Rhetorical Analysis: The Perils Of Indifference

Writer, Elie Wiesel in his metaphorical speech “The perils of Indifference” argues that the future will never know the agony of the Holocaust and they will never understand the tragedy of the horrific terror in Germany. Wiesel wants people to not let this happen but at the time many modern genocides that are occurring and people shouldn’t be focused on just the Holocaust, they should focus on making this world a better place; moreover, Wiesel expresses his thoughts about all the genocides that has happen throughout the years. He develops his message through in an horrifying event that took place 54 years ago the day “ The perils of Indifference” was published. Wiesel illustrates the indifferences of good vs evil. He develops this message

He was finally free, no joy filled his heart but abandonment was drowning it. How dangerous is indifference to humankind as it pertains to suffering and the need for conscience understanding when people are faced with unjust behaviors? Elie Wiesel is an award winning author and novelist who has endured and survived hardships. One of the darkest times in history, a massacre of over six million Jews, the Holocaust and Hitler himself. After the Holocaust he went on and wrote the internationally acclaimed memoir “Night,” in which he spoke out against persecution and injustice across the world. In the compassionate yet pleading speech, ¨Perils of Indifference,¨ Elie Wiesel analyzes the injustices that himself and others endured during the twentieth century, as well as the hellish acts of the Holocaust through effective rhetorical choices.

The Perils of Indifference speech by Elie Wiesel is one that is well crafted and that sends a strong message to the audience. Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, addresses the issues of the 20th century in his speech while at the same time explaining the dangers of indifference. Wiesel’s appeals to his audience, as well as his strong message and arguments are what make this speech so effective.

Elie Wiesel’s speech falls into the deliberative genre category, and was designed to influence his listeners into action by warning them about the dangers indifference can have on society as it pertains to human atrocities and suffering. The speech helped the audience understand the need for every individual to exercise their moral conscience in the face of injustice. Wiesel attempts to convince his audience to support his views by using his childhood experience and relating them to the harsh realities while living in Nazi Death Camps as a boy during the Holocaust. He warns, “To be indifferent to suffering is to lose one’s humanity” (Wiesel, 1999). Wiesel persuades the audience to embrace a higher level of level moral awareness against indifference by stating, “the hungry children, the homeless refugees-not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope, is to exile them from human memory”. Wiesel’s uses historical narrative, woven with portions of an autobiography to move his persuasive speech from a strictly deliberative genre to a hybrid deliberative genre.

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 questions and asks that even though people see photos, are aware and feel empathy for what is what is occurring around the world, why don’t they just do something? “Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences” (Perils of Indifference)? Though that the holocaust has supposedly taught the world the responsibility of prevent, have we all really learned that? He also wanted to convey that indifference is worse than any other feeling such as hate. “Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction” (Perils of Indifference). Indifference is when solicitude is missing which indicates that there is a lack of awareness. Elie believes indifference is worse than hate because it implies that someone’s suffering isn’t worth rumination and consideration. The inhumanity that was put upon the Jews could have been stopped if people cared enough to take action against the Germans. Both messages are relevant and matter because they

“The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, explains the true and utter horror of indifference. There is a clear emphasis on the morality exhibited in the act as well as the disappointment in the US government’s ability to respond to such a horrible act. It is obvious that Wiesel establishes tones of morality, condescendingness, and caution through diction, imagery, as well as syntax used in the speech. Although Wiesel describes how indifference has a massive effect on the victims even though by the very nature, bystanders do nothing. Indifference itself shows lack of regard for those in need and that can be perceived as morally lacking, which Wiesel condemns in the highest degree.

“Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end.” (American Rhetoric). This is a sentiment that Elie Wiesel pushes throughout his speech, The Perils of Indifference. Elie Wiesel was a Romanian born, Jewish writer, and was a survivor of the holocaust (Berger). In his speech, The Perils of Indifference, he discusses how indifference has hurt him, and everyone throughout the world. In this speech Wiesel uses appeals to pathos to make his argument effective. Examples are scattered across the speech to make it more appealing, and provide real world context for what he is arguing about. The last of the rhetorical choices the speaker makes is definition, in this speech Wiesel defines indifference, and uses this definition to prove why indifference hurts people. In Elie Wiesel’s speech, The Perils of Indifference, he argues that indifference hurts people, and his argument is effective by using various rhetorical choices.

