“Louie found that the raft offered an unlikely intellectual refuge. He had never recognized how noisy the civilized world was. Here, drifting in almost total silence, with no scents other than the singed odor of the raft, no flavors on his tongue, nothing moving but the slow procession of shark fins, every vista empty save water and sky, his time unvaried and unbroken, his mind was freed of an encumbrance that civilization had imposed on it. In his head, he could roam anywhere, and he found that his mind was quick and clear, his imagination unfettered and supple. He could stay with a thought for hours, turning it about.’”
From Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Essay question:
Q: Louie undergoes numerous hardships to survive on a life raft for over forty days lost at sea; however, he also experiences clarity of mind that he would not have had without those same hardships. Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on the belief that adversity (financial or political hardship, danger, misfortune, etc.) plays a significant role in developing a person’s character. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Do you have the personality to stay alive in times of crisis? Believe it or not, psychologists have studied the personalities of those who have survived life-threatening events to see what set them apart. It turns out they all had common traits.
In her book The Unthinkable, Amanda Ripley writes that people go through three basic steps when confronted with a life-or-death scenario: denial, deliberation and decision. During the denial stage, it is not unusual for people to continue performing mundane tasks while chaos reigns around them. The brain is processing information, delaying its decision-making process and assessing the risk.
In the deliberation phase, the mind begins to put together possible courses of action. It’s not unusual, Ripley writes, for people to describe this period as having time almost stand still. They remember in great detail the words or images that would not normally be significant.
It’s this stage, and the decision stage that follows, that usually determines whether the outcome will be a good one.
In his book, 98.6 Degrees, The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!, Cody Lundin writes that survivors all have common personality traits which take over in the decision stage:
Louis Zamperini A juvenile delinquent in his hometown of Torrance, California, Zamperini became a world famous track sensation, competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics when only a teenager. After World War II began, he suspended his running career and became an Army Air Corps bombardier, surviving several harrowing combat missions flown out of his base in Hawaii. On May 27, 1943, Zamperini’s bomber crashed in the Pacific, leaving Zamperini and two other survivors stranded on a raft surrounded by sharks. An epic journey had begun.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Pete Zamperini As famous for his straight-arrow ways as his brother was for artful dodging, Pete Zamperini recognized that Louie had wondrous but untapped athletic talent. By strong-arming Louie into running, Pete transformed his little brother’s life. Riding his bicycle behind Louie as he trained, swatting him with a stick to keep him going, Pete developed Louie’s speed, and would be his devoted coach and champion. When Louie was declared dead after his plane disappeared, Pete would help hold his family together, and would never abandon hope.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Lt. Russell Allen Phillips This quiet, gentle-tempered Indianan was Louie’s pilot, roommate and best friend. A tremendously skilled airman, he guided his crew through dramatic combat missions, including one in which their plane was riddled with some six hundred bullet and cannon holes, crippling its steering, tearing off much of its rudder, flattening a tire, taking out its brakes and seriously wounding half the crew. Later, when the crew’s bomber crashed in the Pacific, Phillips survived, joining Zamperini and one other crewman in a tiny life raft.
Photo credit: Karen Loomis.
Super Man This B-24, assigned to Zamperini’s crew, was beloved to the men, and it carried them faithfully through the worst of combat. ”It was our baby,” Zamperini would say. ”It was our home.”
