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Thrilled by the crashing of boundaries, Louis was untamable.
This quote summarizes the air of mischief that Louie carries throughout childhood, highlighting the youthful edge of the fiery spirit that becomes a deep source of strength for him in war. This quote comes after a detailing of schemes that Louie concocts, stirring up trouble in crafty yet creative ways, and it is this ingenuity, paired with defiance, that helps Louie survive when stranded on the raft and in POW camps. This mention of being “untamable” foreshadows the ways he refuses to be tamed and degraded by the horrors he faces from the Bird and other Japanese officials.
In a childhood of artful dodging, Louie made more than just mischief. He shaped who he would be in manhood. Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, he was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.
This quotation highlights the positive and energetic undertone that pervades Louie’s youthful antics. His pranks and schemes are rooted in a love for adventure and it is clear that he does not mean to cause genuine harm, only to stir things up. In his younger years, this desire to defy the status quo has not reached maturity. However, this crucial part of Louie’s character is refined and transformed through his athletic career and during his tests of survival as a soldier and prisoner.
No lap in those three historic performances had been faster than 58.9. In the 5,000, well over three miles, turning a final lap in less than 70 seconds was a monumental feat. In his record-breaking 1932 Olympic 5,000, Lehtinen had spun his final lap in 69.2 seconds. Louie had run his last lap in 56 seconds.
In an outline of Louie’s athletic career before the war, this quotation highlights just how special his abilities are. In the last 5,000-meter qualifying round during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Louie knows a medal is out of his reach, but he pushes forward to beat every record set before him. In the midst of impressive times from other runners, Louie’s time for the final lap is the fastest in history. The fact that Louie breaks this overall record during the last stretch of a long-distance race only amplifies its significance and alludes to his extraordinary endurance in sports and other aspects of life.
He felt his consciousness slipping, his mind losing adhesion, until all he knew was a single thought: He cannot break me. Across the compound, the Bird had stopped laughing.
In a significant moment from which the book’s title gleans part of its meaning, Louie defies the Bird in a paramount instance of torture. Louie, whose body has withered into a skeleton state from nearly two years of malnutrition and abuse, is forced by the Bird to hold up a heavy wooden beam, a feat that would prove challenging for even a strong and healthy man. In a stroke of miraculous determination, Louie holds it up for 37 minutes, not only pushing back against the Bird’s sneering brutality, but also against the atmosphere of oppression that plagues the minds and hearts of his fellow POWs.
In Sugamo Prison, as he was told of Watanabe’s fate, all Louie saw was a lost person, a life now beyond redemption. He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.
This quote highlights what is perhaps Louie’s most remarkable feat in Unbroken: forgiving all the men who ruthlessly abused him and his fellow Americans, including the Bird. After the war ends, the prisoners are rescued and taken back to the United States, and Louie (like many other veterans) faces horrific PTSD and succumbs to various addictions. However, after a profound moment of spiritual healing at a Billy Graham revival, Louie experiences a life transformation and returns to Japan to see his captors. When he is told that the Bird has likely killed himself, Louie feels genuine empathy and overwhelming forgiveness for those who have wronged him.
