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How Does Elie Wiesel Use Ethos In The Perils Of Indifference

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The dangers of apathy were stressed by Wiesel in a 1999 address he gave at the White House titled The Perils of Indifference. According to the speech, "to keep quiet when injustices happen is to condone injustice and to undercut human rights everywhere." This statement shows that not stopping racial discrimination when you see it; means that you support it. With his Holocaust experience and the approaching future, Elie Wiesel expresses the need to stop indifference to provide future generations with renewed desire and promise.

Elie Wiesel emphasizes throughout "The Perils of Indifference" how choosing to ignore the suffering of others only produces more misery, more prejudice, and more grief—and it also imperils the very humanity of those who choose to do so. Wiesel also noted that in the …show more content…

Elie Wiesel addresses the audience by saying, "Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends," in an effort to get their attention. He also utilizes Ethos by referring to "my friends" to demonstrate how he is attempting to win the audience's trust.

One method of persuasion is pathos. It's intended to impact the audience's emotions when making an argument. When talking about his early years and his life, Elie Wiesel employs pathos. An example of a Patho is “so much violence, so much indifference.” This is considered a Patho because violence can affect others' emotions in many ways.

Logos is a rhetorical device based on reason and logic. In The Perils of Indifference, Wiesel limited his highly impassioned speech to mainly factual information, which may be quite challenging to accomplish when you were actually present for the incident. For example, when Elie says, "It is so much easier to look away from victims. This is an example of a logo because it is factual that it's more uncomfortable to help others that are victims of racial discrimination and

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Next, Elie Wiesel uses pathos.

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In the middle of Wiesel's plea to the government Logos began to appear in his words and effectively strengthened his tone and the assertiveness in his voice. “Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.

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Pathos is when the speech appeals to the audience’s emotions. President Abraham Lincoln uses pathos is this speech to console the audience for the losses that the country has endured during the Civil War. Lincoln uses pathos to convey sadness when he says, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” When saying this Lincoln appeals to the people’s emotions by explaining that their loved ones struggled there and he also appeals to the feeling of pride they feel for their loved ones who dedicated their lives to their cause. Another example of pathos in this speech is, “...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…”

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Pathos is used to get in touch with the emotions of the audience, it is usually used to make viewers think deeper about what they are hearing. Last, logos is related to logic and reasoning, this rhetoric states facts and backs them up. Presidential speeches are extremely important and should have a mixture of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in order to be successful. In order for citizens to trust someone in power, especially a president, they have to be trustworthy.

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American Jewish writer, and political activist Elie Wiesel, in his sympathetic speech “The Perils of Indifference” to send a strong message to the audience. As a survivor of the Holocaust, he supports his claim through his speech explaining the dangers of indifference from first hand experience. Specifically in his speech he refers to himself, “A young Jewish boy [..] woke up in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald”(par 1).. In addition, Wiesel use of rhetorical questions is for the audience to question or to think about indifference. Wiesel’s purpose is to warn people about indifference in order to “save” our future.

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Holocaust survivor and author of the novel, Night, Elie Wiesel in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” claims that indifference is not only a sin, but is an act of dehumanization. He begins to develop his claim by defining the word indifference, then enlightens the audience about his personal experiences living through the war, and finally asks the audience how they will change as they enter a new millennium. Wiesel’s purpose throughout his speech is to convince his audience not to be indifferent to those who were and are being treated cruelly and unjustly. He creates tones of guardedness , disappointment, abandonment, and hopefulness in order for his audience to see his perspective during the horrific times of the war.

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Elie wiesel once said, “ A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness”. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor. He gave a wonderful speech called “ The perils of indifference”. He delivered this speech at the white house in washington D.C hoping to encourage the audience to learn from the past. Elie wiesel builds an argument to persuade the people of the new generation that we can all learn and grow to be better in the new millennium.

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In the opening sentence of his speech, Wiesel demonstrates ethos when he addresses the audience. He says, “Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, friends:”(Eidenmuller). In this opening, he is addressing his audience before he begins his speech. This is an example of ethos because he addresses the audience as his friends. In doing this, he is making the audience equal to himself.

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In the “Perils of Indifference” speech Elie Wiesel persuades his readers to understand that no one should ever be judged for being different from others. During Wiesel's speech he was explaining when he woke up one morning close to an internal infamy called Buchenwald where he was free and no longer felt joy; he never would again. “In a way indifference to the suffering is what makes the human being inhuman.” This quote shows that Wiesel thinks that indifference is a sin, and that indifference is worse than hatred. Wiesel came from a place where society was composed of the killers, victims, and bystanders, of which he was a victim of indifference.

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Pathos control the emotions of an audience and evoke a certain feeling to persuade the crowd in this case. Finally, logos convince an audience using reasoning and logic. Antony expresses a variety of persuasive techniques throughout his entire speech and change the mindset of the commoners using ethos, pathos, and logos. In Marc Antony’s speech, he used to persuasive technique known as ethos.

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Elie Wiesel equalizes the environment and the audience to him by using phrases like "us." Wiesel is aware that by making them equal, he will not only increase his credibility but also their pity for the predicament. By repeatedly utilizing the pronoun "our," Wiesel establishes a sense of trust and camaraderie with the audience. He admits that everyone has made the error of turning a deaf ear and even admits that he has. His listeners must have noticed how cheese treats politicians the same as other members of the community.

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Indifference need to be gain awareness and be stopped. He develops his claim by narrating the dangers of indifference, and how it affected his life then, describes how wrongful it is to be treated in such a way. Finally Wiesel illustrates examples of how indifference affected the world. Wiesel’s purpose is to inform us about the dangers of indifference in order to bring change about it. He establishes a straightforward tone for the president, ambassadors, politicians, and congressmen.

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Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.

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In the speech, titled “The Perils of Indifference,” Elie Wiesel showed gratitude to the American people, President Clinton, and Mrs. Hillary Clinton for the help they brought and apprised the audience about the violent consequences and human suffering due to indifference against humanity (Wiesel). This speech was persuasive. It was also effective because it conveyed to the audience the understanding of

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Indifference is destructive and inhumane Indifference is defined by Elie Wiesel as lacking empathy or keeping silent while there is discrimination (Anthony, n.d.). He continues to say that indifference is a friend of the enemy because it benefits the aggressor and then disfavors the victims as they feel forgotten. There are two seemingly different speeches, one by Elie Wiesel a survivor of the Holocaust and another by Susan. B Anthony who spoke for women’s right, straight out a theme that the attitude of indifference is destructive and inhumane.

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