Unbroken discussion

Unbroken is an inspiring novel based on the true story of Louis Zamperini’s life. Zamperini was an esteemed Olympic athlete during the rise of the Nazis. The story begins when Louis is young and growing up in California, which makes the story more relatable for high schoolers. Louis is always getting in trouble and is not the best student academically, but once he finds his passion in running, he excels. The story is inspirational when readers begin to follow his journey to the 1936 Olympics. Zamperini actually met Hitler when he was sent to Berlin in 1936. Once the war starts, Louis enlists in the army and the story begins to intensify. Readers are taken along his long brutal journey that seems unbearable to survive. His journey during the war is shared inexplicitly and would be sure to interest any war-novel lovers. The weight of this book when remembering that it is nonfiction may lay heavy on your heart, but to me it was inspiring and made me realize that we can all dig a lot deeper than we think. I would recommend Unbroken to anyone looking to read a nonfiction book that is inspiring, and frankly, hardly feels like nonfiction when going through the pages.

The theme of this story is to never give up and that living is almost always better than dying. Louie started out running like his life depended on it and never gave up on his dreams of winning gold at the Olympics, even though the odds were stacked against him. He was too young to force his body to improve enough to win in the 1936 Games, so instead, he ran the 5000-meter race with only a few races' experience. He trained harder than ever over the next 4 years so he could become the first 4-minute mile, only to see the Olympics get canceled because of WW2. His best years to run had come and gone, and Louie saw his dreams he worked tirelessly for fly away from him. So, he decided to fight the demons that took his dreams away from him. He has to go through an unbearable journey to survive that most normal people would just give up because of it. He probably knew about his fate because of what he had seen and heard of around him, with Nazis killing Jews and everyone that tried to stop them. He was very brave, never gave up, and chose life over death. Readers should not only learn from this but be inspired to do the same.