The End

"In bewilderment, the men who had abused him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile on his face" (380). I have mixed feelings about the way this book ended. On one hand, I think that it is awesome how Louie decided to be the bigger person and act as though he did not hold a grudge against the men. It was almost as though Louie had given his life his own sort of content happy ending. On the other hand, I do not like how nice Louie was about the situation. He acted as though those men in front of him had not tortured and done unexplainable things to him. All I know is if I were Louie, I wold definitely not look at those men with a big smile and open arms, that is for sure.

Final Opinion

I am so glad I read this book, mainly because the movie was just okay and I struggled to understand what everyone loved so much. Louie's story is incredible, and while some instances memories may seem exaggerated (if not untrue), its really the indisputable facts, and the larger details which make the story so incredible. It was a story of strength, survival, friendship, loss, life and death and I'm happy I was able to somewhat experience the varied and interesting life of Louis Zamperini.

Concussion

"Louie drank without restraint. One day Cynthia came home to find Louie gripping a squalling Cissy in his hands, shaking her. With a shriek, she pulled the baby away. Appalled at himself, Louie went on bender after bender" (507).In the recent theme of relating this book to movies/TV I saw this quote and instinctively remembered a scene from the movie concussion, which is about the battle a man faces to bring light to the dangers of football head trauma. So naturally the movie has some powerful scenes. In one scene a former steelers player goes on a rampage as a result of his disease, endangering his family and ultimately killing himself in the process. Both he and Louie were subject to the mental consequences of a violent ordeal, however Louie-as he usually does- somehow manages to survive yet again. It's sad though, even when you think it would be over for a person who has suffered such trauma, they still manage to encounter hardship in one form or another.

Grey's Anatomy

Since I know how much we all love Grey's, I figured I would relate Unbroken to that show. The part where Louie dreams that he is strangling Bird, but actually ends up strangling Cynthia is exactly like the Scene in "Grey's Anatomy" where Owen, a former soldier, wakes up strangling Christina, the woman he loves, after having a bad dream. Again, this situation in the book relates to real life because unfortunately things like this do happen outside of the stories.

Postwar Life

"For some men, the central struggle of postwar life was to restore their dignity and find a way to see the world as something other than menacing blackness... For others, the war would never really end" (349). This quote is true not only for the book, but also in real life. There are always stories about people who come back from the war with PTSD and all kinds of other issues that they can't control. It is up to them and only them how they deal with what they had gone through- whether they try to move on or live with it forever. Although many don't choose to live with the issues they have, most can at least make an effort to "see the world as something other than menacing blackness", even though it would be one of the hardest things they would have to do.

In the Heart of the Sea

Kind of like how Jamison related Unbroken to the movie he watched, I recently watched In the Heart of the Sea. This movie is based off of a true story about Moby Dick. After their ship had been destroyed and all but a couple men had been killed by the mysterious whale, the remaining men were stranded on a small boat forced to survive on their own. In In the Heart of the Sea, the men even had to eat the body of one of their own who had died just to keep themselves alive. In both stories, everyone had to take extreme measures to survive, and they had to have a crazy strong mind and a ton off will power to put themselves through what they went through. It is truly a miracle, in both cases, that the survivors made it out alive. 

The Return

Louie's promise to "serve god forever"  if he had saved his life on the raft, had saved his life again. When he returned, nothing returned the way he wanted it to be. His wife filed for divorce, he had post traumatic stress, he couldn't train for the Olympics because of his ankle, and this lead to his drinking problem. The reason he gave up the problem because he remembered the promise he made, dumped out his liquor and was able to focus again.