Unbroken chapter 1 summary

In California in the summer of 1929, Louie and his brother, Pete, wake to the sound, and then sight, of a massive aircraft passing over their house. Louie notices how the famous German dirigible airship Graf Zeppelin covers the star-filled sky with complete darkness. That night, the airship is three days from completing its objective of circumnavigating the globe. It has already passed over New York, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan.

Louie was born in Olean, New York to Italian immigrant parents, and suffered from pneumonia before the age of two. A daredevil from a very young age, Louie jumped off the caboose of a train at age two, when his family began a relocation journey to California. As a child, Louie had many adventures around the streets and alleys of his new hometown, Torrance, California. He often stole food and other items and ran away. At times, he was mischievous just for the sake of it. He had a gift for escaping and was not easily discouraged.

Louie’s older brother, Pete, appeared to be the opposite of Louie: polite and successful. Pete took care of Louie, which was not easy because of Louie’s obvious ways of standing out from others in his community. He was shorter than most other kids at school, and was bullied for not only this, but his Italian heritage. As Louie got older, he got in more trouble, and fought with classmates and policemen alike. It was only when his neighbor was almost a victim of government sterilization of people deemed unfit to reproduce, that Louie tried to clean up his act. Even then, he couldn’t seem to do anything right. He longed for a different life and started to dream of escape.