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Green Hornet A veteran of the bloody campaign for Guadalcanal, this B-24 bomber was barely airworthy, so underpowered that it flew with its tail dangling far below its nose. Avoided by wary airmen, it was relegated to errands around Hawaii, and the ground crews poached its parts for other bombers. But on May 27, 1943, when another bomber disappeared somewhere south of Oahu, Green Hornet was the only plane available for a search. Zamperini and his crew were ordered to fly it. It was a fatal decision.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Sgt. Francis McNamara This tail-gunner was the third man to survive the May, 1943 plane crash that killed most of his crew and left him stranded on a raft with Phillips and Zamperini. On the first night on the raft, in a panic, McNamara would make a mistake that would put his life, and those of his raftmates, in deepest jeopardy.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Lt. William Harris Captured by the Japanese at Corregidor, this brilliant and daring marine general’s son escaped his captors, embarked on an eight-and-a-half hour swim across Manila Bay to the Bataan Peninsula, and made a run for China, hiking through jungles and over mountains, navigating the coast in boats donated by sympathetic Filipinos, hitching rides on burros, and surviving in part by eating ants. Betrayed by Indonesian civilians, he was recaptured by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp in Japan, where he befriended Zamperini. There, Harris, Zamperini and American lieutenant Frank Tinker would hatch a plot to escape.
Photo credit: Katey Meares.
Mutsuhiro Watanabe, “the Bird.” Known by prisoners as “the Bird,” this POW camp guard was consumed in bitterness over his failure to become an officer. An ardent sadist, he was especially provoked by POWs who were officers, who were successful in civilian life, or who refused to grovel before him. When he encountered Louis Zamperini, a lieutenant, a world-famous Olympian, and a ferociously defiant man, Watanabe was immediately obsessed with breaking him. The two men began a yearlong battle of wills that would culminate in a murder plot.
Cynthia Applewhite When Louie first saw this beautiful Miami Beach debutante, he had the wild thought that he had to marry her. Years later, Cynthia would save Louie’s life.
From Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Essay question:
Q: Louie undergoes numerous hardships to survive on a life raft for over forty days lost at sea; however, he also experiences clarity of mind that he would not have had without those same hardships. Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on the belief that adversity (financial or political hardship, danger, misfortune, etc.) plays a significant role in developing a person’s character. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Do you have the personality to stay alive in times of crisis? Believe it or not, psychologists have studied the personalities of those who have survived life-threatening events to see what set them apart. It turns out they all had common traits.
In her book The Unthinkable, Amanda Ripley writes that people go through three basic steps when confronted with a life-or-death scenario: denial, deliberation and decision. During the denial stage, it is not unusual for people to continue performing mundane tasks while chaos reigns around them. The brain is processing information, delaying its decision-making process and assessing the risk.
In the deliberation phase, the mind begins to put together possible courses of action. It’s not unusual, Ripley writes, for people to describe this period as having time almost stand still. They remember in great detail the words or images that would not normally be significant.
It’s this stage, and the decision stage that follows, that usually determines whether the outcome will be a good one.
In his book, 98.6 Degrees, The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!, Cody Lundin writes that survivors all have common personality traits which take over in the decision stage:
- The ability to keep calm and collected. This is the ability to prevent fear and panic from taking over your world, as both possess the power to incapacitate the body and mind. Prior training can help you deal more effectively with “this ugly pair.” Sometimes you have stop and regroup to allow clarity to surface.
- The ability to improvise and adapt. This allows you to improvise and make use of every opportunity. For instance, it allows you to pack survival gear with more than one function or gear that allows for creating other gear. It can also be thought of as the ability to understand what all can be accomplished with limited resources.
- The ability to make decisions. Rather than getting lost during the decision-making process — or having your brain freeze, forcing you into inaction — this ability allows you to thoroughly yet quickly formulate a game plan then follow through with it. Lundin recommends you be decisive and take responsibility for your decisions.
- The ability to endure hardships. A survival situation is not comfortable. It will tax you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Your ability to endure hardship will be tested. The two greatest enemies to survival are a desire for comfort and complacency. Desiring temporary comfort can spur you into making decisions that are irrational, and this impulse must be overcome.
- The ability to figure out the thoughts of others. How can intuition work to your advantage? Put yourself in the shoes of your rescuers. Which direction will they come from? Where might they look first? What will they expect you to do? These are crucial questions to consider if you’re expecting rescue. As for those in your group who are looking to you for leadership, be mindful of their condition. Are they experiencing panic, in danger of hypothermia or dehydration or exhibiting an inability to cope? Remember that what befalls one member of the group spreads to others.
