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. Wiesel’s speech is tightly organized and moves the ideas forward effectively. Wiesel begins with humility, stating that he does not have the right to speak for the dead, introducing the framework of his words. …show more content…
When Wiesel makes it clear that he has suffered personal loss, he is evoking an emotional response from his audience. By stating that he senses their presence “The presence of my parents, that of my little sister.” the audience empathizes with him and the horror of the Holocaust is made more clear for them. They cannot only understand his feelings; they can connect to them which strengthens their understanding of the need to act whenever they witness inhumanity. His recollections about his experience as a young boy makes the horror real and urgent for the audience: “I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast.” (paragraph 4) The audience’s inevitable emotional response to these memories is one of deep sadness and empathy. The need for action instead of silence in the face of such horror is made even clearer. 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
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Show MoreWiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.
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.
The memoir “Night”, by Elie Wiesel provides insight into the terrors of the holocaust, a genocide of the jewish race and is described as “A slim volume of terrifying power” by the New York Times. One of the most important aspect of “Night” that differentes it from other World War II novels and causes it to receive such praise and acclaim is its ability to pull readers in and cause the readers to empathize with the characters in the book. One of the methods by which Wiesel achieves this is through his use of themes, such as the theme of loss of faith in god. Wiesel incorporates the theme of loss of faith in God in order to allow readers to empathize with the traumatic experiences of holocaust survivors. One such example of this is the apparent
Kamalpreet Kaur 10/25/2015 2nd period English 11 Final Draft Essay Night by Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust memoir about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps in Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945. Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania on September 30th, 1928. On December 10, 1986, in the Oslo City Hall, Norway, Elie Wiesel delivered The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Elie Wiesel is a messenger to a variety of mankind survivors from The Holocaust talked about their experiences in the camps and their struggle with faith through the
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. Furthermore, In Wiesel’s novel people strived to survive this injustice. For example, the Holocaust caused countless amount of
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.
Elie Wiesel voiced his emotions and thoughts of the horrors done to Jewish people during World War II whilst developing his claim. Wiesel “remember[s] his bewilderment,” “his astonishment,” and “his anguish” when he saw they were dropped into the ghetto to become slaves and to be slaughtered. He repeats the words “I remember” because he and the world, especially those who suffered in the ghettos and camps, would never be able to forget how innocent suffered. Consequently, he emphasized that “no one” has the right to advocate for the dead. Like many other people in the world, he lost his family during the war.
The characterization of Moshie and Mrs. Shachter shows the indifference and denial of the Jews of Sighet. The chilling juxtaposition of a beautiful landscape containing a camp of death illustrates how the world not only was indifferent to the inhumane suffering, but also continued to shine brightly as if nothing really mattered. This timeless theme of denial and its consequences during the Holocaust echoes the struggles of those in our time who are persecuted solely due to their beliefs. The reader takes away the important lesson of never turning away from those who need it greatest, each time one reads Elie Wiesel’s memoir,
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.
For centuries mankind has faced injustice due to prejudice and hate. How we have dealt with unjust acts has shaped society and molded the way that we think, changing our very morals and values. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, millions of people in concentration camps, including Elie, endure the tyranny of Hitler’s rein in an unforgettable event known as the holocaust. The deplorable conditions and oppressive treatment emphasizes the injustice inflicted upon Elie and his comrades. Wiesel’s theme is to stand up against oppression and speak out against injustice.
In 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel, makes two strong statements in his acceptance speech. Wiesel was 15 years old when he entered the camp in Auschuitz. His mom and little sister got killed as soon as they got to the gates. His father went into the gates with him the first time. He moved in January 1945 to Buchenwald in a cattle car.
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.
The entire world was so ignorant to such a massacre of horrific events that were right under their noses, so Elie Wiesel persuades and expresses his viewpoint of neutrality to an audience. Wiesel uses the ignorance of the countries during World War II to express the effects of their involvement on the civilians, “And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent when and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation” (Weisel). To persuade the audience, Elie uses facts to make the people become sentimental toward the victims of the Holocaust. Also, when Weisel shares his opinion with the audience, he gains people onto his side because of his authority and good reputation.
People endure hardships every day, but it is how they choose to react to them that is most important. One such hardship was the Holocaust, which was the murdering of millions of people at the Nazi concentration camps throughout the course of WWII. Eleven million Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies were killed during this genocide. Every survivor of these concentration camps was forced to decide between hiding or vocalizing the crimes they had seen committed, and many couldn’t find the strength to speak up. Thankfully, there were those such as Elie Wiesel, who didn’t rest.
This gruesome act impaired many lives both physically and mentally, which altered the lives of the victims to the point that they will never be the same. Still, there are many individuals that manage to inspire humankind with their acts of kindness and courage. They are those who, despite hard times, rose up to help others, and created a better world for others. Three prime instances include Elie Wiesel’s “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech”, which signifies that using the past to shape the future for the better will construct a realm of peace, Ban Ki-moon’s “In Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust” influential speech, which inspires many to use courage to abolish discrimination, and finally, Antonina in The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman, who displays compassion, which allows her to rise up to help the people desperately in need. These passages show that in times when conflict arises, it is crucial to respond with kindness by having the courage to care, speaking up against injustice by learning from the past, and using compassion and empathy to help