The Analysis of Elie Wiesel's Speech 'The Perils of Indifference'

Talking about the pathos, ethos, and logos in this speech. Elie Wiesel talks about indifference, how from his experience indifference is a major issue that we have as people. The lack of concern that we have for others is terrible. Elie gives lots of examples of events that have been shaped by indifference.

If we would have started helping the Jews earlier then we probably could have saved countless lives. He was part of a Millennium Lecture series and it was hosted by Bill Clinton and the First Lady. This series included Stephen Hawking, Poets Laureate, and others. The speech was about how things go wrong when people don’t take a stand. Bad things happen when we let them happen and don’t do anything to stop them from happening. The reason for this speech is that this is something that has bothered him since he was in the concentration camps. U.S. government let the Germans take the Jews and send them to the concentration camps, because to the U.S. this wasn’t our fight until the Germans bombed Perl Harbor. The audience was a small gathering at the white house, but the speech was streamed live on the internet and was broadcasted on tv. This speech focuses on the topic of the indifference of the people, how the government could do a lot, but they don’t take a stand until we are forced to take a stand, we don’t take a stand until something happens to use then we must take a stand.

Indifference is when the concern for something or someone becomes less than it should be. When the lines of good and evil, just and unjust become blurred when people start thinking less of what’s right and more about themselves not concerning themselves on how their actions could have affected other people. Peoples lack of attention or lack of caring leads to things like the Holocaust. An example of the injustice and indifference that Elie is talking about is a case that he speaks on when “sixty years ago, its human cargo-maybe 1,000 Jews-was turned back to Nazi Germany”. The indifference that he is talking about is when something must affect you in some way for you to help a person in need. Saying sorry you are a Jew and you’re in trouble and need help but I’m not a Jew and the Nazi’s did nothing to me so I’m not going to get involved.

Claims that Elie makes is claims about indifference what should be wrong, but we think of it as none of our concern. When he says “these failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations-Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin-bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria…”. He goes on and on listing out events that have taken place over the last 20th century of things that were caused by so much anger and so much indifference. How if people would take a minute and think of how their decision or lack of concern could affect others, how much of an impact that little thought of concern would have on the others around you. Elie’s claims are that we need to not just pass something or someone off as unimportant just because we think it is. We need to feel more concerned about our actions, and what the effects of our actions may be on others.

I found that Elie’s speech was very influential, and he talked on a topic that needed to be addressed. I thought that his speech was persuasive because it is a common problem that people have, deciding that something isn’t important because it doesn’t affect them. He was a very good person to tell this speech because he was directly affected by indifference and he saw firsthand how much lack of concern people actually have. He saw how big of an issue indifference is. I thought that this was a very good speech, I also thought that it was easier to understand Elie’s speech when he was giving it not reading it on paper. I loved hearing the emotion that he told the speech with.

References

• Elie Wiesel: The perils of indifference [webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiesel.htm. Accessed 3 March 2019.
• White House Millennium Council 2000 [webpage]. Retrieved from https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/Initiatives/Millennium/evenings.html. Accessed 3 March 2019.