Rhetorical Analysis Of The Perils Of Indifference By Elie Wiesel

Six million died, those that survived lives were changed forever. How does this continue to affect millions around the world? Elie Wiesel, a Jew from a small town in the Carpatian Mountains, lived to tell the story of this harsh reality. The Holocaust was, to put it lightly, genocide of a major religion. Nazi Germany aimed to wipe Jews from the face of the Earth, in order to “solve all Germany’s problems.”

Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, is a moving and powerful account of the Holocaust. The book provides a first-hand account of the horrors of the concentration camps and the impact they had on the author’s life. In order to convey the emotional impact of his experiences, Wiesel uses imagery to evoke pathos, the appeal to emotion, causing the readers to feel sad but also hopeful. A way that Wiesel uses pathos in Night in order to create a sense of dread and sadness for his audience is by using vivid imagery of the horrible crimes he witnessed. “A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children.

The overall purpose of Wiesel’s speech was to emphasize the danger of indifference and the importance of compassion. He has made this compelling to the reader through his use of devices such as pathos, and by calling us, the readers and listeners, to take action, warning us that passivity is itself a choice. Wiesel’s prime exigence is his experience in the Holocaust, where ‘a Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night’ (118). This boy is a symbol; a version of himself separated and personified as another victim, lost to the horrors of the Holocaust. He is Wiesel’s naivety, his innocence, and his youth, and now Wiesel’s duty to remember.

Elie Weisel created this speech in order to inform others about the dangers of indifference, and how it can begin to affect almost every single community. In this speech, Wiesel explains to his audience that the main reason the holocaust occurred was because of indifference, and explains to his audience that it’s “...so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair” (Wiesel) This creates the challenge of acts of anger, discrimination and hatred onto the Jewish community, and how it impacted the holocaust’s experience for the Jewish prisoners, and how indifference is still happening today to many minorities.

Wiesel does this to immerse the reader in the agony of the time period. Martin Luther King Jr. employs imagery to convey his message to the audience, focusing on landscape and time. He wants to let his audience know that “now is the time to rise from the dark” in order to “deloate the valley of segregation.” King uses it in this manner so that the audience can visualize a valley to represent a low point that they were experiencing

“The Perils of Indifference” is a speech written and given by Elie Wiesel in April 1999. It’s a relatively brief speech that illustrates the after effects of being a prisoner of the Holocaust. Wiesel was there. He lived through it. The feelings that he shares in this speech are not only valid, but rather eye opening as well.

By using rhetorical questions Wiesel subtly convinces the audience to care more about how their indifference will affect the upcoming generations. Elie Wiesel also uses repetition right through his speech. He repeats the word “indifference” meaning the lack of interest, concern, or sympathy. He tells his audience that he knows indifference is the easiest option but that indifference leads to suffering in all forms. Through repetition, he persuades his audience that indifference is the reason for many tragedies from the Holocaust to assassinations.

“Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw” (Wiesel). In the Holocaust six million Jews were killed. They were brought to the concentration camps in cattle cars. At Auschwitz one-point-six million people died. Elie Wiesel’s “The Perils of Indifference” uses ethos, pathos, and rhetorical questions in order to persuade people that the opposite of love is indifference and not hate.

This indifference was exposed in the aftermath of the war, but it also shed a light on other instances in which people have been indifferent, and when they themselves have been prejudiced. This matter is pointed out in Elie Wiesel’s speech “The Perils of Indifference,” which he gave on April 12, 1999. Wiesel listed many events in the 20th century, some that took place after the Holocaust, that could show how often the world was indifferent to the sufferings of others. He mentions that there have been, “two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations -- Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin -- bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in

Wiesel uses unsettling images with the intent to control the audience’s moral compass. Images of children dying “every minute” of “disease, violence, [and] famine” strike the audience with discomfort and a desire to end the agony which the kids feel (Wiesel). Similarly, Wiesel himself details the “most tragic of all prisoners” within his concentration camp, who “were dead and did not know it” (Wiesel). The pictures of unimaginable horror are powerful enough to force reality upon the audience and leave them with the need to support actions of change. Guilt also arises from Wiesel’s statement that “it is so much easier to look away from victims” (Wiesel).

“And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy … I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.” The audience has this change in mood due to the horrific realities of the speech. He uses this change of tone in the audience to talk about the more serious subject of being indifferent and how it affected the world during the Holocaust. By Wiesel using stories of how his childhood was affected from others being indifferent it creates the call to action throughout the

Famous author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel claims in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” that indifference is dangerous. He supports his claim by first defining indifference as “a blurred line between light and dark,” then by illustrating how indifference can benefit the aggressor and be a friend to the enemy. Finally, Wiesel’s imagery and diction helps support his claim. For example, by listing all of humanity’s failures he helps us imagine how dangerous indifference can really be. Wiesel’s purpose is to illustrate all of the dangers of indifference by using personal and historical experiences in order to prevent the same failures from happening again.

Jonathan Dixon Mrs. Turner English II Honors 18/4/23 Title: Subtitle “Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction” (Wiesel). The Holocaust was a dark period in time, categorized by the discriminate genocide of many marginalized groups, most notably Jewish people. During this time, many chose to ignore the persecution of innocent people, deciding to instead turn a blind eye to the injustice happening with their knowledge. In “The Perils of Indifference”, Elie Wiesel uses pathos, rhetorical questions, and loaded words to emphasize the dangers of being blind to the suffering of others, using his own experience as a catalyst to do so.

Holocaust survivor and author of the novel, Night, Elie Wiesel in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” claims that indifference is not only a sin, but is an act of dehumanization. He begins to develop his claim by defining the word indifference, then enlightens the audience about his personal experiences living through the war, and finally asks the audience how they will change as they enter a new millennium. Wiesel’s purpose throughout his speech is to convince his audience not to be indifferent to those who were and are being treated cruelly and unjustly. He creates tones of guardedness , disappointment, abandonment, and hopefulness in order for his audience to see his perspective during the horrific times of the war.

In this portion of the book it is easy to imagine the nooses around the necks of the men and boy. Because readers can so clearly see the devastating scene, they will have a hard time forgetting about the brutal, unfortunate actions that took place during the Holocaust. Another time Elie Wiesel uses imagery is while the people of his neighborhood are being taken away to the concentration camps. People had left their houses along with their least important