A Transformation of Main Character in Unbroken

Humans are actually rubber bands when it is deeply thought about. Both are extremely resilient under stress, and can obtain their highest peaks after being stretched to their maximal limits. However, there is one thing that sets mankind apart from rubber bands, and from everything else: dignity. Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken beautifully spins out a tale about protagonist Louis Silvie Zamperini, and the hardships that he is subjected to while spending time in Japan as a prisoner of war during World War II. Although he undergoes the same dehumanizing treatments that many have died from, Louie never loses his self-esteem and keeps his prideful stance in the face of his torturers. The dignity Louie upholds keeps him from succumbing to death.

The first thing that many people do when they are hit with hardships is give up, so it would have made sense if Louie broke apart while struggling to live in the appalling conditions of the POW camp that he was transferred to. On the contrary, Louie somehow maintains his dignity, which revives his incentive to fight back. While Louie was stuck in the POW camp, the guards constantly attacked him mentally and physically, determined to yank his pride away from him. As retaliation, Louie and the other prisoners of war decided to sabotage whatever they could and stealing while doing their jobs. “In risking their necks to sabotage their enemy, the men were no longer passive captives. They were soldiers again.” (p. 248-249). These small acts of defiance helped the men come out of their dark hole and reclaim their dignity again. Additionally, there were other ways that the men fought against their captors. “And in a place predicated on degradation, stealing from the enemy won back the men’s dignity.” (p.250). The men were able to keep on living by scoring small victories against the enemy by stealing from them. While residing at another POW camp, Louie and a group of other prisoners managed to keep their dignity by keeping small diaries and writing notes. “Though the captives’ resistance was dangerous, through such acts, dignity was preserved.” (p. 212). These otherwise miniscule rebellious acts helped the men maintain their dignity, and thus pushed them to keep fighting back.

The idea of keeping one’s identity was rampant throughout the course of the entire novel. The dignity that many men in the POW camps fought to hold onto was the one thing that anchored them down. “Without dignity, identity is erased. In it’s absence, men are defined not by themselves, but by their captors and the circumstances in which they are forced to live.” (p.189). Louie, even though he was in the enemy’s hands, refused to let others define who he was and yearned to prove his worth to both his captors and himself. While he and Phil were stuck on Kwajalein Island, Louie noticed nine names of marines who had perished. Struck by the yearning of wanting to preserve himself, he carved out his own name next to the nine others. “Louie often stared at the names of the marines, wondering who they were, if they’d wives and children…In tall, block letters, he carved his name into the wall beside theirs.” (p.187). Though it does not seem like much, Louie provides a statement just by doing this simple action. By thinking those thoughts and carving his name into the wall, he shows that he still has self-worth despite him being a captive.

Normally, Louie and his crewmates and comrades should have not been able to survive the horrible conditions that they were placed in. However, the dignity that they had was the spark that helped them fight against all odds to live. Factually speaking, anyone who does not get enough air nor nutrition end up dying pretty quickly. However, just having dignity negates that fact. “Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty.” (p. 189). Having self-pride is just as important as the other blatantly obvious necessities, almost to the point where it can cause a person’s death if there is a deficiency of it. While Louie, Mac and Phil were drifting in their raft boats, dignity became a huge factor in choosing who was to live and who wasn’t. Mac, despite being a good person, was the first to lose his dignity by devouring the chocolate that was to be shared between the three men. “The men were ravenous. It was now clear that Mac’s binge on the chocolate, which had seemed only moderately worrisome at the time, was a catastrophe.” (p. 149). By deciding to ingest all the chocolate, Mac ends up losing all self-respect and dignity. What had normally kept Mac going disappeared from his soul, and thus made living hard for him. His yearning to live soon completely left his body, and eventually led to his demise. Where Mac had fallen, Louie rose. Louie still managed to maintain his dignity, which in return helped save his life. “Now, as he was cast into extremity, despair and death became the focus of his defiance. The same attributes that had made him the boy terror of Torrance were keeping him alive in the greatest struggle of his life.” (p. 155). Even though he was under the same circumstances that Mac was, Louie decided to respond differently. The self pride that was dormant in him previously became animated and drove him to stay alive.

By pushing one to fight back against captors, preserving one’s identity and driving one’s urge to live are all examples of why dignity is an essential part of one’s humanity. That sole trait is what sets humanity apart from all other things. Louis Zamperini was extremely lucky for being able to survive all the ordeals he had to go through, even with having dignity by his side. Though he was an Olympic runner with an unbelievable story, in the end he’s just another human being. In the end, no matter who a person is, dignity remains to be the essential element of one’s identity.