Haley Gudeman
Mr. Holschuh
AP Language and Composition
21 March 2023
Precipice of a New Century
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist gave his speech The Perils of Indifference to President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and members of Congress on April 12, 1999. The world is on the precipice of a new century, and Wiesel shares his thoughts on the future and the past. Elie Wiesel is not only an activist, but he is also an author and survivor of the Holocaust. He has personally experienced the effects of indifference and has seen how it affects the lives of millions of people. In his speech, he reflects on the horrors that have occurred this past century, pondered the prevalence of indifference, emphasizes the effect
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Using juxtaposition, Elie Wiesel reflects on the horrors that have occurred this past century and their effects on people. He tells a story about a young Jewish boy who was just freed from the Buchenwald concentration camp and was “finally free, but there was no joy in his heart.” This boy has just been released from imprisonment but has experienced such horrors that he is not able to enjoy his freedom. This shows the true effect of his imprisonment and torture, and how this experience will haunt him for the rest of his life. He may grow up, but this experience will never leave him. This shows the true effect of his imprisonment and how this experience will never leave him; he may grow up but he can never leave this experience behind. The young boy was not the only person who had these horrible experiences. Millions of other Jews experienced this pain, and many of them never got to experience freedom again. The boy, as well as many others have experienced such tragedies that they have lost hope for the future. The audience can feel the pain and hopelessness that this young boy felt after experiencing persecution and torture. …show more content…
He uses the idea that humans can be inhuman to emphasize the pain and suffering that people can inflict. He says “to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman.” He highlights that humans can be extremely cruel to other humans solely through their indifference. When one ignores the suffering around them, they lose some of their humanity. Wiesel also presents this idea by saying “in denying their humanity, we betray our own.” He draws attention to the cruelties inflicted on other people when a person betrays their humanity. Standing by and watching people suffer is just as damaging as inflicting the suffering. The audience feels guilty for the times they may have been bystanders and became less than human. Wiesel emphasizes that other people are affected by indifference through his use of the phrase “Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.” This phrase switches the idea that indifference is something that hurts an individual to something that hurts numerous other people. Not only is the indifferent person sinning, but they are also punishing other people through their indifference. The audience starts to notice their guilt and sin and how they punished others for their
The Perils of Indifference tells of Wiesel’s experience in the concentration camps and his experience being freed from one. Wiesel shows thanks to the American army as they were the ones who freed him and then goes into his main point: indifference brings more suffering to those who suffer and shows the inhumanity of those who are indifferent. He tells of many instances and
Wiesel 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.
In Weiesel's own life, he faced indifference head-on when he was in the Nazi concentration camp. For example, when Wiesel was in the camp he felt “abandoned by humanity” Wiesel (8) because everyone turned the other cheek and left the Jews out to dry. With no help until the American troops got to them. Another example that Wiesel noted in his speech is that indifference is “always the friend of the enemy”. This means that the perpetrator always wins in the world of indifference because the person or people that are being put down and mistreated don't have the strength and power to help themselves get help or be free.
“In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred.” In a way, indifference is the greatest danger one may come across. The thoughts of helplessness and feeling exiled is enough to drive a normal person completely off the rails. So Wiesel's statement is first hand proof yet again that indifference is more than just someone not providing the care you need: it's enough to make someone completely give up on life and lose all hope they may have
Jewish writer, professor,political activist, Elie wiesel in his memorable speech “ The perils of indifference” asserts that being “indifferent” is a major impact in people's lives. He develops his message by emphasizing the world’s indifference. For example on paragraph 13 wisel states “Indifference, then is not only a sin,it is a punishment.” Meaning that lack of concern leads to “inescapable consequences”. In addition throughout Wiesel’s speech he talks about what indifference means to him and how it is not impactful to humanity and the inhumanity of it .
