Unbroken: Chapter 34 Summary & Analysis

At the Zamperini home, the family showers Louie with gifts and love. Louie acts normally until his sister Sylvia puts on their prized recording of Louie’s broadcast. When the broadcast begins to play, Louie suddenly screams, shouting incoherently about propaganda prisoners. To his family’s horror, he demands that Sylvia destroy the record. Louie goes up to his boyhood room and falls asleep. That night, he dreams of the Bird.

In the Japanese metropolis of Kofu, the Bird hears on the radio his name on a list of war criminals. He decides to spend his life in hiding, vowing never to let himself get captured. In the wake of the WWII peace treaty, Japan forms a special detective unit for apprehending war criminals. The hunt for the Bird is on.

In the States, the War Department books Louie for a speaking tour to talk about his wartime experiences. His days are full of interviews, fancy dinners, and speeches, but at night he dreams only of the Bird. At one speaking engagement, Louie begins to drink more than normally in order to calm his nerves. The next day at breakfast, he drinks even more. Soon, Louie carries a flask with him wherever he goes, taking a swig whenever he starts remembering the war.

In Miami, while spending the two weeks of paid vacation awarded to returning servicemen, Louie meets Cynthia Applewhite on the beach. Cynthia comes from a wealthy family, but has an impulsive, passionate, and independent personality. After two weeks of flirting, partying, and pulling pranks, Louie asks her to marry him. Despite knowing so little about him, she accepts.

In the following May of 1946, Louie and Cynthia marry in a small church near Louie’s home. In a hotel room they rented for their wedding night, Cynthia informs her parents about the marriage for the first time. They keep her on the phone all night yelling at her. Louie opens the champagne, drinks the whole bottle, and falls asleep.