Rhetorical Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Speech

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.

Elie Wiesel shows great respect for America. He complements the soldiers, the first lady and the president. He informs us about how young he was and felt anger and rage towards the Nazis. He also notices the soldiers that saved him had great rage which translates to true compassion for one another. He gives us a great history lesson and who was indifferent especially towards how towns were miles away from the camps and did nothing about it. He impounded the heart breaking on how doing business with them until 1942 and we knew what was going on. He questions the indifference we had.

The author had many historical facts brought into his speech for backing up his facts, making a strong

backbone for the body of his speech. His facts alone can stand, but he adds tension makes the audience grasps towards what he was feeling. Many of his facts are found by his first hand experiences. He is also known for being a professor at Boston University and winning many awards for his books about the events he has been through.
He puts great emotion in the speech.

He moves the audience like a pendulum. He talks about the evil, compassion, indifference and hope. His pathos moved deep into the audience by questioning the history which returns made the audience question also. The argument of indifference, making people felt abandoned and forgotten didn’t really hit home until he added the phrase “All of us did.” He reminded the audience of the raw emotion of how all the Jewish people felt being in those camps for so long and nobody, not one person jumping to their aid. The speech would have less meaning coming from anyone who wasn’t a survivor of the Holocaust. Just a little sentence like that can feel sharper than a knife and leave a great reminder on why we should be

compassionate.
He seems to beautifully weave many different intentions to this speech. He uses it as a tool to teach the new millennium about past mistakes and should not be taken lightly. He defends the people who show compassion but attacks the people who are indifferent. He knows when to attack, but when to send compassion and hope in the message. The message he speaks is what indifference is and why we should avoid it.
The audience is made up of Americans who met on the white house grounds. The values of Americans are to their nation and how patriotic they are. This would appeal to the people who have been through the Holocaust to understand the great damage it caused by being indifferent. The secondary is for a younger audience. It’s for the new millennium to understand that with compassion we can do a lot and show fellow human beings that matter to instead of being reduced down to no meaning.
The speech has a real interesting hook by giving an image of a young Jewish boy witnessing what happened at the camp. He also bears witness to the rage on the soldier face showing the young boy's compassion. The compassion he believed left the world. He then goes back in forth from today’s America at the period he goes back explaining the indifference with past comparison. He uses solid facts on how we still used German supplies knowing that they had these camps. I feel like that alone made us reduces the people in the camp as nothing. That fact alone was solid enough to bring a strong tone to his speech. He spoke with great respect, but near the end asking why. Why as after we showed compassion a little too late in the event of history.
The tone of the speech he uses complements his form of content by making us feel sympathy and shame. The effect of his speech left a long lasting impression on America, leaving a legacy of indifference being wrong and standing for what’s right is better than looking away and letting evil triumph. The evidence that we have is that most countries believe we do too much meddling in situations that doesn’t even involve us. A lot of American feel like we put our noses into so many things that we shouldn’t. No matter if they are right or wrong, I am proud to see we show we care and willing to help others stand in the greater good.
The value of the message is not to be a bystander. We should stand up for the right thing and not let the evil win. It is easy to go on without lives and forget about what is happening to others, but you have to think what message you are sending to the others. Everyone has a purpose in life and if you are indifferent sooner or later they will feel worthless. What the world needs is compassion and tolerance for others without both can spark a feud leading to a war. The last thing we need is all good men being indifferent to discrimination.