Wiesel is effective with his speech by connecting exaggeration within his revelation. He questions the guilt and responsibility for past massacres, pointing specifically at the Nazi’s while using historical facts, such as bloodbaths in Cambodia, Algeria, India, and Pakistan to include incidents on a larger level such as Auschwitz to provide people with a better idea (Engelhardt, 2002). He is effective in putting together the law and society’s need for future actions against indifference by stating, “In the place I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killer, the victims, and the bystanders” 7.(Wiesel 223).

Noble peace prize winner, Elie Wiesel delivered a powerful speech on April 12, 1999. The Perils of Indifference plays a crucial role in the way people envisioned the Holocaust. Wiesel serves as an evidence of the mass murder at the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. To convey what he experienced during World War II, Wiesel delivered The Perils of Indifference at the Millennium Evening in Wahington DC. To make his speech effective, Wiesel uses appeals and rhetorical devices such as Pathos, and repetition. He also uses anecdotes and diction to get the attention of his audience.

Writer, Elie Wiesel in his moving speech, “The Perils of Indifference” asserts that indifference is dangerous and recognized as inhumane. Wiesel supports his message through the emphases of the darkness behind indifference. For instance, the definition for indifferent is identified as “A strange and unnatural state” or “lines blur between light and darkness, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, and good and evil.”(pg 1, par. 6) Which helps emphasize the need for awareness to end indifference in order for generations to protect their future. In addition, Wiesel aims to recognize how further generations can never fix mistakes, but only learn from them. The author’s purpose is to inform today’s audience, and future generations, how indifference is the worst possible feeling; therefore, individual understand how this could be a possible risk. He creates a informative tone for readers by using stylistic devices such as foreshadowing, similes, and alliteration in order to achieve his message that defines the effects of indifference so we can stop a series of unfortunate events from happening. Wiesel’s message about the inhumanity of indifference and the importance of resistance is still relevant today.

Elie Wiesel—a Holocaust survivor and award-winning human rights activist—passionately gave his speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” while in the White House on April 12, 1999. The speech was part of the Millennium Lecture series, which was hosted by President Bill Clinton and his wife. Mrs. Hilary Clinton introduced Elie as well, saying: "It was more than a year ago that I asked Elie if he would be willing to participate in these Millennium Lectures...I never could have imagined that when the time finally came for him to stand in this spot and to reflect on the past century and the future to come, that we would be seeing children in Kosovo crowded into trains, separated from families, separated from their homes, robbed of their childhoods, their memories, their humanity." Indeed, the events in Kosovo created an effective environment that Wiesel could use to tell the audience about some of his experiences during the Holocaust and to communicate why humanity must fight against the evil of indifference.

Political activist and author, Eliezer Wiesel in his frank speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” asserts that being indifferent, or turning one’s back to an issue is just as dangerous as perpetrating the crime, if not more harmful. He develops his message by defining indifference, listing the consequences of indifference, and persuading the audience to take note and step in. In defining the word indifference, Wiesel makes it so his audience is able to connect the word to the Holocaust and also events that were currently happening, making the issue feel more personal and relevant. He describes it as “tempting” and “seductive,” giving an excuse for why indifference in history keeps reappearing, despite humanity’s suffering every time. In like manner, Wiesel also reveals how it has played a crucial role in the Holocaust and in people’s lives, much like his own; he highlights the fact that the victim’s “pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten,” and describes the hopelessness of the people who endure mass genocides. He ends his speech with hopeful tones, asking the audience to call attention to indifference and use it’s effects on history to learning and progress into a future where people are “punished” or “forgotten,” just as he has learned and gained hope from his younger self that has been with him through years. Wiesel’s purpose is to warn against indifference in order to elicit reactions and hope in spite of history’s heavy events. He creates a cautionary tone for

American Jewish author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel in his critical speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” suggests his message about the inhumanity of indifference and how the importance of resistance is still relevant today. He develops his message by emphasizing how indifference is not only dangerous, but is the most evil characteristic of our society today. For example, Wiesel states in paragraph 13, “Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.” These truthful words assist in understanding the author’s emphasis on indifference and its danger in our world; to add on, Wiesel also uses rhetorical questions throughout the text to highlight powerful and important users of indifference during the time period which he lived in. A question from the speech in paragraph 20 is, “Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims?” This line in the text exemplifies his belief that indifference is human nature if we do not rid ourselves of it. In brief, the author explains how indifference is tempting in society because of the degree of effort one puts into being indifferent, which is little to none. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform the readers why indifference is inhumane and to create awareness of indifference in order to persuade those readers not to be indifferent to others. He establishes both serious and thankful tones for readers by using stylistic and/or rhetorical device such as repetition and imagery in order to develop his