Jerry Denton was tied to a tree for a whole day leading to a solitary punishment for blinking TORTURE in Morse Code during a foreign interview. Jerry was tortured because passing guards would constantly slander him along with occasional punches to his groin or stomach.

George McKnight had to spend more than a month in solitary confinement for 12 hours a day for thirty-four days. The nights in the trench were torture alone because of a constant barrage from mosquitoes. The solitary confinement had reduced McKnight's spirit to nothing causing him to mentally break under the stress.

Howie Rutledge had been punished with solitary confinement in the Mint. A special part of the Hanoi Hilton that was directly across from the prison's dumping grounds for the prisoner's honey buckets (buckets used as toilets). This punishment had reduced Howie to a barbaric state of mind where the only thought in his mind was survival.

Sam Johnson was suffering in the Mint where two other Americans were situated. Little communication with other Americans and small confines had resulted in the deterioration of Sam's state of mind causing him to slowly slip into a state of animal-like survival in order to endure the grueling conditions.

Jim Stockdale was thrown into solitary confinement after he and other captives began a successful campaign of resistance against the Camp Authority. Jim was tortured to the point where he could not stand up on his own. Stockdale was also thrown into the situation of an animal by his guards refusing to empty his makeshift toilet. Jim was forced to live like an animal that sits all day in its own waste.

Sam Johnson's continuous plight against depression resulted with his mind focussing on the only thing that could protect from losing his mind during his time in the Mint. The spiders were his only companions during his plight is the Mint. Johnson's mind had forgotten his faith in God and his ability to communicate with other prisoners. Johnson was living a life in darkness like a nocturnal animal that winces when sunlight shines into its eyes.

The men also known as the Alcatraz Eleven were situated in the prison camp that is displayed below. The lone light bulb can be seen in an example of the prisoner's room to the left of the prison. Prisoners had to suffer through an entire day of torture and solitude, and their only escape was by sleeping. However, the Camp Authority rigged the lights of the prison to never turn off, even at night. This relentless light in the prisoners' cells at night soon turned into an a brand new form of torture that worked by inhibiting the prisoners' sleep pattern. Prisoners without sleep lose their mentalities slowly, and with continual beating the prisoners would quickly submit to questioning.

The American prisoners in North Vietnam were tortured, thrown into long sentences of solitude, and also starved. A banana to a prisoner would have been similar to Thanksgiving turkey for an average American. Jim Mulligan devoured the banana like an animal because the average prisoner's diet included a cup of bland vegetable soup and possible a little strip of animal fat. The Camp Authority had effectively transformed the mindset of prisoners by starving them and then offering the prisoners treats such as bananas. The guards handing out bananas would then mock the prisoners for behaving like animals, which only plunged the prisoners into deeper state of depression.

This vivid description of the Hanoi Hilton's slaughter house practices weakened the prisoners suffering in solitude with the torture of animals squealing for their very lives. This constant slaughter of the pigs mentally drained the prisoners of the Mint by creating the analogy that they were also fighting for their very lives in isolation. The cries of a dying animal can nearly bring someone to insanity who has not been exposed to slaughtering on a daily basis. Eventually, the constant screams of the pigs would cause prisoners to snap from the deafening squeal of the pigs. The prisoners had to lose compassion surrendering an important human trait in order to survive the symphony of slaughter.

Jim Mulligan was treated like an animal because the guards had refused to treat his intestinal worms that plagued his system. Mulligan was forced to suffer through daily life in solitary confinement with his parasitic problem. However, when Jim was given a roommate he was demoralized because another person had to suffer the pungent odor of his waste with him. Mulligan would face the issue for over two more years until the worms became so bad that he began to have internal bleeding. The North Vietnamese still refused to treat Jim Mulligan until a small riot took place in order for the naval aviator to receive treatment out of necessity instead of courtesy just how a farmer treats one of his livestock.