Analysis Of Unbroken And Deliverance

What is a hero? Is it a character who has immense strength and is admired for his or her outstanding achievements in situations that are different from what normal life is like? After World War I, many young boys thought that participating in a war was a rite of passage, a way of becoming men. They looked up to their fathers and grandfathers as “heroes” who fought for their country, and they wanted to become just like them. When World War II began, those boys believed this was their chance to become just like their heroes by fighting for their country. If they survived, they would be considered heroes upon their return.
Different types of heroes are made by the circumstances they face and the challenges they overcome. In Unbroken, by Laura

The main characters in Unbroken and Deliverance start living relatively normal lives of growing up and finding success. Louis is on track to becoming an Olympic athlete and Ed is co-owner of a graphics consulting business. Laura Hillenbrand describes young Louis as defiant, untamed, and lacking ambition. He tended to get into a lot of trouble with not only his parents but also his town. In high school, he becomes a runner where he learned discipline, perseverance despite the pain, and how to outsmart runners that tried to prevent Louis from winning. When war breaks out, those attributes he learned being an Olympic runner aided and allowed him to step up to become a leader when his plane crashes in the

Due to Louis’ discipline and quick-thinking, they lasted 47 days on the raft surviving shark-infested waters and Japanese bombers flying overhead. A new challenge begins when Louis is picked up by the Japanese and put in a prisoner of war (POW) camp where he is beaten, starved and humiliated. The Bird, the leader of the camp, got pleasure out of seeing Louis suffer and often ordered the guards to subject him to dehumanizing treatments. Louis’ life was even tied to that of an animal to humiliate and degrade him; he was made to care for a goat and was told “Goat die, you die” (Unbroken). This shows the human to the animal behavior of superiority, the act of “survival of the fittest.” By dehumanizing Louis, The Bird felt more powerful, i.e. more fit, and Louis struggles to survive while his hope of the war ending and being rescued