Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech In The Millennium Speech By Elie Wiesel

When Elie Wiesel gave his millennium speech on April 12, 1999, he could not be aware of the future validity of both his words and warnings. Throughout the use of rhetorical questions, personal anecdotes, and historical evidence, Elie Wiesel challenges his audience, both present and future, to avoid falling prey to indifference. Throughout the speech, Weisel challenges his listeners through numerous thought-provoking questions. First, he asks the audience, “What will the legacy of this vanishing century be?” (3). The word “legacy” shows that the coming generation will suffer a sum of consequences due to the indifference those in the twentieth century. He then questions, “What is indifference?” (4). By definition, the word means “no difference.”

He says, “These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations,... so much violence; so much indifference.” (4). Indifference is shown by not only the people involved in these violent events, but also Wiesel’s audience as well, many clueless of these events. For one to fail to know and understand these events in order to stop and bring awareness to them is just as wrong as committing the event in the first place, according to Wiesel. One must also believe the event itself to escape the corruptive qualities of indifference. During the Holocaust, many did not believe what was happening and chose to then ignore it rather than do anything about it. The unaware audience and people in the 1940s thoroughly proves the corrosiveness of

Wiesel tells us that even though indifference is tempting and it is easy to look away and ignore the event at hand, doing so is no different from participating in the event. The things Elie Wiesel experienced during his time at Auschwitz is horrific, yet it seemed as nobody cared about the fact that millions of Jews were being killed due to indifference. The same goes for other events of history such as civil wars, assassinations, and the two World Wars: little recognize the wrongdoing and carry on with their lives. Indifference is the Black Plague of the twenty and twenty-first century: nobody knows what is causing the indifference, and we attempt to end it, but nothing