Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Speech: The Perils Of Indifference

In April 1999, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel addresses the President, First Lady, several members of the government, and the American public with a speech titled “The Perils of Indifference.” He provides examples of indifference during World War II. Similarly, he reasons why indifference in the future has the potential to cause disaster. As the country turns its back on people, a multitude of victims suffer. Wiesel feels the responsibility to spread awareness as he personally felt the effects of indifference.

A quarrel is better than a cold war, and we better remind ourselves the situations that we choose to be indifference toward our friends and families. Elie Wiesel urges people to face their own indifference, addressing that indifference denies the humanity of victims. This whole speech is based on the ethos of Wiesel, conveying the message that he himself symbolizes humanity. Wiesel refers to his own experience during the Holocaust, the most infamous and evil event in history.

The Perils of Indifference Pg443- q.1-4 on pg447 Questions A) The meaning of this word ? he? is that he is using the third person for something that was about him. He starts his essays by telling the story of a young boy; the readers do not know who this boy is, this will make them curious, it will draw the attention.

Holocaust survivor and author, Elie Wiesel in his thought-provoking speech, The Perils of Indifference, maintains the idea that indifference is dangerous and inhuman. He develops his message through the use of imagery, rhetorical questions, and anecdotes. Wiesel’s purpose is to warn readers of the danger that comes with indifference in order to instill a sense of urgency in the readers so that they can avoid indifference. He establishes a serious yet hopeful tone for readers by using stylistic devices such as imagery, metaphor, and rhetorical questions in order to develop his message that indifference is the most dangerous and inhuman thing known to man.

In “The Perils of Indifference” a speech given from a holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel discussed the issues society had during World War 2 associated with insouciance. The speech revolved around the world coming to a new millennium, and he asked “what will the legacy of this vanishing century be?” This allows him to directly bring the topic of indifference into the equation quite brilliantly. He begins with his stories of prisoners sitting in Auschwitz that felt nothing, “They were dead and did not know it.” He states that indifference is the friend of the enemy.

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

Another reason why one might not take action is the bystander effect. The bystander effect is when someone do not offer to help someone when other people are

Elie Wiesel Rhetorical Speech Analysis Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and winner of a Nobel peace prize, stood up on April 12, 1999 at the White House to give his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”. In Wiesel’s speech he was addressing to the nation, the audience only consisted of President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, congress, and other officials. The speech he gave was an eye-opener to the world in his perspective. Wiesel uses a variety of rhetorical strategies and devices to bring lots of emotion and to educate the indifference people have towards the holocaust. “You fight it.

An example could be how the world ignored the Jewish people as they cried for help. In my opinion i believe that yes we were the bystanders in this situation. They asked us to try and help them seek refutation, but we turned our heads in the opposite direction, wanting someone else to help them out. I can learn not to turn my back when someone needs me, and try to figure out how to help, rather than hope someone else take care of it. Before when i would see someone on the street asking for money I wouldn 't give them any, only because I felt they got themselves in that situation they deserve to be where they are.

Does humanity have too much conflict in the world due to indifference? What will the legacy of the 20th century be, and what had the most impact on it? In the speech “The Perils of Indifference” given by Elie Wiesel, he explains how we as a country overcame many obstacles but have yet to know what the legacy is. Indifference plays a major role in society, and is something we don’t want to overpower our world. Indifference has taught us many lessons, but can we learn from them?

Indifference is the lack of interest, concern, or sympathy for a subject. It is one of the many problems man suffers from today. Both Niemoller and Wiesel’s works talk about indifference. They discuss apathy, about the lack of interest for your fellow man. Niemoller 's poem, “First they Came…” and Wiesel’s speech, “The Perils of Indifference” are quite similar in terms of the message.

The participants were set to wait in a room alone, with a friend, with a passive confederate, or with a stranger. They then heard a woman in an adjoining room fall and cry out in pain. The results showed there was no difference between the helping behavior when alone or with a friend, but its likelihood dropped when with a stranger and was lowest when with a passive confederate. The interpretation of the result was consistent with previous laboratory studies: Helping behavior decreased in large groups. This was explained using the concept of diffusion of responsibility in which the outcome is diffused, or spread, among many people.

Robert Niemoller’s poem, “First They Came…”, and Elie Wiesel’s speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, both deal with the fact that indifference has many consequences. However, there are some clear differences between the two. While each work uses literary devices to portray its message, they use different devices to portray different messages. Niemoller uses anaphora, pauses, and mesodiplosis to convey a regretful, hopeless tone, and Wiesel uses parallelism, rhetorical questions, and juxtaposition to convey a more hopeful tone. Niemoller’s poem

Such possible effects can be divided into 5 categories, the: noticing of the emergency (or acknowledgment of an emergency), interpretation, degree of responsibility (which the helper will have to undertake by interfering), form of assistance (or how can they help) and finally the implementation of the actions, which might lead to the helping outcome. Although these are considered to be the main affecting factors, they also rely on several conditions. If we take the second stage, the interpretation, we can find the different factors that determine if the overall outcome is going to be helping or abstaining from help. One of the main factors is social influence, the effect of this was demonstrated in the same “smoke” study. When presented with the emergency the subjects, after seeing that others payed no attention to the smoke entering the room, in five out of eight groups involved chose to completely ignore the potentially dangerous situation and not report it, even when the smoke got to the point where it impaired their vision and caused some coughing.

Furthermore, our society may think that someone will be the one to stand out and help that person that needs our help or would they be like everyone else and ignore the situation? What is bystander apathy? Bystander apathy is a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. Why