Jewish writer, Elie wiesel in his brave speech, The Perils of Indifference, asserts that indifference is a bad thing, a sin, because why would someone want everybody looking the same. No one would have their own unique personality, everybody would be bland. He supports his claim by explaining that indifference is inhumane and to create awareness so that way everybody can know that it's good to be different. Also to persuade people not to be indifferent, that we should be our own kind of person, unique, we can define indifference so that way others are aware of its effects that way then can do something about it. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform people that indifference is bad in order to encourage us to not feel bad about ourselves. He establishes an informative tone for readers by using stylistic devices and rhetorical devices such as syntax, imagery, and word choice in order …show more content…
The reading of Elie Wiesel’s “The Perils of Indifference” makes it have a clearer understanding. 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in what is known as the Srebrenica genocide, the largest massacre in Europe after the Holocaust, 25,000 women and children were expelled from towns while generals tried to hunt down 15,000 men. There were Serbs that targeted Bosniak civilians in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Despite the war in Bosnia it had claimed the lives of a great estimation of 100,000 people. Following Bosnia’s independence in April 1992, Serbian forces accompanied them with an attempted with an ethnically cleanse(source). The way the people from Bosnia reacted they did not like it one bit they had taken their human rights and abused Bosnia. The international community had responded and defended the town's civilian population. Wiesel’s warning is that there had been so “many
In April 1999, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel addresses the President, First Lady, several members of the government, and the American public with a speech titled “The Perils of Indifference.” He provides examples of indifference during World War II. Similarly, he reasons why indifference in the future has the potential to cause disaster. As the country turns its back on people, a multitude of victims suffer. Wiesel feels the responsibility to spread awareness as he personally felt the effects of indifference.
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.
(Granatstein, 2006) During the Bosnian war the Canadian troops not only resolved the crisis but also helped the civilians in the country and in doing so also risked their
A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.” (Wiesel pg.2) This is a creative technique to use so that the audience understands how indifference is not only another word for disinterest, but also an attitude that pins someone between good and bad. Wiesel does not want the audience to ever view indifference as a positive approach when dealing with the world’s suffering. He does not directly define it as negative, but instead asks rhetorical questions to describe the adverse word.
In paragraph 7, Wiesel argues that “Indifference elicits no response […] is not a response […] is not a beginning […] is an end […] is not only a sin […] is a punishment.” Through this parallel structure, Wiesel conveys that indifference is inhuman by setting up correspondences between indifference with no response, end, sin, and punishment, appealing to audiences’ logos. In a logical reasoning, when you agree with a claim, you have a tendency to agree with the next claim; these repeating phrases make sure Wiesel’s audiences agree with at least one of them, and later agree with his conclusion that indifference is inhuman. Wiesel emphasizes that indifference is inhuman with his reference of different scenarios of people treated indifferently, “the hungry children” and “the homeless refugees” were treated with indifferent responses like “not to respond to their plight” and “not to relieve their solitude”, which appeals to the audience’s emotion to think of how they would be treated terribly if people around them are indifference. The helpless and despairing scenes Wiesel creates cultivates his audience’s as well as your sympathies toward these victims, and forces you to question yourself that whether or not you yourself was one of those indifferent
Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim” Wiesel also repeats other words throughout his speech as in a previous part of his speech, he repeats the word “God” as he talks about how it is always worse for someone to be ignored by God than to be punished by God. Wiesel uses repetition to complement his use of allusion and imagery.
Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of Sighet. During World War II, he and his family were taken to the German concentration camps. During his time in the concentration camps, his parents and little sister died. But Elie Wiesel and his older sisters survived, and in 1945, he was taken to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne and became a journalist. His first book, La Nuit, was a memoir of his time in the concentration camps.
Brianna Hernandez Mr. Montecino Intro to literature 9 April 2017 Bosnian Genocide The Bosnian Genocide was caused by Serbia “ethnically cleanse” Through the years 1992-1995 the Bosnian genocide has killed over 100,000 people, Including the of Bosnian and Serbian people(hmh.org, 2). The breakup of the country Yugoslavia caused the ethnic group in the region to fight for control that lead to the Serbian people believing that Bosnia needed to be “ethnically cleansed”. April 1992, the “cleansing” began, they did this removing all Bosnian Muslims, also referred to as Bosniaks, the Serbians struck the Bosniaks with Yugoslavian military equipment and surrounded the capital cities, Sarajevo (2-3, 1).
Dehumanization in Night “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” These words spoken by Nelson Mandela illustrate how the refusal of one’s rights infringes on their humanity, and ranks them lower than not only humans, but even animals. Throughout the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, the act of dehumanization by the Nazis is clearly evident during the entirety of Elie’s experience in the concentration camps. In addition, the theme of dehumanization is also found in the graphic novel, Maus, which illustrates the life in concentration camps as well.
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.
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
Pertaining to a even earlier genocide than the Bosnian Genocide, one might refer to the Armenian genocide, which actually inspired Raphael Lemkin to define the style of mass predetermined killing. The Armenian genocide resulted in the death of over 1.5 million Armenians. It took place during World War I from 1914 to 1923, in the Ottoman Empire which is present day Turkey. The roots for such hatred can be traced back to dates as early as 1555. The Ottoman Empire negates the fact that this was a Genocide, but sees it as a way to combat the paramilitary groups that were rising up in
Holocaust survivor and American Jewish author, Elie Wiesel in his serious and pensive speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” asserts that “to be indifferent” of the world’s problems “is what makes the human being inhuman” and is the reason that genocides along with millions of deaths have occured (The Perils of). He supports his claim by revealing to his audience his personal experience in the concentration camps of the Holocaust to appeal to their emotions so that they can understand what he had to go through; moreover, Wiesel uses strong, emotionally loaded language to further create a stronger impact when describing our world and society as being involved with “so much violence” and “so much indifference.” Additionally, he uses imagery to illustrate indifference as “not only a sin,” but “a punishment.” Wiesel’s purpose is to make “the human being become less indifferent and more human” in order to bring about change in
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.
“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can rest.” Nelson Mandela. Recent years especially the 20th century was characterized by violence and disrespect to human rights. For instance, in 1872, Susan B Anthony was denied her right of voting where she voted illegally and after arrested and fined (Anthony, 1872). It was because there was inequality in American especially sex differences where women were left behind.