Brief outline:
Introduction: Quote from Weisel
“ In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman.” (Weisel)
Summarize speech
Reason 1- Share his story
Reason 2- Warn of the issues and harm indifference can bring
Reason 3- Remind the world to stay open to avoid becoming jaded and be open to compassion.
Thesis- Elie Weisel argued his stance on indifference, successfully to his audiences, utilizing pathos, ethos, and logos.
Paragraph Two: Pathos
Example One: He is a survivor of the Holocaust
Details He was taken prisoner as a young teenager
Example Two: Describes prisoners call “musselmanors” who had given up.
Details: He tells that they no longer felt, anything.
Example three: The prisoners deemed themselves
An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.
In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the author displays the transformation and the evolution of the average human being, through a horrible experience that he personally went through. When he is transported from one place to another, forced to leave everything behind, to go live in the ghettos, then in a horrible concentration camp. In the concentration camp Elie experiences numerous events that challenges his physical and mental limits. Some of these events made him question his faith, and whether there is such a thing as God, turning him from a conservative Jew to a reform Jew. Elie doesn’t love the concentration camps, yet he doesn’t hate it, in fact he does not care anymore. At a conference in 1986 Elie explains “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference”. (Elie Wiesel), meaning that opposite of love is not hate, it’s getting used to use to the situation, to the point that the person doesn’t care whether what is happening is right or wrong. In the novel Elie experience physical, mental, and spiritual pain, that test his humanity and morality.
Speeches are given for a purpose. Whether it is for persuasion, or education, or even entertainment, they all target certain parts of people’s minds. This speech, The Perils of Indifference, was given by Elie Wiesel with intention to persuade his audience that indifference is the downfall of humanity, and also to educate his audience about his conclusions about the Holocaust and the corresponding events. He was very successful in achieving those goals. Not only was the audience enlightened, but also President Bill Clinton, and the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, themselves were deeply touched by Wiesel’s words.
In the eyes of Elie Wiesel, author of Night, indifference whether it be in relationship abuse or another problem, is mentally damaging and needs to be eliminated. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel illustrates how indifference can harm the mind of the victim when he says, “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live,” (Night 34). In this, Wiesel is speaking of his first night in Auschwitz. When he mentions silence he is referring to the indifference that the Jews in concentration camps faced from the rest of the world. Wiesel refers to that night as the time he lost his desire to live because he saw so much indifference toward the suffering of the inmates and the horrific things that were happening to them. After this, his desire to stay alive was destroyed because he watched as the world stood by, indifferent to the senseless murder of millions. Throught this, Wiesel illustrates that indifference will impact people for the rest of their lives. Because indifference
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
Strength of Argument: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Bell Hooks’s essay, "Keeping Close to Home", uses three important components of argument (ethos, pathos, and logos) to support her claim. Hooks develops her essay by establishing credibility with her audience, appealing to the reader’s logic, and stirring their emotions. She questions the role a university should play in the life of a nation, claiming that higher education should not tear a student away from his roots, but help him to build an education upon his background. Bell Hooks gains the trust and credibility of readers through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing common ground with the audience, and demonstrating fairness.
To the people in the concentration camps, apathy is a “harsher punishment” (Wiesel) than anger or rage, because anger has feelings in it, while indifference just makes a suffering person feel even smaller and more insignificant. Indifference in humans potentially goes against religion, because it blurs the lines between “light and darkness” (Wiesel). Throughout his speech at the Millennium Lectures, Elie Wiesel both enlightens on the consequences of apathy towards those who need help, and inspires hope for a better future.
Logos: The request to “stop the raids and deportations” is the logos in this figure because parents of legal U.S. citizens are being reported daily due to raids done by the police. Ethos: The evidence of this image are the unauthorized immigrants themselves protesting because some of their family members have been deported or have deportation orders. Moreover, the picture in the poster that shows the little girl being taken away to be deported is another evidence.
From being a bystander of bullying to committing murder are many ways of being indifferent. It is everywhere in everyday life in prospering countries and in poor and destroyed countries. Elie Wiesel knows how indifference feels and how it affects people. He was also indifferent and regrets what he did to this day. He was a victim of the Holocaust and lived through indifference. During his imprison ship he saw indifference everywhere in the camps. How he treated his father is what he regrets. He just cared about himself because another prisoner told him to. He believes his father died because he did not help him all he could. His whole book could be based on indifference if you interpreted it that way. From how the guards treated the prisoners to how kids including Elie treated their own parents. Indifference is a very big topic and a part of Night. Indifference is what pushed him to write his descriptive, emotional, strong, and outstanding novel.
One rhetorical feature that Elie Wiesel uses effectively is pathos. By including the story of the young boy and his journey, the audience gets a sense of somberness about the events that took place and the situations the Jews were put into. When the young boy says, “Tell me, what have you done with my future? What have you done with your life?” he is questioning Wiesel about the impact he has made in the world. Those questions make the audience wonder what they have done to help the oppressed and all those who have perished. This part of the speech makes the audience feel a sense of grief so strong, that they are moved to help him in his fight against the people who have forgotten and the people who have stayed silent.
In “The Perils of Indifference” Elie Wiesel uses several techniques to get his point across. Three of them in the speech are Ethos, Repetition, and Pathos. He uses a combination of the three elements throughout the paragraphs of his speech to attract the readers. The combination of these elements help draw the reader’s emotions and interest towards his subject. He focuses on word choice that would pertain to his audience’s level of vocabulary.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “There Comes a Time when People get Tired” is more persuasive when compared to Robert F. Kennedy’s Eulogy for Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Pathos and logos used in MLK Jr.’s speech. MLK Jr. uses pathos to tell his audience that their peaceful protest is lawful and acceptable. He uses logos when he explains situations in his speech, whereas Robert F. Kennedy mostly uses pathos in his speech. He uses his own emotion to try and tell people that there is a problem with segregation and while you can tell someone your feelings doesn’t mean that they are going to share them. Specific events are talked about in MLK Jr.’s speech, events such as the Montgomery bus boycott, the Rosa Parks incident, that started the boycott,
”Lie down on it! On your belly! I obeyed. I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. One! Two! He took time between the lashes. Ten eleven! Twenty-three. Twenty four, twenty five! It was over. I had not realized it, but I fainted” (Wiesel 58). It was hard to imagine that a human being just like Elie Wiesel would be treating others so cruelly. There are many acts that Elie has been through with his father and his fellow inmates. Experiencing inhumanity can affect others in a variety of ways. When faced with extreme inhumanity, The people responded by becoming incredulous, losing their faith, and becoming inhumane themselves.
Having an opinion and or a belief is better than not having one at all. A great man such as Elie Wiesel would agree to that statement. He believes standing up for what is right by showing compassion for a fellow human being than for letting good men do nothing while evil triumphs. The message he passes was how indifference is showing the other man he is nothing. He attempts to grasp the audience by personal experiences and historic failures, we need to learn from and also to grow to be the compassionate human being we all are.
On the third Monday in January, we celebrate a man who helped change the course of history in the way people treat others who are different than them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American clergyman and civil rights leader for who was made famous by the glorious speech “I Have a Dream”. (Norton 1152) In this speech, he spoke of a future where Caucasians and African Americans would no longer be segregated and to not be judged by the color of our skin but to be known together as equal. During his speech, whether he did it purposely or accidently, he used rhetorical devices to help deliver his message to his audience. In the speech, Dr. King used ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to his audience in an ethical, logical and emotional