Critical Evaluation Essay: The Perils Of Indifference

In which millions of Jews were innocently killed and persecuted because of their religion. As a student who is familiar with the years of the holocaust that will forever live in infamy, Wiesel’s memoir has undoubtedly changed my perspective. Throughout the text, I have been emotionally touched by the topics of dehumanization, the young life of Elie Wiesel, and gained a better understanding of the Holocaust. With how dehumanization was portrayed through words, pondering my mind the most.

Paradox, parallelism, personification, repetition, rhetorical question, pathos. You may ask yourself: what importance do these words have? These words are rhetorical devices used to develop a claim. A person who used these important devices was Elie Wiesel. In his 1986 Nobel Peace Acceptance Speech, Elie Wiesel develops the claim that remaining silent on human sufferings makes us just as guilty as those who inflicted the suffering and remain guilty for not keeping the memory of those humans alive.

It is a human instinct to prioritize one's well-being before others. We are constantly confronted with situations where we as humans have to take action for our own contentment. In the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, he shares his own traumatic experience of the Holocaust, which was a mass murder of 12 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, basically anyone who is different and wouldn’t fit into Adolf Hitler’s image of a perfect society. Despite how ruthless the Holocaust was, the Elie and his fellow prisoners fought and fought for their freedom, displaying how much humanity will fight for survival. By looking at the following examples: A child kills his own father for a loaf of bread, a son leaving his father behind during one of the march so he would not die, and Elie debating if he should let his father die so he could have a higher chance of surviving. It becomes clear that Elie Wiesel`s commentary on human nature is that, during extreme circumstances, people are selfish and would achieve anything for their own survival.

Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and winner of a Nobel peace prize, stood up on April 12, 1999 at the White House to give his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”. In Wiesel’s speech he was addressing to the nation, the audience only consisted of President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, congress, and other officials. The speech he gave was an eye-opener to the world in his perspective. Wiesel uses a variety of rhetorical strategies and devices to bring lots of emotion and to educate the indifference people have towards the holocaust.

In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel strives to inform his audience of the unbelievable atrocities of the Holocaust in order to prevent them from ever again responding to inhumanity and injustice with silence and neutrality. The structure or organization of Wiesel’s speech, his skillful use of the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos, combined with powerful rhetorical devices leads his audience to understand that they must never choose silence when they witness injustice. To do so supports the oppressors.

Well known writer, world activist, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, Perils of Indifference, elaborates on on the topic of indifference, within our country/society and consequences and achievements because of it. The speech was delivered on the 12th of April 1999, in Washington, D.C., as part of the Millennium Lecture Series hosted by the White House. Directed towards the audience of the White House, Government officials, and Americans. Wiesel's purpose is to show reference to how indifference has allowed many good and and bad things to happen throughout america's history. He creates a serious tone in order to influence

One of Wiesel 's strengths in Night is to show the full face of dehumanization. It is something that the Nazis perpetrated against the people they imprisoned. The tattooing of numbers on the prisoners, something that Eleizer notes, is of extreme importance. A- 7713 is by definition an example of dehumanization because it robs the humanity of the individual. The abuses that the Nazis perpetrate on their prisoners is another example of dehumanization. The public beatings, the hanging of prisoners and making others walk past them, as well as the selection process are all examples of dehumanization. When Eliezer has to run at full speed to avoid being noticed during one of the selection processes, it is a reminder as to how large a role dehumanization

Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.

The decision not to act can have terrible consequences, and the jewish people experienced this first hand. This is why Elie Wiesel feels it is so important for people to bear witness to their surroundings. Once an event such as The Holocaust happened, nothing could change it. This shows the Moment Elie realized that “‘Bite your lips, little brother… Don't cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now… Wait. Clench your teeth and wait…’” (Wiesel, 53). At this moment Elie Wiesel knew he had to save his words for a different time, and the time was now. He felt it was important to relay the lessons he learned, so that others will not have to go through the same hardship, in the future. This reflects Moishe the Beadle’s struggles “Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns” (Wiesel, 6). These monstrous events are the result of not acting because they felt no personal connection. This resulted in not bearing witness, and the massive loss of life during The Holocaust.

Elie wiesel once said, “ A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness”. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor. He gave a wonderful speech called “ The perils of indifference”. He delivered this speech at the white house in washington D.C hoping to encourage the audience to learn from the past. Elie wiesel builds an argument to persuade the people of the new generation that we can all learn and grow to be better in the new millennium. In “the perils of indifference” Elie Wiesel gives a message of hope while condemning the past, and persuading the audience by using the emotional language, etho, rhetorical questioning, and compare and contrast to incite change.

The general statement made by Elie Wiesel in his speech, The Perils of Indifference, is that indifference is sinful. More specifically, Wiesel argues that awareness needs to be brought that indifference is dangerous. He writes “Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end”. In this speech, Wiesel is suggesting that indifference is dangerous it can bring the end to many lives. In conclusion Wiesel's belief is suggesting that indifference is an end, it needs to be noticed and taken care of.

Elie Wiesel’s somber speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, demonstrated the harsh reality of the numerous evils harvesting in the world. The main evil though was simply indifference, or a lack of concern. As a young Jewish boy, he faced the wickedness of the Holocaust, imprisoned at Buchenwald and Auschwitz and also losing both his parents and younger sister. The speaker saw atrocious horrors and suffered for a prolonged amount of time. Why was this permitted? Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril.

Throughout human history, indifference has applied to several different situations. When people are indifferent towards an event, they acquire a lack of interest, and hardly any concern. These factors of indifference are seen within two main incidents; the Holocaust and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. A big theme from Wiesel’s speech is that indifference allows control by the enemy, and this causes danger. This can be see in three separate ways, in which the factors cause individuals to constantly ignore the occurrence, allow what is happening to produce danger, and it is evident that indifference can be make officials tenacious to their point of view.

Over the course of World War Two, the Nazis murdered over six million Jews. Killing factories known as concentration camps exterminated Jews and other enemies of the Nazis throughout Europe. Hitler used these camps to eliminate anybody who threatened the ‘perfect Aryan race’ that he wished to create.The deadliest camp of all was known as Auschwitz, and it is where a fifteen year old Elie Wiesel is brought in 1944. He remained in concentration camps until their liberation in 1945. By the end of World War Two, Wiesel was desensitized and lost his faith in God and humanity after experiencing unspeakable horrors, such as the execution of children and the death of his father.

"Who cares. Whatever. Not my problem." These are the ignorant thoughts of many when confronted with the option of helping, the option of possibly being part of ending the misery of others. Indifference, the insensitivity, the carelessness, the alienation of human thoughts, actions, and words are willingly a danger to all. This world has been and continues to be scarred with constant, horrific, deadly, and painful events that affect hundreds of families. The unexpected mass shootings, school gun-downs, ramming of crowds, the bombing of a populated area, and dozens more, are now expected to appear in our news feed, but serious changes to prevent these disasters rarely occur. But the question is, how many more children have to die? How many more families need to be destroyed? How many more innocent