In the East room of the White House during the 12th of April 1999, Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a Holocaust survivor, elaborates in his hopeful speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” the apathy of the American government to the sufferings of the people victimized by the tragic past to show how indifference can cause misery to other people. By stating his personal experiences, questioning his audience, and by citing proofs and facts, he was able to appeal to his audience emotionally and logically; thus, conveying his message of hope to welcome the new century and move them towards social action and away from indifference. Wiesel’s purpose is to share his experiences in order to remind the world, not just his audience, that people
as part of the Millennium Evenings, a series of speeches and lectures hosted by then President of the United States, Bill Clinton and First Lady, Hillary Clinton. These speeches had a focus on the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Wiesel’s speech has a theme of looking back at what happened in the previous century as well as the emphasis on how we should not forget about what happened in the twentieth century and avoiding indifference in the new millennium. Wiesel, having lived through the Holocaust, in some of the most brutal concentration camps to have been used by the Nazi regime, had experienced the apathy of world leaders as the jews in Auschwitz and Buchenwald were
As a 16 year old, I would say that I go through a lot in my day-to-day life. Waking up early everyday for school, staying in school for 7 hours, studying, and eating meals that I would argue are sometimes not the very best. If I had to imagine my 16 year old self getting stripped away from my home, being separated from my family, and to live in absolutely unlivable conditions, I wouldn’t be writing this essay right now. These conditions, however, are the exact conditions that the then-teenager Elie Wiesel and many countless others have gone through during the Holocaust. Wiesel accounts his personal experience through writing a memoir, Night, in it his experiences written with much symbolism.
In the book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, one of the main characters Elie Wiesel was taken from his home in 1944, and was sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, at the age of fifteen. When Elie was separated from his family it caused me to think the most. The part in the book that provoked the strongest feelings in me was learning that babies were being burned. The book Night also helped me to have a better appreciation towards the Jews and what they had to live through. Through Elie’s words throughout Night, the separation from his family had the most effect on me, learning about babies being burned provoked the strongest feelings within me, and Night helped me to really appreciate the struggles endured by the Jew’s.
Indifference is a lack of interest, concern, or sympathy; to be indifferent is to not care about the struggles of anyone but yourself. Most times, indifference is portrayed as a bad thing that does nothing good to anyone. In the CommonLit article “Elie Wiesel’s ‘The Perils of Indifference’ speech” Elie Wiesel, describes some thoughts that he has on indifference and its effect on history. Elie Wiesel agrees that indifference is a bad thing that should be addressed because it always benefits the aggressor and never the victim, it reduces others to an abstraction, and it’s what makes humans inhuman. First and foremost, the aggressor is like a school bully.
Indifference need to be gain awareness and be stopped. He develops his claim by narrating the dangers of indifference, and how it affected his life then, describes how wrongful it is to be treated in such a way. Finally Wiesel illustrates examples of how indifference affected the world. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform us about the dangers of indifference in order to bring change about it. He establishes a straightforward tone for the president, ambassadors, politicians, and congressmen.
In the speech, titled “The Perils of Indifference,” Elie Wiesel showed gratitude to the American people, President Clinton, and Mrs. Hillary Clinton for the help they brought and apprised the audience about the violent consequences and human suffering due to indifference against humanity (Wiesel). This speech was persuasive. It was also effective because it conveyed to the audience the understanding of
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.
Uriah Witt Professor Michael Jernigan English 102 20 FEB 2018 The Pathos Behind Indifference An elderly man makes his way to a podium of the White House, in attendance is President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham-Clinton. He had prepared a speech that will tug at the heart strings of every person in attendance, along with everyone watching from home. The date is significant to Elie Wiesel’s speech, 12 April 1999, 45 years to the day he had been liberated by American Soldiers from Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany. With sadness in his eyes and heart he delivered his speech The Perils of Indifference.
The human condition is a very malleable idea that is constantly changing due to the current state of mankind. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the concept of the human condition is displayed in the worst sense of the concept, during the Holocaust of WWII. During this time, multiple groups of people, most notably European Jews, were persecuted against and sent to horrible hard labor and killing centers such as Auschwitz. In this memoir, Wiesel uses complex figurative language such as similes and metaphors to display the theme that a person’s state as a human, both at a physical and emotional level, can be altered to extreme lengths, and even taken away from them, under the most extreme conditions.