Is it possible to practice an Olympic event a couple times and then qualify for that event in the world Olympics and place 7th in the world? According to Louis Zamperini, it is. He was an entirely individual person who grew up as a rebellious child, then “straightened himself out” and focused on running instead of stealing--later accomplishing this great feat of becoming eligible for the Olympics and having a faster ending lap than anyone else...bring himself from the back of the runners to seventh place. Another extraordinary person was unique because of his will to stick to his own ideas like Elmer’s glue. He stood up for his own beliefs, was punished by serving 25+ years of jail time, and later became president of South Africa. These two prodigious people are distinct from normal humans because of the background story behind each of them, and are comparable to one another because of their attitudes and actions.
     Nelson Mandela was a unique leader who let moral authority direct his thoughts and beliefs. Using generosity and humility, he tried to utilise rugby to heal South Africa from its apartheid-caused wounds. His team(called the Springboks) wanted to change the symbols and the colors of the rugby team, but he knew that the only way to reach the white population was to do it in a way so that they feel at home, and to surprise them with restraint and generosity: by not changing colors or traditions for the world cup. He is extraordinary also because of knowing that by doing this with the rugby team, he was challenging his own basis, not the opposing sides’ basis: since he wasn’t only asking the white population to cede their power to the blacks, but also making the blacks not take revenge after so many years of brutal white rule. Ultimately, his abnormal modesty and his compliance to trust other blacks with the truth, so that South Africans would trust each other and unite as one through the laborious work acquainted with transition.
     An Olympic runner, a juvenile delinquent, a bombardier in a B-24 Liberator, a castaway on a raft in the Pacific, a POW in Japanese camps, and a father are some of the titles Louis Zamperini was given throughout his life. These things all done by one individual are rare in themselves, but the attitude used to confront these situations or make the best out of them is breathtaking. He had to survive the Great Depression in the 1930’s, and then face one of the worst wars in history with confidence in his heart. The variable he used in this equation is pure will. Especially when he was struggling to survive on the raft, he willed away any thoughts of his demise, concentrating instead on how to get out of hazards without many scratches. In an interview, he stated his way of thinking: always believing there was an answer, and praying to God in heaven, asking that his life might be granted. Never once thinking about the high possibility of death, he endured living on the raft for an astounding 47 days, in which he was attacked by sharks and the Japanese.
     Taking Louis Zamperini and Nelson Mandela into view together, a set of correspondences are visible. Nelson Mandela was punished for his beliefs by becoming jailed for more than 25 years. His refusal to give up in life brought him to emerge as a president of South Africa, even though he was not of the white population, but was African. In Part 4 of Louis Zamperini’s biography, it mentions a specific time when he was questioned who will win the war--and was beaten up by Japanese guards once he answered “America”. His attributes tie in with Mandela’s features because both Zamperini and Mandela suffered for their thoughts and beliefs. Over the course of time, Zamperini became successful like Mandela because he survived to tell his stories, and made the effort to contact some of the guards from the Japanese camps who brutally beat him up, and told them that he forgives them of their actions(which requires humbleness like Nelson Mandela, and, a big heart).
     To culminate, Louis Zamperini and Nelson Mandela are unprecedented for their contemplations of ways to survive burdensome settings. Louis survived a record amount of days on a small raft for 2,000+ miles in the Pacific Ocean, and afterwards had to face “rescue” from Japanese who brought him to a POW camp. Lingering on through each beating, his attitude was to assume death was out of the question, and to abstain from pondering the horrendous thought of having to live in the Japanese camp another day. In a similar mindset, Nelson Mandela made the best of his situation of ending up in jail by teaching other “jailbirds” his thoughts and beliefs, to an extent where his jail was cognominated “Mandela University”. Altogether with these given facts, the common person can tell that Nelson Mandela and Louis Zamperini were often independent in thought, and in deed.