Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” expresses the need to prevent indifference to renew hope to future millenniums. He supports his claim by emotionally describing his past life, then he interprets the word indifference and questions his audience about it, then he uses examples of many victims life as prisoners, and finally, he addresses the necessity of starting the new century without the world being apathy. Wiesel’s purpose is to persuade his audience to be less indifferent to innocent people, including recent victims of injustice in order to start the new millennium without any failures. He creates a hopeful tone for an audience that, he believes wants to make the world better. Throughout Wiesel’s …show more content…
He references back to his past life, “a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up…. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again.” (Wiesel 1). Wiesel wants his audience to completely understand that others are suffering the way he has suffered and could be helped. When explaining his history as a young boy, Wiesel emotionally triggers his surrounding crowd and explained what was the cause of this horrific situation called indifference. Wiesel’s goal with describing his past life is to help his audience have a better visualization. Later in his speech, Wiesel defines that same word, “What is indifference? 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 2). When Wiesel begins to define the word indifference he questions his audience about it. He wants people to know that because of all the indifferent …show more content…
By including them it creates better understanding of the speech itself. “The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees…” (Wiesel 3). Using alliteration helps Wiesel’s audience to visualize and understand the point that Wiesel is trying to make. It gives them a better mindset about all the misfortune that is happening to many innocent people. “It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hope.” (Wiesel 2). When Wiesel stated this, it puts emphasis on the fact that people only want to help themselves and not other people that actually need the help of others. It sets the tone by showing his audience that citizens across the nation are so insensitive towards the people around them. Using these techniques makes an effect on the purpose of making a greater emphasis on it. It is connected to the purpose of expressing how people are so indifferent and making it easier to
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.
Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate and the author of Night, gave the speech “Perils of Indifference” on April 12, 1999 during the Millennium Lecture series which was hosted by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. According to Bill Clinton “The White House millennium program will guide and direct America's celebration of the millennium by showcasing the achievements that define us as a nation -- our culture, our scholarship, our scientific exploration," going into the new twenty-first century. Wiesel was invited to Lecture to speak about the horrific Holocaust which happened during the years 1933-1945 and to try help move on from the past it as the world goes into a new millennium. In the summer of 1944, Wiesel
Jewish writer, professor,political activist, Elie wiesel in his memorable speech “ The perils of indifference” asserts that being “indifferent” is a major impact in people's lives. He develops his message by emphasizing the world’s indifference. For example on paragraph 13 wisel states “Indifference, then is not only a sin,it is a punishment.” Meaning that lack of concern leads to “inescapable consequences”. In addition throughout Wiesel’s speech he talks about what indifference means to him and how it is not impactful to humanity and the inhumanity of it .
Author, Elie Wiesel in his powerful speech, The Perils of Indifference claims history must not repeat. Wiesel develops his message by emphasizing how many were dehumanized. “They no longer felt pain, hunger or thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing.
Elie Wiesel uses Rhetorical Questions to show the dangers of indifference. In “Perils of Indifference” lines 23-25 ,”What will the legacy of the vanishing century be? How
A quarrel is better than a cold war, and we better remind ourselves the situations that we choose to be indifference toward our friends and families. Elie Wiesel urges people to face their own indifference, addressing that indifference denies the humanity of victims. This whole speech is based on the ethos of Wiesel, conveying the message that he himself symbolizes humanity. Wiesel refers to his own experience during the Holocaust, the most infamous and evil event in history.
as part of the Millennium Evenings, a series of speeches and lectures hosted by then President of the United States, Bill Clinton and First Lady, Hillary Clinton. These speeches had a focus on the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. Wiesel’s speech has a theme of looking back at what happened in the previous century as well as the emphasis on how we should not forget about what happened in the twentieth century and avoiding indifference in the new millennium. Wiesel, having lived through the Holocaust, in some of the most brutal concentration camps to have been used by the Nazi regime, had experienced the apathy of world leaders as the jews in Auschwitz and Buchenwald were
He draws attention to the cruelties inflicted on other people when a person betrays their humanity. Standing by and watching people suffer is just as damaging as inflicting the suffering. The audience feels guilty for the times they may have been bystanders and became less than human. Wiesel emphasizes that other people are affected by indifference through his use of the phrase “Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.” This phrase switches the idea that indifference is something that hurts an individual to something that hurts numerous other people.
Indifference is a lack of interest, concern, or sympathy; to be indifferent is to not care about the struggles of anyone but yourself. Most times, indifference is portrayed as a bad thing that does nothing good to anyone. In the CommonLit article “Elie Wiesel’s ‘The Perils of Indifference’ speech” Elie Wiesel, describes some thoughts that he has on indifference and its effect on history. Elie Wiesel agrees that indifference is a bad thing that should be addressed because it always benefits the aggressor and never the victim, it reduces others to an abstraction, and it’s what makes humans inhuman. First and foremost, the aggressor is like a school bully.
Throughout the history of the world, people have displayed hatred towards each other by fighting many wars. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, gave a speech at Buchenwald to the President, Chancellor, and people of Germany. Throughout the speech, he establishes that people should learn from past experiences that war, hatred, and racism are meaningless. He accomplishes this belief by using pathos to connect to people’s feelings and emotions. By using pathos, Wiesel develops the central idea of the speech that everyone should change for the better future by accepting wars, hatred, and racism as “not an option.”
Indifference need to be gain awareness and be stopped. He develops his claim by narrating the dangers of indifference, and how it affected his life then, describes how wrongful it is to be treated in such a way. Finally Wiesel illustrates examples of how indifference affected the world. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform us about the dangers of indifference in order to bring change about it. He establishes a straightforward tone for the president, ambassadors, politicians, and congressmen.
You Denounce it. You Disarm it. ”(Wiesel). This was the biggest part I though Wiesel used for his strongest point of Pathos. These words made me take a step back from what exactly was being said by Wiesel, how anger and hatred are less dangerous than indifferent because hatred and anger have somewhat
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
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. Wiesel’s speech is tightly organized and moves the ideas forward effectively. Wiesel begins with humility, stating that he does not have the right to speak for the dead, introducing the framework of his words.
By having the last two paragraphs laden with questions, Wiesel suggests that society needs a wakeup call to the indifference surrounding everyone. Reinforcing his argument about indifference, Wiesel offers the rhetorical questions as a final food for thought about the indifference that surrounds society, which no one does anything to change. Wiesel, through the series of questioning, engaged identity formations in the audience's thoughts of whether to take action or ignore the problem at hand, forging a lasting impact on his audience’s future