Elie Wiesel Quote Analysis

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in the text, “The Perils of Indifference,” uses numerous of effective rhetorical strategies in order to build his credibility and engage his audience. Wiesel’s purpose is to persuade his audience to denounce indifference and act to stop the suffering and intolerance that occurs around the globe. Throughout the text, Wiesel describes historical events during the Holocaust and how indifference allowed for suffering and injustices to continue. Nevertheless, Wiesel acknowledges with gratitude the efforts of America and the actions of the brave. Wiesel, with a hopeful tone, encourages change and undertaking to save sufferers from inhuman and woeful experiences. In “The Perils of

When responding to situations in life people must consider if doing so will benefit themselves or the people around them. In circumstances that demand quick thinking people often can not form a concrete decision based on how little information and time they have. In life people frequently must try to do so through their daily battles with the people around them as well as themselves.

The two poems “Never Shall I Forget” and “We Remember Them”, written by Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Sylvan Kamens, have their fair share of similarities and differences. These poems are both highly influenced by the Holocaust, the genocide of over 11 million people, 6 million of them being Jews, during World War II. In “Never Shall I Forget”, Elie Wiesel talks of his sufferings in a concentration camp and “We Remember Them” pass on the memory of those who died during the Holocaust. “Never Shall I Forget” and “We Remember Them” both have a shared theme of remembrance, but Elie Wiesel wrote of what he would rather forget than remember, whereas Rabbi Sylvan Kamens wrote of what he wishes to never forget.

Wiesel opens his speech with an appeal to ethos. He asserts, “Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends:”(Wiesel 1). By associating himself with people in power, Wiesel builds his credibility. Another excerpt from the speech is, “In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders”(Wiesel 3). Wiesel further establishes his reliability by showing that he has personal experience pertaining to the topic. This experience leads the audience to believe that he is a reliable source.

I honestly agree to what Elie Wiesel has to say, “when human lives are endangered when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Where ever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that pace must at the moment become the center of the universe.”

Wiesel uses pathos in the beginning of his speech, by using He instead of I; he is able to appeal to the emotion of the audience. Through his speech, the first thing he wants to be able to do is to get the crowd to comprehend his position in the situation. He lets the audience put themselves into his shoes, so that they can view his story from the same perspective. By using He, the audience is able to sympathize and mentally place themselves into the situation of the boy, but if he used first person, the audience would be keener to pity him and would feel some restriction when addressing opinion on the speech in fear of offending the speaker, which is not the affect Wiesel was going for. He wanted his story to impact the audience and allow them to feel what happened so they would allow for a change. By addressing it in third person, allows the audience to have no restrictions when it comes to their opinion an what they take away from it. They would put their selves in the character’s shoes, because the speaker addressing the issue would be doing the same.

The book Night opens in the town of Signet where Elie Wiesel, the author ,

Amel shook his head, sighing. He looked disappointed. I had finally quelled the happiness in him. Or, so I thought, until he gave me a small smile. "I'm sure living here for as long as you have has been taxing. The people here are so sad and violent, but they don't want to listen, Cerin. Hope, joy, and love... they don't have to hide very well here. There are so many distractions, so many fake things they tell themselves, that any virtue is easily covered up. God could give us so much food, we'd never ever starve, or so enough money for absolutely everyone to live in a nice house, or even heal all the sick and raise our dead loved ones, and we still wouldn't believe in Him. But He shouldn't even have to do any of that, He already made us, and

1.If you were stripped of your freedom and individuality to be held in a camp waiting to die would you feel indifferent. Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Boston University Professor, presented a speech as part of the Millennium Lecture Series at the White House on April 12, 1999 2.(Wiesel 221). President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton hosted the formal event. Numerous government officials from a wide order of public, private and foreign office attended the event 2.(Wiesel 221). Although Elie Wiesel designed his speech to persuade, it actually felt somewhat outside from its original intended purpose, as being more different.

Elie Wiesel, who was a Nobel-Prize winner who survived the Holocaust. He was born on September 30th, 1938 in Sighet Romania but sadly died July 2nd, 2016 at the age of 87. For many years he taught Judaic studies at a university and also served as a visiting scholar at Yale. Elie Wiesel became very famous for writing his books. He started to write because he wanted to write about how his experience was of the Holocaust. His father's liberal expression judaism and spiritual beliefs of his grandmother also influenced him. Loss of religious faith is what Elie based all his books on. The Holocaust made many lives stop believing the Jew religion but some continued (biography.com). Elie Wiesel influenced the society and promoted the understanding

Elie Wiesel once said, “...Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political view, that place must -at that moment-becomes the center of their universe”. Wiesel’s perspective is correct because not a lot of people understand the importance of being equal.

Some people decide to take different stand points in an argument and some decide to stay neutral. Is it better to choose whether to be an oppressor, victim, or to be neutral? Elie Wiesel once swore to never be silent and to speak up when humanity was suffering, to take a stand and choose a facet because neutrality would favor the oppressor causing the victim to be tormented. He explains how when people do not take a valid standpoint for what is right that the tormentor does not see what they are doing wrong since no stands are being taken. I personally agree with Wiesel, people should not have to suffer because the people of the society do not want to take a stand and subsist silence. If communities were being tormented they would want someone

“Light can be found in even the darkest of times, if only one remembers how to turn on the light” - Albus Dumbledore from J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” Like J.K Rowling, Elie Wiesel and Edgar Guest use imagery to reveal how they feel about the experiences they went through.

Award winning novelist, Holocaust survivor, human rights activist, Elie Wiesel in his influential speech, ‘ The Perils of Indifference,” emphasizes that indifference is a tempting yet inhumane quality that affects the success our new centuries to come. He develops this message by looking back upon the horrific memories of his Holocaust experience as well as looking back upon the countless assassinations, and wars that have created this “ dark shadow over humanity.” The memories of being “liberated” by “American Soldiers” cause him to see the pain and suffrage of many but allow him to have “gratitude” towards the “American People.” Wiesel mentions how indifference is  “seductive” and “tempting” because it is the easier to not be involved in another person’s “pain and despair.” Wiesel’s purpose is to warn readers about the corruption of indifference in order to influence change in the new centuries to come. He creates a critical tone for readers by using stylistic devices and rhetorical devices such as imagery, repetition, and pathos in order to truly develop his message that inhumanity and indifference are very similar things that affect us in the same way.

“Never again" becomes more than a slogan: It's a prayer, a promise, a vow. There will never again be hatred, people say. Never again jail and torture. Never again the suffering of innocent people, or the shooting of starving, frightened, terrified children. And never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence. It's a prayer. (Elie Wiesel in Hostage)