During the unjust times of the holocaust, thousands of Jews were being tortured and killed as the world stayed silent. In Elie Wiesel’s “Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance” speech, Wiesel shares the horrendous and unjust times of the holocaust and the impact on how nobody decided to speak up. As a quiet survivor of the labor camps Wiesel had first hand experience on the silence all the Jews encountered during the unjust times of the holocaust. Through the use of the rhetorical appeals ethos and pathos, supported by the figurative techniques of anaphora and motif, Wiesel persuades the audience to use their voices against any form of injustice.
Through the use of ethos, supported by the figurative technique of anaphora, Wiesel persuades the audience
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As Wiesel is explaining to the audience that he will never stay, “silent”(7) wherever there is an unjust act or time, he makes the simple word into a strong symbolic symbol. The audience can feel an emotional connection to a symbolic word if it has enough background to support itself. The audience is emotionally persuaded by the showing that the world stayed silent during the holocaust. The use of motif can persuade the audience into feeling an emotional connection making them want to speak for unjust acts. As Wiesel is trying to persuade the audience that “silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”(7), he is showing the impact of the word silence, leading to the symbolic meaning of silence. The audience is shown the impact of a simple word and the big outcome it can have. The audience is then persuaded by the impact of the motif and develops an emotional connection to the symbolized phrase. The use of ethos supported by motif leads to the emotional connection of the audience and furthermore the persuasion of speaking up towards unjust acts. To connect the audience emotionally, leading to the persuasion of using their voices against unjust acts, Wiesel uses motif to support the use of