And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering humiliation”. This quote that Elie Wiesel uses in his speech shows that the world was silent after the war. He knew that nobody would know what the holocaust was like, so he told the world about it in his speech and in his book. Wiesel decided since he was one of the last survivors that he will not be silent about it. This is one main reason he wrote the speech and the story The Night, and well deserved the Nobel Peace Prize award.
“Every encounter filled us with joy—yes, joy…” (Wiesel, 35) Eliezer had already adapted to his situation, using the word joy to describe the meeting. “In the afternoon, we cheerfully went to clear the ruins.” (Wiesel, 61) The above quote is a perfect example of how Eliezer continually adjusts his meaning of ‘happiness’ and takes nothing for granted. “But we no longer feared death, in any event not this particular death. Every bomb that hit filled us with joy, gave us renewed confidence.” (Wiesel, 60) In reality, freedom is still far away. Eliezer and the other inmates believe freedom is close; a loss of innocence would have meant a loss of hope.
The quality of empathy allows the good side of human nature to shine through. In the case of Scout, the young protagonist in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, empathy plays a crucial role in her moral development as she navigates the evils of a closed-minded Southern society. By following her father Atticus’s advice, she manages to resist the influence of hateful attitudes in her town. Without her ability to empathize, Scout is just as much at fault as the prejudiced and unaccepting residents of Maycomb for overlooking hypocrisy and prejudice. Empathy, the capacity to vicariously experience the ordeals of another person, is a fundamental part of what constitutes a moral person and is essential in having the capacity to understand and forgive others, which Harper Lee portrays through Atticus’s advice to his children, the children’s changing perception of Boo Radley, and Atticus’s forgiveness of people in Maycomb.
On April 12th, 1999, a Holocaust survivor by the name of Elie Wiesel spoke at the White House in Washington, D.C., showing gratitude to the Clintons for taking action against tragedies which plagued the world at that time (American Rhetoric). Without detailing his own gruesome experience within concentration camps, Wiesel uses his familiarity with suffering to relate to lesser-known injustice within the world. Additionally, he thanks Hillary Clinton for her actions of making the issues of smaller countries visible (Wiesel) and contrasts her against President Roosevelt, who turned a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing of Jews in Germany during World War II. Because Roosevelt was a well-liked president, his controversial activity further exemplifies Mrs. Clinton’s actions of speaking on behalf of “the victims of injustice” (Wiesel). Wiesel’s speech is named for his analyzation of administrations’ indifference to suffering of
In “An Evening with Elie Wiesel”, transcribed by Trisha Nord, Elie expresses, “It’s the price I pay for survival.” In order to survive Elie had to make many decisions some of which had very negative effects. Having to lie about his age was the price he paid in order to survive. But this one decision might have just saved his
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and a Nobel Prize winner. Elie Wiesel delivered once again one of his famous speeches the “The Perils of Indifference”, which was hosted by the White House and accompanied by the President of the United States Barrack Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton and other fellow government officials. When Elie Wiesel was giving out his speech, Elie Wiesel was warning the American people or the millenniums of the dangers of indifference, using his own personal experience to influence the millenniums and American people. Elie Wiesel “The Perils of Indifference,” also, is one of the influential speeches because he uses his own personal experience. For instance, Elie Wiesel states “Rooted in our tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate.
The speech, Mr. Wiesel showed to the audience that he knows of these events firsthand because he shared his own personal suffering and established ethos by telling the story in first person. He argued about the guilt of past violent events and proclaimed that said events could have been avoided if humanity had been less indifferent. He stated that had someone have intervened earlier, these events could have been avoided. Nonetheless, Mr. Wiesel still showed gratitude to those who intervened and fought those responsible for the hardship of himself and his people. However, he still did not understand why they did not do an intervention at an earlier time to avoid the suffering of thousands of people.
Elie spoke of his past and the several events that took place during his time in concentration camps. While showing an immense amount of gratitude to what the current day “Government” he also talks about the terrible mistakes we made as a country during World War II. Elie wonders why we didn't intervene as much as we should have untill after the war saying “Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war?”. Elie does speak of christians though saying “But then, there were human beings who were sensitive to out tragedy. Those non-jews, those Christians, that we called the “Righteous Gentiles,” whose selfless acts of heroism saved the honor of their faith.
3. What has Elie come to believe about his suffering and the suffering of people in general? 4. Elie describes the process of losing one’s identity (what the Jews were deprived of, in order). List this process below.
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.