Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand talks about how Louie Zamperini chased his dreams, went to war, and was brutally tortured while being captured. The story takes the perspective of the third person, taking the reader on a thrilling journey through Louie’s exciting and horrifying journey during WWII. Here are my notebook pages that I thought were important to the book and demonstrates

Descriptive Passage:

In class, we learned about analyzing descriptive writing, and one idea I developed during class was on page 132 of the book Unbroken. On page 132, the author wrote “Louie and Phil were transferred to a second boat, where a crewman fed them more biscuits and some coconuts. A man approached, a Japanese-English dictionary in hand, and asked questions”. The author provided many details for this passage. I think this is because this part of the story meant a lot to the book. It was a big turning point from the earlier survival story to the new elements of being captured and tortured and even dignity. On my notebook page, there are some more ideas in the mind map that includes descriptive passages from Unbroken.

Informative Elements:

In day 6 of the book club unit, our class learned about informative elements. I found some ideas that provide detail or give multiple central ideas. One part I thought was the best that showcases multiple central ideas was on page 206, “If anything’s going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it”. In this quote it talks about the central ideas of the Japanese army was brutal during WWII, and also Japanese soldier’s torture in WWII were not only physically, but also psychologically. This is because in this passage of the story, the torture of the Japanese impacts Louie’s mental health, and tries to destroy his resilience that he demonstrates earlier in the book.

Cause and Effect:

In Lesson 9, we learned about cause and effects for novels. One cause and effect I found that I thought was important to the book was being captured by the Japanese. This is important because this caused all the issues later in the book. While being captured, Louie was experimented on chemicals, and on page 143 Louie was also brutally tortured. On page 181, the author talks about how the “Bird” attacked Louie relentlessly and caused a great impact on Louie’s mental health.

Central Ideas:

In lesson 1, we learned about the central ideas of our novels, how to interpret them, and how to support them with pieces of evidence. The first three paragraphs of my notebook page displays my ideas. The first one was that The Japanese army was very cruel during WWII, and the evidence I used was from pg. 70, “The Japanese murdered between 200,000 to 430,000 Chinese civilians”. Another central idea I developed that connected with this was the Torture of the Japanese soldiers not only physically but also mentally. More central ideas are on the notebook page. This skill to find and interpret central ideas is very valuable, and in high school, we will have to use it again.