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Wiesel's Speech On Indifference

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Wiesel starts his speech by recounting an experience from his childhood. He opens his speech with “Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up…” Through reciting a narrative in a third person voice, he stylistically frames his argument on indifference. Wiesel admonishes those who chose to “look away from victims” because in not “offering them a spark of hope”, we are betraying our own. Due to the positive social reforms the President is undertaking, he is filled with gratitude. He supports the President’s choice to circumvent indifference and help children, the homeless, and “the victims of injustice”. In his narratio, he explains the dangers and different point of views on indifference. Indifference according to Wiesel is worse than hatred and anger because it “elicits no response”. Words can …show more content…

He questions why the United States, a great democracy and Roosevelt, a man with a good heart did not help the refugees. He does not understand why “the greatest democracy, the most generous of all new nations in modern history” was so indifferent to those in pain. This serves as his confirmatio. It proves his case of ignoring those in need of help and not willing to help because it is easier to “avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes”. At the same time, he feels hopeful for the future because of “the joint decision of the United States and NATO to intervene in Kosovo and save those victims”. To make his case stronger, he uses confutatio to refute opposing arguments. He deliberately states why one would be tempted to fall into indifference. “It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair.” The addition of a refutation only makes his argument

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