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. Firstly, the speech serves the significance of looking back to the past, learning from the traumatic experiences and revealing the horrifying outcome of the
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.
Author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel in his emphatic speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” asserts the dangers that indifference brings to the world. He develops his message by explaining how being indifferent affects a person's emotions through imagery. For instance, in Wiesel’s speech, it states, “During the darkest of times… we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.” Furthermore, the use of repetition of the word “indifference” helps demonstrate the author’s personal view towards it and the importance of how it can negatively impact society. Ultimately, the use of rhetorical questions inspired vast amounts of thought about his message of speech to the audience. Wiesel’s purpose is to warn others to not be indifferent to victims of injustice and cruelty in order to bring a change to the world and accomplish compassion in the twenty-first century. He establishes a serious tone for the readers by using stylistic and rhetorical devices such as imagery, repetition, and rhetorical questions in order to develop his message that the inhumanity of indifference and the importance of resistance is still relevant today.
Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and successful writer and speaker. He’s written a very popular book, Night and speeches that also get Elie’s message across. While his book Night and his speech Perils of Indifference both illustrate indifference, it’s displayed in different ways. The effects, pain and suffering from the holocaust were described in the book and all this was due to indifference which was communicated through the speech. The two texts have common similarities, but also many differences as well.
“He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again”. This quote stated by Elie Wiesel from his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, refers to the day Elie Wiesel got liberated from the Holocaust when he was young. The Holocaust was just one of the many horrific tragedies that occurred during that century. In hopes of changing the future for the better, Wiesel decides to deliver a speech about helping the victims of injustice. He gives this speech intended for the President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, and friends hoping that they will make positive changes for the future. By using rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, rhetorical questions, and ethos, Wiesel tries to help the victims of injustice and prevent future tragedies from happening.
“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.
On April 12th 1999, in Washington D.C., Elie Wiesel gave a speech during the Millennium Lecture Series that took place in the East Room of the White House. The speech was given in front of Mr. Bill and Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and other officials. Elie Wiesel is an author most noted for his novel Night, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and political activist. In the speech he spoke on his view of indifference and explained how it was negatively affecting humanity and the nation as a whole. The Perils of Indifference was a speech that successfully used ethos, pathos, and logos to inform, persuade and inspire its audience on its views.
Indifference “elicits no response.” Indifference “is not a response.” Famous author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference” informs the audience about the dangers of indifference. He supports his claim by first giving a dictionary definition of indifference, then talking about his personal experiences and then about examples in history when we were indifference. Wiesel's purpose is to illustrate the dangers of indifference using his own personal experiences and historical examples in order to explain how terrible it is and to persuade us to do something about it. He establishes a serious, somber, and critical tone for the politicians in attendance of the Millennium Lecture Series, which is a series of cultural showcases that highlight the creativity and inventiveness of the ideas, art, and scientific discoveries.
Distinguished writer and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, discusses the effects indifference has on one’s humanity in both societal and individual terms. Wiesel’s purpose is to illustrate the plight of those who suffer because of indifference and to appeal to the audience's consciences. He adopts a sympathetic, haunting, and accusatory tone in order to convey to audiences that society had not learned from the past and many victims will continue to suffer injustices in this new millennium. Ultimately, through the means of syntax devices such as juxtaposition, anaphora, powerful diction, and rhetorical questioning, Weisel bolsters the supporting logic of his claim that indifference is a grave malady of humanity and to amend such an ailment one must look no further than the self. Wiesel’s comprehensive speech, “The Perils of Indifference” can be divided into three definitive sections: the contextualization of the suffering that occurs both past and present, an explication of “indifference”, and lastly Wiesel's earnest undertaking and rhetorical questioning of why we practice indifference.
On 1999, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish writer gave a magnificent speech about apathy. In this speech, Wiesel thanks his fellow supporters who helped him and his people when they were in danger. Wiesel talked about his own experiences and uses history that he knows and supports his concern about not taking action. He focuses on those who stay back and watch others take action, which they could as well. In the speech, he repeats a significant amount of words that have a purposeful meaning towards the reason of why being apathy is unacceptable. In Wiesel’s The Perils of Indifference speech, Wiesel influences the audience by appealing to their emotions with pathos, using anaphora
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
including apathy toward discrimination and ethnic cleansing. In Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech about his experienced imprisonment in concentration camps, he explained that people “must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”. According to Wiesel, someone who stands by and does nothing while another person suffers is just as guilty as the offender. Additionally, he states in his speech The Perils of Indifference that, “Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction”. A lack of compassion toward the victims of cruel treatment shows that they are of no concern. Prisoners