- The ability to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Hoping for the best means maintaining a positive attitude regardless of the difficulties thrown your way. Proper preparation is an essential part of survival. Practice both before and during any outdoor excursion.
- The ability to maintain a sense of humor. Lundin believes humor has a great effect on the human psychology and physiology.
Louis Zamperini A juvenile delinquent in his hometown of Torrance, California, Zamperini became a world famous track sensation, competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics when only a teenager. After World War II began, he suspended his running career and became an Army Air Corps bombardier, surviving several harrowing combat missions flown out of his base in Hawaii. On May 27, 1943, Zamperini’s bomber crashed in the Pacific, leaving Zamperini and two other survivors stranded on a raft surrounded by sharks. An epic journey had begun.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Pete Zamperini As famous for his straight-arrow ways as his brother was for artful dodging, Pete Zamperini recognized that Louie had wondrous but untapped athletic talent. By strong-arming Louie into running, Pete transformed his little brother’s life. Riding his bicycle behind Louie as he trained, swatting him with a stick to keep him going, Pete developed Louie’s speed, and would be his devoted coach and champion. When Louie was declared dead after his plane disappeared, Pete would help hold his family together, and would never abandon hope.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Lt. Russell Allen Phillips This quiet, gentle-tempered Indianan was Louie’s pilot, roommate and best friend. A tremendously skilled airman, he guided his crew through dramatic combat missions, including one in which their plane was riddled with some six hundred bullet and cannon holes, crippling its steering, tearing off much of its rudder, flattening a tire, taking out its brakes and seriously wounding half the crew. Later, when the crew’s bomber crashed in the Pacific, Phillips survived, joining Zamperini and one other crewman in a tiny life raft.
Photo credit: Karen Loomis.
Super Man This B-24, assigned to Zamperini’s crew, was beloved to the men, and it carried them faithfully through the worst of combat. ”It was our baby,” Zamperini would say. ”It was our home.”
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Green Hornet A veteran of the bloody campaign for Guadalcanal, this B-24 bomber was barely airworthy, so underpowered that it flew with its tail dangling far below its nose. Avoided by wary airmen, it was relegated to errands around Hawaii, and the ground crews poached its parts for other bombers. But on May 27, 1943, when another bomber disappeared somewhere south of Oahu, Green Hornet was the only plane available for a search. Zamperini and his crew were ordered to fly it. It was a fatal decision.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Sgt. Francis McNamara This tail-gunner was the third man to survive the May, 1943 plane crash that killed most of his crew and left him stranded on a raft with Phillips and Zamperini. On the first night on the raft, in a panic, McNamara would make a mistake that would put his life, and those of his raftmates, in deepest jeopardy.
Photo credit: Louie Zamperini.
Lt. William Harris Captured by the Japanese at Corregidor, this brilliant and daring marine general’s son escaped his captors, embarked on an eight-and-a-half hour swim across Manila Bay to the Bataan Peninsula, and made a run for China, hiking through jungles and over mountains, navigating the coast in boats donated by sympathetic Filipinos, hitching rides on burros, and surviving in part by eating ants. Betrayed by Indonesian civilians, he was recaptured by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp in Japan, where he befriended Zamperini. There, Harris, Zamperini and American lieutenant Frank Tinker would hatch a plot to escape.
Photo credit: Katey Meares.
Mutsuhiro Watanabe, “the Bird.” Known by prisoners as “the Bird,” this POW camp guard was consumed in bitterness over his failure to become an officer. An ardent sadist, he was especially provoked by POWs who were officers, who were successful in civilian life, or who refused to grovel before him. When he encountered Louis Zamperini, a lieutenant, a world-famous Olympian, and a ferociously defiant man, Watanabe was immediately obsessed with breaking him. The two men began a yearlong battle of wills that would culminate in a murder plot.
Cynthia Applewhite When Louie first saw this beautiful Miami Beach debutante, he had the wild thought that he had to marry her. Years later, Cynthia would save Louie’s life.