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Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Perils Of Indifference

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The speeches “Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel and Barack Obama’s Presidential nomination speech both use rhetorical strategies. They use these to persuade the audience to agree with their opinions. ”Perils of indifference” by Elie Wiesel persuades the audience to stop being indifferent because it is dangerous. In Barack Obama’s Presidential nomination speech, he persuades the audience to make America a better place. While these speeches both use different rhetorical strategies Elie Wiesil has the stronger argument because of his use of rhetorical questions and pathos. Elie Wiesel uses Rhetorical Questions to show the dangers of indifference. In “Perils of Indifference” lines 23-25 ,”What will the legacy of the vanishing century be? How …show more content…

An example of this is on lines 79-83 in “Perils of Indifference” it states, “The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refuges - 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. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.” To summarize this quote, All of these people were suffering but were not helped. Humanity ignored them. They could have helped but didn’t ,therefore; humanity betrayed them. From this it could be inferred that Wiesel uses pathos because he wants to explain the pain the people in the holocaust felt. He wants to show how humanity caused that pain because of their indifference. Wiesel makes the audience feel guilty so they stop indifference. The author states in lines 172-75 ,”He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.” Wiesel is basically saying how his younger self is still with him. Also how they both look towards a new beginning with fear people will continue to be indifferent, but also with hope that humanity will change. He uses pathos because it makes people feel sad for the indifference Wiesel was shown. But his words also give hope which makes the audience happy and trustful of

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