the Bird to commit his many acts of atrocity against the prisoners?
- In November 2014, Hillenbrand revised Unbroken so that it could be republished in what was called the “Young Adult Adaptation.” Does this hurt the impact of the story, or is this a helpful way to increase reader accessibility? You can read more about this here.
Drew Trotter