Louis Zamperini

In the exerpt called “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand there was a plane crash that only left three men alive to fight for their life. The three men were Mac, Phil, and Louis. Louie shows many characteristics of resilience. Some of them are awareness, strong problem-solving skills, and identifying as a survivor, not a victim. Awareness is when people can understand their emotions and see what’s actually going on. Because of this they can see and do things other people would be oblivious to. Strong problem-solving skills are when someone can think of a solution that will come out with a good reward or outcome. Also, Identifying as a survivor, not a victim is by thinking as if you knew you were going to be a survivor and not as if you weren’t going to make it through something. These three characteristics of resilience were most essential for Louie to survive because they are what helped him differ from the other men and actually help the situation that they were in.

The ways he used his characteristics were that when he saw the raft in the water, he knew that Phil needed to get fixed up but that him and the other men would have no chance at all to live if he didn’t grab the raft. Also, he has strong problem solving skills because when the men couldn’t bare to eat the bird that he got, he thought of another way to use it to save them. Lastly, he saw himself as a survivor and not a victim when he was talking about the future with the men. The fact that he was talking about the future shows that he believed they would all get out alive and not die on the water.

Some examples of the obstacles that the Louie and the men had to experience were things such as, Phil having a cut on his head and Louie having to choose at that moment to get the raft or patch him up. The difference between Mac’s and Phil’s response to this is, they didn’t do anything and just let Louie do it all for them. Louie’s decision for this situation was to get the raft and then patch him up. He patched him up from experience from boy scouts and first aid in Honolulu. He felt that these things both needed to be done, but the raft would be gone forever if he didn’t get it when he did. Because of his experience, Louie could help fix Phil’s cut, potentially saving his life. Because all of the men were really thirsty and knew they couldn’t drink the water, they tried to figure out how to drink, when it started to rain. They all wanted to fill up their cans but couldn’t. He tried to capture it in the raft but then felt it wasn’t going to work good enough. Louie then came up with an idea of capturing the rain in his mouth and spitting it into the cans. He then used his problem solving skills again and because of him doing this, they all had a way of drinking good water. The difference between the different men’s actions toward this situation was just letting Louie do it, and drinking the water when he was done. After they all realized they were hungry and not knowing what to do about it, Louie tried capturing a bird that landed on his head, and succeeded, but none of the men could eat it. This lead to Louise coming up with another idea yet again of how to fix this. The men didn’t have any ideas and Louie decided to use the bird as bait. After a couple of tries he finally got a fish for them all to eat. Mac and Phil just accepted the fact they had food. Louie then decides that to keep them occupied, he would play question games, or just ask them questions in general. They all joined in on this though. After a few months of doing the same things, they got rescued.

I think that Phil is more like Louie then Mac is because of sitting there and not doing anything like Mac did, at least Phil has some ambition and hope to leave. He would join in on the questions at the end and he even offered Louie to be in control for the situation. Even though he was the pilot for the plane that crashed. A lesson that we can learn from his survival is to never give up. Because Louie never gave up, and sit on the raft and rot, he survived. He was the one that was catching the fist and water, while the others just say there. I learned that in order to be successful you need to be capable of sticking up for yourself and others. If Louie wasn’t resilient then this wouldn’t have happened the way it did.

Photo by Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com) on Foter.com / CC BY