Analysis

Redemption has been a constant theme in the life of Louie Zamperini. As a boy, he was redeemed from juvenile delinquency by athletics, with Pete playing the role of “savior.” As an aimless young man, he was redeemed with new purpose in military service. Lost in an ocean “purgatory,” he was redeemed by staying alive—and helping Phil to do the same. As a POW trapped in hellish captivity, he was redeemed by joining a symbolic resistance and, eventually, by his rescue at the hands of the American B-29 pilots.

All these redemptions, though, were incomplete and temporary. They were limited in their scope and ability to save the man. According to Zamperini, he needs something more, and he finds it in Christ. The spiritual redemption he experiences in September 1949 changes him from the inside out, and in the end, that changes everything.