Everest

I just finished watching the movie Everest, which was really amazing. After being frozen in a blizzard near the summit of Everest with little oxygen, one of the characters manages to survive overnight. While watching this scene all I could think about was Louie and the similarities between their triumphant acts of survival. However, while this man might have just got lucky, it furthers my awe of what exactly Louie endured not only on a physical scale but a mental one. It must have been immense.

The Beam Theme

Continuing more on what Blake said about the beam... holding the six foot beam over your head for 37 minutes in a POW camp is more than impressive. This scene is the face of an overall theme Louie experiences throughout the book. Life is never going to be easy, and you cannot let things get in your way of what needs to be accomplished even when their is adversity in your path. Louie's life takes this to the extreme, but still shows that if you are going so succeed in life, you cannot fall after a few punches and you have to fight until the end.

"Rescue"

At this point I don't know how Louie can move on. Their savior happens to be the Japanese, who hold them in cells with rats, mosquitoes, and larvae. Meanwhile they are humiliated by the guards who forced them to act out funny things, and he gets injected with chemicals that are being tested by biological warfare... What could possibly be keeping him alive and moving forward?

The Raft

The extended portion of the raft section of Louie's story seemed lengthy, however it was well necessary. To be able to survive under the circumstances of starvation , malnutrition, sunburn, dehydration, salt sores, fending off sharks, Japanese Bombers, and many other conditions is amazing. Louie had nothing to take care of him except being clever in a few moments, and his praying to God. Louie seems to always turn out of bad situations and continue on from them.

Louie

Again we see Louie's resilience in his big stand off against the Bird. Holding a six-foot beam over his head for 37 minutes while the Bird stared him down and attacked him. However, the kid from California grew up getting beaten and tossed around. This was nothing new to him, and that's why he was able to survive from the beginning. Louie's rough background prepared him well for war. His intense and rigorous running excercises gave him the endurance he needed to keep moving forward no matter how hard it was.

It takes a considerable amount of patience and luck to get out of these situations that Louie is in.Waiting practically an entire month to be rescued in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and then firing a flare at a passing plane only for it to be a Japanese fighter that began shooting at them. Somehow the bullets miss them and they survive again. Then when captured, Louie and his friend are used as lab rats for the Japanese to test out chemical weapons. Somehow again, they survive these seemingly harmless chemicals..... Crazy

What's more manly than punching a shark in the face?

"But what had been their best chance of rescue had been lost". I can't even imagine this feeling. The men knew that most likely they would either die out there, or be captured by the Japanese. While this would be such an awful feeling to cope with, it was also be a somewhat good realization at the time. At least they were able to partially accept the fact that their chance of rescue was little to none.

Poor Louis just seems to have bad luck with planes. As a kid he was scared of them, then he nearly crashed while in the Superman and soon after he got into the worst incident yet- crashing into the Pacific Ocean. I do not understand how he even got himself to get back in another plane after the incident with the Superman. It took pure dedication I guess.

"From this day forward, until victory or defeat, transfer, discharge, capture, or death took them from it, the vast Pacific would be beneath and around them. Its bottom was already littered with downed warplanes and the ghosts of lost airmen. Every day of this long and ferocious war, more would join them". It is interesting to see how others view this particular aspect of the war. I'm sure that most of us are aware that many people crashed and died over the Pacific Ocean, yet I like how the author used imagery here to show just how many people and planes were lost in this one part of the world. I also like how she included the idea that the longer the war becomes, the more lives will be lost.

Question

When Louie and his crew are stationed in Hawaii, they have a lot of fun making fun of each other, wrestling, and drinking, and a lot of success with the very high accuracy of the bomb crew Do you guys think that this helped Louie cope with the fact that he left his family, especially his brother, and is about to enter war at still a relatively young age?

"The Flying Brick"

I know we already mentioned how Louie was scared of flying, but I don't know how he basically resigned because he would get air sick, to rejoining and flying on a plane that was called "The Flying Brick." Louie and the other members of the bomb crew even joked about how they were more likely to be killed be the plane than by other Japanese. I don't know hoe he ever got on a plane again.

You can see Louie's emotions already changing a great deal from when he was a kid. The once mischievous kid who would normally run away from his family and beat up every kid he got the chance to, faced many of checkpoints in his life and is now a military man who keeps his own diary.

Hell

"Outside, it was hell on earth. Men moaned and screamed, one calling for his mother. A pilot thought the voices sounded “like animals crying.” Men’s eardrums burst. A man died of a heart attack. Another man’s arm was severed. Others sobbed, prayed, and lost control of their bowels." It's interesting to see the deterioration of men in their most vulnerable moments. Some of these men revert back into infants while others resemble animals. It just puts into perspective what the feeling of complete desperation must be like.

Aftermath

Island warfare  has a dreamlike aspect to it. Picturesque vacation-like destinations being turned into post-apocalyptic wastelands.Hillenbrand describes the aftermath of the battle at Funafuti:"Finally, the still fell silent. A few men, shaking, stood up. As they walked among the wreckage, another B-24 blew up, the explosion accelerated  by its 2,300 gallons of fuel, 3,000 pounds of bombs, and a cache of a .50-caliber ammunition " (112).  Complete and utter ravaging of the island and then total silence . The effect that must have on your mind is inconceivable.      

The coconut

The scene where Hillenbrand describes the coconut trees reminds me of the scene in The Master, where Joaquin Phoenix uses the cocunut to make a drink. Of course, the two stories are not that comprable. One person is a celebrated war hero and the other is a PTSD,alcoholic,lunatic who joins a religous cult. I still recommend that you all see the film.

Olympics

It's strange looking at the 1936 Olympics in a historical perspective. Knowing what will eventually play out in years to come, seeing all of the Nazi propaganda displayed is surreal. After the Olympics, Louie sets his sights for Tokyo in 1940. Unfortunately , Louie will have his sights set for Tokyo in a  way he never intended.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005680

A link to more behind the 1936 Olympics in Berlin

Bombardier

So in the beginning Louie says he hates planes, so naturally when he gets assigned to a "flying boxcar" or "flying brick" of a plane he becomes three times more accurate than the rest of the squadron, all the while being the one person who is virtually looking down through a glass bubble the entire time.

It's amazing how Louie's parents could be worried about his ambition in life and then he goes on braking records while running marathons and then is selected for the Olympics.

Lawsuit

I'm going to sit at the bottom of the school pool to train for running. Ill hold my breath for like ten minutes first try even if I black out. Next: I become world champion Olympic runner. (Or I die idk).

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    Every time Hillenbrand mentions the Zeppelin, I can't help but think of Robert Plant with his shirt half-buttoned wailing the words to "Whole Lotta Love." Although, I'm not sure the "Jazz Age" would have welcomed the rock legend with open arms.