Rhetorical Analysis Elie Wiesel

Many examples of the worst, but also the best of people spring forth from the events that were the Holocaust. One can look back at these events for examples of intense human emotion and suffering. Although these dark times degraded and beat the human spirit, survivors from the Holocaust still find hope and look for ways to improve society and look selflessly for ways to alleviate the suffering of others. Speaking first to the United States government, and then to individuals all around the world, Wiesel, a respected survivor of the Holocaust, hopes to raise awareness to the suffering of many victims in many circumstances, and to encourage the United States and its government to stay away from the trap of indifference. Wiesel effectively employs

One striking question he asks is “what about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart”, implying that the audience is willing to read and be informed about suffering but refuses to take action (Wiesel 4). Wiesel wants the audience to feel uncomfortable and unsatisfied with their personal actions.. By asking tough questions he is challenging the audience to reflect and change the way they look at suffering. Making a change from the inside is the most effective way to convince people to take action, as Wiesel clearly knows and takes advantage of. Wiesel appeals to the audience’s sense of duty, by first attacking them with an appeal to emotion. Concerning the suffering of the children, Wiesel asks “Do we feel their pain, their agony?” (Wiesel 4). By asking the audience to reflect on these emotions, he is asking the audience to not only think about but to feel the pain of indifference. This strategy is extremely effective because all families and parents in the audience have personally felt these emotions when seeing the suffering of a child. By evoking these emotions in his audience, Wiesel makes the audience mentally feel that indifference is a serious issue that must be