Relevant Passages
“In 1930s elite distance running, it was exceptionally rare for a man to run a last lap in 60 seconds, even at a mile. In the 5,000 well over three miles, a final lap in less than 70 seconds was astonishing. Louie had run his last lap in 56 seconds.”
This passage was relevant because it shows that all the hard work and good habits Louie had gotten finally payed off. He stopped getting in trouble and finally had a goal in life.
“As Oahu’s airmen died in droves, a ritual began. When a man was lost, his friends would open his footlocker, take out his liquor, and have a drink in his honor. In a war without funerals, it was the best they could do.”
This passage is relevant because it shows that the soldiers were used to their friends dying everyday and it was something normal to them that they had to get used to.
“Francis McNamara had begun his last journey with a panicked, disastrous act, consuming the only food they had. But in his last days, in the struggle against the deflating raft and jumping sharks, he’s given all he had left. It probably hastened his death, but it may have saved Phil and Louie. At the end of his brief life, Mac had redeemed himself.”
This passage was relevant because Mac had started off as being kind of useless on the boat and unhelpful. By the end of it, he had proven his worth and died honorably.
“Slavery swallowed men’s souls, but the POWs scored little victories. On the barges, they’d sneak to the galleys and stuff food into their clothes. The guards’ lunch boxes kept vanishing; an overseer’s cigarettes, set down as he turned away, were gone when he turned back. The POW’s stole anything they could, risking their necks for something as trivial as a pencil box. The box itself was nothing; the theft of it, a tiny act of defiance, was everything.”
This passage is relevant because it showed that even with all the dignity taken from them and what they were risking, they still acted defiant against something they did not believe in.
