According to Google, the definition of suffering is the state of undergoing pain distress or hardship. When others are suffering and we look away, we automatically take the side of the tormentor. During Hitler's reign many Jews suffered but no one said anything. Now Eli Wiesel who endured extreme suffering tells readers everywhere of the importance of speaking out when humans are suffering. At the time of Hitler's reign six million Jews died and even more suffered, yet the world remained silent. Six million lives could have been saved by simply speaking out against these tormentors. Eli feels strong about this subject and says, "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented"(Wiesel Acceptance Speech, pg 1). This helps the reader realize if society doesn't speak it takes the side of the tormentor. Furthermore, not speaking out makes the tormentors think they can continue to get away with causing human suffering. Additionally, not speaking up makes the victims feel weak Eli says, "we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did"(Wiesel Perils, pg 2).This illustrates that not speaking out takes …show more content…
For example Eli says, "those who keep silent yesterday will keep quiet tomorrow"(Wiesel , Night pg 16).This shows the reader if you do not speak up now, you will never speak up. To go on, he explains if you fail to use your voice, you will never find it. In addition if we neglect to raise our voices it will affect the victims who came before us by tarnishing their memories. Eli went on to state, "to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time" (Wiesel, Night pg 21). This illustrates that not spreading the word of the injustice that was done to these people is like killing their spirit. Furthermore not talking about the event makes the event seem like it never occurred. Injustice affects us and the people that came before
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?
In Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech of 1986 he stated that “when human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must –at that moment – become the center of the universe.” Considering the events that occurred in World War I, such as the Holocaust, I strongly agree with Wiesel’s statement about making those who are endangered our priority. It is the duty of those who inhabit this world to protect and set the imprisoned free regardless the circumstances. If no one has the courage to step up and do something to help, the oppressor will end up believing that treating people unjustly and forbid them from their freedom is indeed right.
The Holocaust was a dark time in human history. People were persecuting others and treating them like animals. In the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, a boy named Elie and his father are taken to Auschwitz and subjected to the horrors that take place there. Wiesel claims that silence and neutrality are the greatest sins because they cause the victims to become despondent, they allow the oppressors to continue their crimes, and neutrality causes the prisoners to lose emotion. Neutrality and silence cause the victims of the Holocaust to become vulnerable because they stop showing compassion towards others and become hardened.
The denialism motif that emphasizes the theme that humans have a tendency to deny ugly, painful truths is shown multiple times throughout the book. For example, foreign Jews were being deported from the town of Sighet and Elie Wiesel says, "Behind me, someone said, sighing, 'What do you expect? That's war...' The deportees were quickly forgotten"(6). The native Jews tried to rationalize these actions after the others were "Crammed into cattle cars"(Wiesel 6) by saying it is what it is and continued to deny that anything that was happening was wrong.
Wiesel explains, it is “easier” to avoid “victims” as it can be “troublesome” to be “involved” in one’s “pain” and “despair” (para. 8.) Wiesel asks us, “Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one’s sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?” Wiesel's warning, if taken by heart, can save many individuals who face unnecessary pain everyday. As his speech concludes it acquires a more buoyant tone in the future as individuals. As a nation we have the decision to resist and evolve as a nation for the better of
Millions of jews were imprisoned and put in concentration camps and forced into complete submission by the Nazis. Elie stated in the book- “How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (Weisel 32). The world kept silent. Let that sink in, and realize that meant millions if not billions of people knew about this, but kept silent.
In “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” Elie Wiesel is persuading readers to understand the struggle with human rights. Wiesel says that he does not have the right to accept this honor, as he says “No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.” Which is stating that he doesn’t have the right to speak for the dead, living, victims, and the survivors. Throughout his speech, he said that this honor belonged to all the survivors and their children, and to the Jewish people. Wiesel is trying to defend human rights, and to have peace all around the world, and that it doesn't matter the race, religion, and gender of who you are.
Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor who strongly believes that people need to share their stories about the Holocaust with others. Elie Wiesel was in concentration camps for about half of his teen years along with his father. After being the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust he resolved to make what really happened more well-known. Elie Wiesel wrote dozens of books and submitted an essay titled “A God Who Remembers” to the book This I Believe. The essay focused on Elie Wiesel’s belief that those who have survived the Holocaust should not suppress their experiences but must share them so history will not repeat itself.
Elie Wiesel Rhetorical Speech Analysis 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. “You fight it.
Wiesel’s speech shows how he worked to keep the memory of those people alive because he knows that people will continue to be guilty, to be accomplices if they forget. Furthermore, Wiesel knows that keeping the memory of those poor, innocent will avoid the repetition of the atrocity done in the future. The stories and experiences of Wiesel allowed for people to see the true horrors of what occurs when people who keep silence become “accomplices” of those who inflict pain towards humans. To conclude, Wiesel chose to use parallelism in his speech to emphasize the fault people had for keeping silence and allowing the torture of innocent
When the young boy asks, “Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent”, (paragraph 5) again the audience is prompted to emotionally respond. They have to realize that it was all of them, all of us, who remained silent and that this silence must never happen again. Wiesel demonstrates a strong use of pathos throughout his speech to encourage his audience to commit to never sitting silently by while any human beings are being treated
Suffering does not always change the morals of a person, “Literature depicting suffering also inspires hope and confidence in the resilience of the human spirit” (Cerullo, paragraph 7). Rabbi was one in Night who kept a strong faith throughout all of his suffering, and while his body was getting weaker, his faith remained strong. His faith was one thing that kept him pushing to survive in the harsh conditions of the concentration camps. Wiesel observed that “strangely, his words never provoked anyone. They did bring peace” (Wiesel 90).
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.
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.
Certain fears prevent others from causing a certain action in life, avoiding to be next to something or someone, or fear can get to a point to make someone remain silent. Meanwhile, silence is something that many people don’t consider that important. Maybe silence may not be a big deal. But in reality, silence is something that can mean a lot and can affect others in many ways over time. During the Holocaust, many of the Jews have noticed that they have changed over time.