DISCLAIMER: Also made for a language arts class. I apologize again.
Both of my grandfathers were veterans. My paternal grandpa,
Larry, served quite luckily between Korea and Vietnam; my maternal, Stu, was
drafted for the latter. Larry always loved talking about his time in the
service, mostly about all of the people he met and planes he worked on as a
mechanic in the Air Force. Stu never spoke once of Vietnam, and I found out
through my mother that he was a medic in the Army stationed in Saigon. I found
it funny that Stu never wanted to talk about his experience in the war, yet
Larry was an open book. With age and experience, I learned why. But even Stu’s
experience in America’s bloodiest war is eclipsed by Louis Zamperini’s trials
and tribulations in the book Unbroken. To be on top of the world, only
to be shot down, left afloat for weeks and beaten to near-death is something
only a psychopathic masochist would envision as a story; Zamperini lived it.
His story is exceptionally conveyed with Hillenbrand’s tone and diction, as
well as several subtle changes in mood/plot that honestly made this book one of
the most surprising I’d read since The Kite Runner.
Hillenbrand’s
writing was, hands down, why I loved this book. Here we have a story of a WWII
POW who had an exceptionally interesting life on top of all of his wartime experiences.
He was no Patton or MacArthur, just a regular old soldier. If given to any
author, Zamperini’s story could have been ruined with too much suspense or bad
choices in dialogue. Hillenbrand, however, is the master of both tone and
diction. When writing about Louie’s early life at home, there is an often
wistfulness in the writing, as if we were truly reading a memory. When the book
switches to Louie’s time running, the tone matches with that of a
tension-filled challenge; the words build suspense and leave the audience
breathless by the end of his race. Louie’s time in the service and the
internment camps set forth a tone of melancholy, as these men deal with life
changing (or life ending) situations and face a foe worse than the Devil. I
honestly enjoyed how fluidly Hillenbrand’s writing changes to fit with the
chapter, and her jumps to the future and back are well done; normally, I hate
books that do this. Her lack of all tantalization also helps out when reading Unbroken,
as I always knew what happened to a character and wasn’t disappointed in being
proven wrong (I swear I thought Phil was going to die at least 3 times). From a
funny/nostalgic beginning to a mournful middle to a bittersweet end,
Hillenbrand’s tone and diction really helped carry this novel to its finest.
A book I
could relate to Unbroken is The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by
Mitch Albom. In both books, the main characters deal with their inner demons
and come out on top in the end, albeit one is only doing so after he has died.
I would also say that Unbroken is much better written, but both books
have qualities that I enjoy (Albom’s character development in particular).
Before reading this book, I thought I had an idea from my grandparents how war
truly is. After Unbroken, I don’t know if I’ll ever see it the same
again. Private Texas was right; war is hell, but Louis Zamperini went through
worse and came out the other side unscathed. Thanks to Hillenbrand’s tone and
diction, I’ll be rereading this book for years to come.
Definitely have your class read this book if you want them to cry. I know I did.
-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep
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