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.
Paradox, parallelism, personification, repetition, rhetorical question, pathos. You may ask yourself: what importance do these words have? These words are rhetorical devices used to develop a claim. A person who used these important devices was Elie Wiesel. In his 1986 Nobel Peace Acceptance Speech, Elie Wiesel develops the claim that remaining silent on human sufferings makes us just as guilty as those who inflicted the suffering and remain guilty for not keeping the memory of those humans alive.
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. To prove his statement, Wiesel restates a personal encounter with a young Jewish boy after the Holocaust, “‘Who would allow such crimes to be
It is a human instinct to prioritize one's well-being before others. We are constantly confronted with situations where we as humans have to take action for our own contentment. In the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, he shares his own traumatic experience of the Holocaust, which was a mass murder of 12 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, basically anyone who is different and wouldn’t fit into Adolf Hitler’s image of a perfect society. Despite how ruthless the Holocaust was, the Elie and his fellow prisoners fought and fought for their freedom, displaying how much humanity will fight for survival. By looking at the following examples: A child kills his own father for a loaf of bread, a son leaving his father behind during one of the march so he would not die, and Elie debating if he should let his father die so he could have a higher chance of surviving. 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.
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.
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.
Well known writer, world activist, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, Perils of Indifference, elaborates on on the topic of indifference, within our country/society and consequences and achievements because of it. The speech was delivered on the 12th of April 1999, in Washington, D.C., as part of the Millennium Lecture Series hosted by the White House. Directed towards the audience of the White House, Government officials, and Americans. Wiesel's purpose is to show reference to how indifference has allowed many good and and bad things to happen throughout america's history. He creates a serious tone in order to influence
Elie Wiesel enlightens his audience of the injustice Roosevelt submitted Jewish refugees to. Wiesel exclaims that he doesn't not understand if, "Roosevelt was a good man, with a heart." Wiesel questions the indifference in the president of the free world and why he didn't allow these refugees into the country. If Wiesel had not presented this information to his audience about the root and extreme problem of indifference in the country, do you think people would have realized just how terrible the problem is and how neglectful we are of our
When the story of a horrific tragedy is reported on the news, Americans may feel remorseful, but only temporarily. The thought is pushed quickly out of the mind as they are consumed with other, less important things. Rather than donating to charity, volunteering, or giving aid to the homeless, humanity looks on. This is not a recent development; Americans have been immune to tragedies since before World War II. Elie Wiesel, a man who has become a human’s rights activist after spending two years in Buchenwald and Auschwitz at age fifteen, spoke at the White House about The Perils of Indifference during the 1999 Millennium Lecture series. His speech urges the audience to take action against injustices rather than remaining indifferent to human
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.
Holocaust. Death. Suffering. These are but a few of the words that may begin to describe this tragic period in the history of man. The Perils of Indifference and Night are both publications by the Elie Wiesel, one of the many victims to the Holocaust, but one of the very few victims who lived to tell his story. Once liberated from these concentration camps, Elie has done much to make people around the world more aware of the indescribable events that occurred during his time in these camps, and make sure that people will speak out against these events instead of staying silent, so that these events may be prevented in the future. He wrote many pieces and delivered many speeches in attempt to lift the world out of indifference. I believe that Elie’s novel Night communicates his message more effectively than his speech, Perils of Indifference. Not only does it convey his message of that we all must speak out against
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? Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril.
“ Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world,” - Barack Obama In this class, we have learned about many things that have happened in the world like the Holocaust and the Bystander effect with short stories, or a book. We have learned things that are happening or has happened already in society, many of which connect with empathy. Empathy can make a more just society because people will be more united but when empathy is not in society, there will be consequences like death. The three assignments that demonstrate the essential question are the Kitty Genovese article reflection, Night Theme Table, and Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech.
In the past, indifference has led to the murder of millions of people. Indifference is when we, the humans race, do not care about those who suffer from the injustice, violence, or oppression on behalf of others (Clare). On 12 April 1992, Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor gave a speech regarding human indifference in front of President William J. Clinton and the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the White House. What was he trying to accomplish during his speech? 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
Author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his powerful speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” suggests that choosing to be indifferent to the suffering of others only make matters worst. He develops his message through the use of pathos which grasps readers with emotions and personal descriptions of the torment he and other prisoners went through during the Holocaust. “Abandoned” and “Forgotten” were how the author and the other prisoners felt (Wiesel). Further, Wiesel uses repetition to emphasize the meaning of “indifference.” Wiesel delivers the meaning of indifference in many ways to help the audience understand the true meaning. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform the world in order to accomplish compassion in the future for those suffering injustice around the world. He establishes a critical tone for readers by using stylistic devices such as pathos and repetition in order to develop his message