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Rhetorical Analysis Of Night By Elie Wiesel

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The overall purpose of Wiesel’s speech was to emphasize the danger of indifference and the importance of compassion. He has made this compelling to the reader through his use of devices such as pathos, and by calling us, the readers and listeners, to take action, warning us that passivity is itself a choice. Wiesel’s prime exigence is his experience in the Holocaust, where ‘a Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night’ (118). This boy is a symbol; a version of himself separated and personified as another victim, lost to the horrors of the Holocaust. He is Wiesel’s naivety, his innocence, and his youth, and now Wiesel’s duty to remember. For the young Jewish Boy, Moishe the Beadle was the only one able to warn him. However, as the world did …show more content…

Wiesel must take it upon himself to ensure such human suffering is not repeated, that his warning will be heard and the world will take action. As he speaks about the horrors of the Holocaust, he makes sure to establish that “the world did know and remained silent”-- it was not ignorance that cost millions of lives, but apathy; silence. He continues, telling the listener “we must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (118). He maintains the motif of silence tied to death and terror, adding to the theme of the integrity of dissidence, a call to action. His audience is the world: future and present generations. He is not making a broad statement that ‘people’ must take action, but us; the listener and even himself, both contained in the subject ‘we’. He conveys this through his address to the audience and the context of the year, writing that in 1986 “more people are oppressed than free,” begging the question “how can one not be sensitive to their plight?” (119). He uses the example of the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela who fought against the system of apartheid in South Africa, reminding us that human suffering is ever present, and must be stopped through action and compassion, not averting one’s

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