Elie Wiesel's Quote Analysis

Good triumphs over evil because the prisoners never think to get revenge on the Nazis. In the last few pages of the book, Elie’s camp, Buchenwald, is liberated by the Americans. He explains what everyone does immediately following liberation and how no one speaks of violence towards the Nazi regime. “And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge. The next day, a few of the young men ran into Weimar to to bring back potatoes and clothes… But still no trace of revenge” (Wiesel 115).

Both speeches written by Elie Wiesel “The Perils of Indifference” and Martin Luther king Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” give rhetorical responses that contain the three elements ethos, pathos, and logos. Elie Wiesel focuses more pathos and logos to gain sympathy towards his audience in a logical way. He was a survivor of the Holocaust separated from his family through several concentration camps. His parents and his sister died while being separated but Wiesel is able to confidently talk about his experiences. Wiesel begins by thanking America for saving him but moves on in an angry fashion. He asks a rhetorical question about indifference; he explains it to be the lack of sympathy people have towards others and that people try and avoid others in need. This statement is using both pathos and logos by explaining his question, but you also sense the emotion of helplessness. Overall, he seemed abandoned by many people believing more could have helped instead of being bystanders. Wiesel wants to change how the world functions so that more people care about others. The next article by Martin Luther King Jr. “makes a case for civil disobedience and eloquently opposes the murderous status quo”. He explains his speech in a pathos and logos way as well by feeling taken advantage of and gives logical evidence to prove his argument. Martin was put into Birmingham Jail for being labeled as an extremist, however, he gives several points as to why the authorities were wrong. Instead

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 Holocaust changed the lives of many. Those that survived have many terrifying stories to tell. Many survivors are too horrified to tell their story because their experiences are too shocking to express in words. Eli Wiesel overcomes this fear by publicly relaying his survival of the Holocaust. "Night", his powerful and moving story, touches the hearts of many and teaches his readers a great lesson. He teaches that in a short span of time, the ways of the world can change for the worst. He wants to make sure that if the world didn't learn anything from hearing about the atrocities of the Holocaust, maybe they'll be able to learn something from Elie's own personal experience. Usually, a person can internalize a situation better

Elie Wiesel has given the listener a wonderful opportunity to feel the intense movement of his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”. His speech is centered around the need for vigilance in the face of evil. Throughout this speech, with which he moved so many, he shared his experience with being sent to Buchenwald, a concentration camp, the treacherous conditions in which they were living, and the way that indifference has separated human beings. He explained, that through anger and hatred a great poem or symphony can be written, because “One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses.” (Wiesel, 1999/16, p. 78). The three strategies that will be explored throughout this analysis are ethos, logos, and pathos.

As seen through the speech, Elie Wiesel is a strong believer of individual experiences; however, his questions arise about people’s indifference once his audience has heard of Wiesel’s traumatic experience. Often time, Wiesel uses rhetorical questions as a way to emphasize and sir thought. When asking, “Does it mean that we have learned from our past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human?” (Paragraph 21). Elie Wiesel demonstrates a self evaluation on the audience. The intended purpose, indifference within people, is openly enforced through self evaluation.

Elie Wiesel faces many conflicts throughout this memoir. In the memoir, Night, by Elie wiesel, Hitler works hard to eradicate the Jewish people. Fallaciously, he forces Jews into thinking they aren’t going to be harmed. Adolf Hitler houses all Jewish people in death camps for he is indignant and he needs revenge after the World War. Also, Hitler is being hypocritical because he says the only worthy people are Aryan people, but he isn’t even Aryan. He often instructs the Nazi Soldiers to make all Jewish people despondent about life. The Germans are to have no decorum with the Jews. They are told to starve, beat, and punish the prisoners. Throughout the story, Wiesel struggles with staying alive and with helping his father stay alive in aspiration

Elie Wiesel uses many different styles to present his main purpose, one of the most widely used is anaphora. He does this to help the audience further develop a context of the situations Wiesel went through as a child. Wiesel asserts, “ They no longer feel pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it,” this creates a reaction of the audience to feel sympathy for the “musselmanners” that were left to die, it also forces the audience to imagine the horrific details of Wiesel’s childhood. Furthermore, towards the end of his speech to change tones to appeal to the audience while he questions the American government on why they chose not to intervene. He then creates another tonal shift, patronizing

The 20th century was a time of brutal wars and eradication of joy. On April 12, 1999, Elie Wiesel stepped up to the podium, reflecting the violent times as they were months before entering a new century. Wiesel knew very well that the uncountable tragedies had to change, and each individual must exercise his or her own contributions in the face of justice and humanity. His devastating experiences and tragic realizations produced a voice that carried around the world, revealing the fundamental structure of humanity.

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.”

Many thoughts went through my mind while reading about Wiesel’s final experiences as a German prisoner. I felt pity and sadness for him. His last few days as a German prisoner were his most difficult. He lost his father, he went days without food and passed days out in the freezing cold. I was also impressed on how he fought through these events. Despite his exhaustion or hunger, he never surrendered his life. He found strength that he never knew he had and showed the readers how strong humans can be when their lives depend on it. If I could meet Elie Wiesel and discuss with him about his time during the war, I would want to tell him many things. I would tell him that the time he spent at the concentration camps made him the man he is today

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.

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

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.