Chapter 21 focuses on the families back home and their attempts to live a "normal" life. Why is this an important chapter to the book? In what way does it mirror Louie's and the other soldiers' feelings who are under the tyranny of the Japanese?
We've discussed what a masterful writer Hillenbrand is; her descriptions of Louie's harrowing experience while lost at sea, and the barbaric conditions he suffered during his time in the Japanese prisoner of war camps become cinematic for the reader. To improve our writing, we can imitate professional writers like Hillenbrand, just as the young pitcher who imitates his favorite professional pitcher in learning how it's done. Your assignment: write any sentence or passage in Part IV; then, model that sentence or passage using the same structure but a different content or idea.
Example: Model sentence: Beneath the hush was a humming underground of defiance. p. 203 Imitation: Below the city was a thriving metropolis of zombies. What is "transfer of oppression"? Give an original example of this phenomenon outside of Unbroken,
Why do you think the Great White shark left Mac alone when Louie and Phil laid his dead body into the water? Do you think it could be because of a faith and God? Do you think there is any significance in the shark's leaving Mac's body alone?
Put yourself in Phil and Louie's shoes. Mac has passed on, the two of them have been captured and are now under Japanese control. Louie looks at himself and thinks he is a "dead body breathing." Are these words of surrender? Is he done fighting? Explain what Louie might be thinking at this point as he's near the point of death.
Why do you think Louie, a not so religious person, could see and hear "angels," while Phil, a religious person, could not?
In a search to understand why Phil and Louie would survive their horrific ordeal at sea, Hillenbrand states that, "Mac had never seen combat, didn't know these officers, and was largely an unknown quantity to himself." What do you suppose she means that one can be "an unknown quantity to himself?" How do we come to know who we are? Why is that self-discovery important?
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