Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Book report by Kate Bergen
Description
As a child, Louie was always causing problems from a young age. When he got a little older, he started running and wanted to put all his effort into that. Soon, the world was starting to go into war. Once Pearl Harbor was attacked, Louie was sent to an island to fight in the war. Everything there was being destroyed by bombs. Right before Christmas, the Japanese started attacking the island. Louie and his team had been on the island for 2 months. The Nauru raid had begun and all of the men on the Island are trying to survive. The next day, Louie and his team were put on a new plane and were traveling to a new island. After flying for a while, the planes engine stopped working and they crashed into the ocean. Louie, Phil and Mac were the only survivors. The eight others were gone. On the 33rd day of being stranded, Mac died of lack nutrition. The two men had been stranded for 47 days until they were found by a Japanese boat. On the boat they were treated well, but were soon transferred to camp where they were not treated well. Since the crash, both of the men had lost 50 pounds. They are able to contact their families and tell them they are alive. After months of being transferred to different camps, the Americans finally started to come to Japan. They dropped off food boxes for the prisoners. The Americans also bombed many cities, leaving people without homes. Finally, the Japanese surrender and the war is over. Louie and the rest of the prisoners get on a train, and then find a flight back to America. Louie is reunited with his family and finds a wife. He starts having an alcohol problem, until his wife takes him to listen to a paster speak. He forgets about the war and never has any bad memories again.
Theme
I think the theme of this book is to believe in yourself and get through the hard times with your friends. Louie always worked hard to get the food he needed even though he was starving and he gave up things for his friends.
What did you enjoy about the book?
I enjoyed that the book was written throughout Louie's whole life and showed everything he went through. It was interesting to see all the different places Louie went all everything that happened during this period in time.
Would you recommend this book?
I would recommend this book because it showed all the hard things people like Louie had to go through and it was always interesting with no boring parts.
If the book was well written, what made it this way?
I think this book was well written because I was always in suspense and didn't know what was going to happen next. I also liked that the book tells about Louie's whole life.
Which characters play an important role to relate to the overall theme?
I would say that Phil, a friend that was with Louie when they crashed the plane, played an important role in this book because he was always trying to get Louie to push through the hard times and they always stuck together.