Allusions to Christianity
Allusions to Christianity
In Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of Louie Zamperini called “Unbroken”, the author alludes to religion, in particular Christianity, in order to tell a story of perseverance and forgiveness during a life full of hardships. One of the obstacles Louie had to face was living on a life raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for 47 days, with no food or water. On the brink of starvation, Louie begins to look toward the divine powers of God for hope when the men started to pray for water. The men “bowed their heads together as Louie prayed. If God would quench their thirst, he vowed, he’d dedicate his life to him. The next day, by divine intervention...the sky broke open and rain poured down. Twice more the water ran out, twice more they prayed, and twice more the rain came (159).” Louie believes that God granted his wish and continues to use these beliefs throughout the novel in order to push through his terrible circumstances. Louie turns to God again on the raft when their companion Mac dies. He “recited disjointed passages…and he prayed for himself and Phil, vowing that if God would save them, he would serve heaven forever (172).” Louie uses his belief that God will get him out of the raft to keep going and not give up, even when one of his friends died. Louie sees God as a source of comfort as well as his only hope when he has no other options. After Louie is finally freed from the many POW camps, he again uses Christianity in order to forgive his captors even after the torture and abuse he endured. He begins to go to a revivalist’s meetings which change him from being an unloving man riddled with PTSD and obsessed with the Bird to a “new creation”. Louie remade his life and became a Christian speaker who told his story all over America. Letting go of his anger and turning to religion allowed Louie to go back to Japan. When he sees his captors in jail, “He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over. (385)” Just as God had helped him during the hardest moments of his life, He helped him again after the war by allowing him to let go of these moments and forgive. Instead of acting on past feelings of revenge, Louie truly was a new creation who was able to love and let go through the powers of God. Hillenbrand alludes to Christianity throughout the novel in order to show that having faith can get you through the toughest of circumstances as well as overcome them in the end.
"He runs the whole universe, and he's not too busy running the whole universe to count the hairs on my head and see a sparrow when it falls, because God is interested in me...God spoke in creation (381). "
-Billy Graham |
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"He could speak about and think of his captors, even the Bird, without bitterness, but a question tapped at the back of his mind. If he should ever see them again, would the peace that he had found prove resilient? (385)"
"He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete (386)."
"He felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion. At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete (386)."
“Hillenbrand is undoubtedly a terrific reporter and storyteller, with an eye for details that make each page sing. But her greatest gift may be her innate respect for her subjects…Unbroken is a spellbinding celebration of resilience, forgiveness and the human capacity for finding beauty in the unlikeliest of places.”
--Bookpage, Top Pick
"If God would save them, he would serve heaven forever (172)."
By: Avery Mataka
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