Unbroken Literary Elements

Unbroken Literary Elements

Genre

Biography, Military History

Setting and Context

Predominantly World War Two, South Pacific and Japan

Narrator and Point of View

Author is the narrator writing from Louie Zamperini's perspective and her own point of view

Tone and Mood

Inspirational

Protagonist and Antagonist

Louie Zamperini is the antagonist; World War Two and particularly the Japanese guard Watanabe the antagonists

Major Conflict

Louie's battle to survive the elements whilst lost at sea and his personal conflicts with Japanese guards

Climax

Liberation of the brutal prisoner of war camps in Japan

Foreshadowing

The names of the American servicemen scratched into the wood at the first prison camp Louie was taken to, and their subsequent death, foreshadowed the experience awaiting Louie

Understatement

Louie called the time spent lost at see "difficult" which understates the life threatening conditions the men were in

Allusions

Many times in prison camps Louie is forced to race fit, healthy locals as the guards constantly allude to his past as an Olympian

Imagery

Guard Watanabe presents himself as a Japanese God and demands to be treated as such by the prisoners of war

Paradox

Whilst Louie was captive The Bird came to him in person to torture him physically, but after he was liberated and back safely at home, this torture continued as Louie's nightmares about The Bird were so vivid it was as if he was still in the same room, showing that although not physically a prisoner anymore, Louie was still imprisoned by the a toons of his torturer

Parallelism

Louie's brother's physical condition paralleled Louie's after the war as not knowing where or how Louie was had taken a similar physical toll on him as the degradation of the prison camp had taken on Louie

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The army was referred to as feet on the ground

Personification

The Camp planned an escape, the camp personifying the men captive within it who were devising an escape strategy

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