Unbroken

The American writer Dennis Prager once said, "Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people." In Laura Hillenbrand's nonfiction book Unbroken, the considerate Louis Zamperini personified Prager’s words when he, no matter the predicament, placed the others before his own. Needless to say, it was Louis who motivated other American soldiers to persevere during World War II as he never wanted his friends to die on his watch.

A young boy, Louie stole and caused trouble around his hometown in Torrance, California. All he wanted to do was steal. Although he often ran from the police after breaking the law, Louie often gave away the
Earning the position of a pilot, Louie’s main man, Russell Allen Phillips, nicknamed Phil, joined Louie’s crew and eventually named his plane “The Superman.” Although the years were long and great, a turning point devastated the airmen, concluding the time of The Superman. In addition to men shot down, new men replaced the injured airmen that had never flown with Phil or Louie before. Straight after this occurred, another tragic event took more lives away. On May 27, 1943, the crew of the new Green Hornet plane crashed and sank into the Pacific Ocean. Not only were lives lost in the crash, supplies disappeared, too. Louie, one survivor, saw Phil in bad shape sitting in a small raft once he resurfaced above the water and saw another raft in a different direction. He then had a decision to make: “Louie knew that he had to get Phil’s bleeding stopped, but if he went to him, the raft would be lost and all of them would perish” (131). Louis had to choose whether to save Phil, or to reach the raft and take it over to Phil instead, which could’ve threatened Phil’s life. This act is one of the many compassionate choices made by Louie. Trapped in a gigantic pit of water with no ways to attract help, sharks constantly surrounded the only survivors: Louie, Phil, and Mac. The crewmen only had a few close-to-useless supplies in the two rafts they managed to climb into. Phil, who suffered with a wound on his head from the crash landing, put Louie in command of the predicament since he was in no state to lead. Without the correct supplies, Louie did the best he could to keep their lives and sanity going. “‘If there was one thing left, he’d a given it to me,’ Phil once said of Louie” (154). Whilst Louie endured a body in bad shape, he wouldn't allow himself to let the other two crewmen die. Mac eventually became mentally inactive, which put Louie in a tough