In the book Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, Louie
Zamperini survives catastrophic events. He survives out at sea for weeks with
out food or water. He must capture rainwater and kill fish to survive. Then he
is captured and brought to a POW camp in Japan. Louie almost died at that camp. The way Louie faced death, starvation, violence, and cruelty is truly inspirational.
There are some really straining issues in this
book, such as POW camps. In these camps violence is a HUGE issue. For example
on page 251, a commander began to beat Louie with a belt buckle, simply because
he was the last to salute. Louie was knocked uncounsious. He was deaf in one
ear for weeks. The same commander would beat Louie relentlessly, resulting in a
sharp decline of his health, because he was not only being beaten daily, he was
also severely malnourished.
Another issue (mentioned above)
that Louie faced was starvation. Each day he was provided with only soup;
vegetable broth with rancid rice. The food was "infested with rat
droppings, maggots..." (page 197). The food also had gravel in it that
cracked and pitted Louie's teeth. He was recieving only 500 calories a day, in
other words, he was slowly dying of starvation. The men were also forced to
carry out extremely strenuous work, which only served to quicken the effects of
this dire malnutrition that the men faced.
There are no more POW camps in
Japan. But their effects remain apparent. There were many men that never
returned home, because of starvation, sickness, or the kill-all rule. Still
more were very sick or injured when they were rescued. They were not treated at
all for sicknesses like scurvy, which were common in the camps. To these
starved men, scurvy could be fatal. And all those who made it home were scarred
for life. Many took up drinking or smoking. Some had behavioral problems, shell
shock, nightmares, etc. One man slept with a gun under his pillow and a
stockpile of canned food under his bed for the rest of his life.
All in all, there were many
really hard events that Louie had to endure, and although they may not be as
large of a problem, they still affect people today.
your essay was really clear and concise, you did a really good job on the supporting details, and you brought the reader's attention to the fact that the pow camps were very hard on people [in other words, nice text to world connection]
ReplyDeleteWhoa, Unbroken sounds like a pretty crazy book! I really admire that you used such strong and complex words to hep describe the book; doing so helped me understand how strong your feelings were on certain events in the book. You also did a great job on choosing which quotes to use as supporting evidence for your statements. Overall, I think you did a fantastic job!
ReplyDelete