“How is there so many bad things happening in the world and the world staying absolutely quiet?” This is a common question that many people often ask and never truly know the full answer. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel speaks of a similar situation, however he asks his question indirectly to the whole world, as a sort of question that is not really being stated obviously but reading between the lines. Wiesel realizes that the world does not see the pain of others because the world is selfish, however some people do see the pain and try to help. Many terrible things happen in our world today and so many people do not see the pain and suffering of others but merely focus on themselves and their own well-being. When Wiesel first walks into the gates of Birkenau he says to himself an obvious point that desperately needed to be stated in …show more content…
Elie Wiesel stated that he believed that if people could only see the damage that was being done then they would be willing to help. “…I told him that I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes” (33). Even though Elie was watching people being burned alive he still believed that even though the world was silent something had to be taking place somewhere in order to stop this terrible, non-necessary pain that these hate filled people were causing. He believed that somewhere something was happening to stop these deaths. Even though we cannot see that people are taking charge and trying to help this world we call home, it is happening. Asking why a person does not do anything is crazy because many people who do get asked this questions are the type of people who are doing something to better our world. However, their little acts can only be seen so
Wiesel can neither justify nor comprehend the inhumane atrocity he endured during his enslavement, however discovers brutality becomes a way of life to outlive the Holocaust.
Wiesel’s inclusion of this quote shows readers that he was appalled by the inhuman prisoners and concentration camp leaders. One of the reasons for Wiesel becoming so traumatized by the evils of humanity is his prior belief that people would help each other in times of need. Halperin writes, “Before coming to Auschwitz, Eliezer had believed that twentieth-century man was civilized. He had supposed that people would try to help one another in difficult times; certainly his father and teachers had taught him that every Jew is responsible for all other Jews” (Halperin 33). Convinced that people were kind and that Jews would help one another, Wiesel was greatly disappointed after coming to a tragic realization in the concentration camps. Wiesel was robbed, pushed, beaten, and betrayed by his fellow Jews at the camps. Contrary to his prior belief that Jews should be working together, the other Jews invested in themselves. They cared, solely, about their own well being. In including the evils of the other prisoners, Wiesel is able to show readers that due to the lack of innocence within the concentration camps, it was inevitable for him to lose his
Yet those who did not accept their fate, took control of their own destiny during the Holocaust. These heroic individuals never had indifferences and took matters into their own hands. Three teens know as “The White Rose” decided to spread the word of possible “freedom by creating and distributing pamphlet”(“PROTEST OF YOUTH”). Yet upon the guards discovering of their plans, they were sentenced to death for their crime they have done. This correlates to Wiesel speech which all “gave into indifferences” including his own “God”(The Perils of Indifference). With no form of guidance and hope driven from others to show human emotion, the teen’s came to the realization that the only way they may be able to stand a chance seeing freedom from the camp was herself. Thus, with the knowledge of the teens fate, we must come to a understandment that to see hope for a future world without indifferences.We must learn showing a helping hand in signs genocide such as the holocaust and not wait.
Wiesel does a wonderful job with his use of pathos throughout the speech by making the audience reflect on his words and creates a strong emotional reaction for what is being said. From being a survivor of the Holocaust, one of the darkest parts of history as well as the most shallow times for humanity. Immediate sympathy is drawn from the audience. When he states that himself endured the horrible conditions these people had to live in. He then explains to us that the people there, “No longer felt hunger, pain, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.” With saying this it brings forth feelings of guilt, one of the most negative emotions to accumulate a reaction towards these events. Also numerous people throughout the world long for world peace and to hear the inhumane acts that was once acted upon an innocent man, makes their stomach's sink. Wiesel defines its derivation, as “no difference” and uses numerous comparisons on what may cause indifference, as a “strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur.” Like good and evil, dark and light. Wiesel continues to attract the audience emotionally by stating this he is aware of how tempting it may be to be indifferent and that at times it can be easier to avoid
Mass murdering, massacres, and human suffering are all something that we are familiar with; whether this familiarity is from a personal experience or something we learned from a book or movie. This concept is all living within us in the back of our heads, setting up camp for the long haul. The short story from Night by Elie Wiesel is about a family that gets taken to a concentration camp in the midst of a genocide. The family faces intolerance just because of their Jewish heritage and religion. This intolerance and genocide is relevant in today's world. No, nobody is trying to take over the world and kill half the human population while doing it. This intolerance and possible genocide is occurring because we are doing it to ourselves. The short story from Night by Elie Wiesel connects to the world issue of abrupt climate change through the noun “genocide”; like the Jews being mass murdered by the Nazis, the whole human species will be obliterated by mother nature if we don’t take crucial environmental steps and focus on science and technology.
When bad things are happening in your life, it may be hard to notice the good things that are happening. In some of life’s toughest moments, it is when we can find the kindness, given to us from others. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel the kindness of others is proved to be true through many examples. When Elie Wiesel is put in a concentration camp he finds kindness in an authority figure, a young woman and his very own father. Kindness can be shown in any way, even just by giving advice.
Elie Wiesel’s speech falls into the deliberative genre category, and was designed to influence his listeners into action by warning them about the dangers indifference can have on society as it pertains to human atrocities and suffering. The speech helped the audience understand the need for every individual to exercise their moral conscience in the face of injustice. Wiesel attempts to convince his audience to support his views by using his childhood experience and relating them to the harsh realities while living in Nazi Death Camps as a boy during the Holocaust. He warns, “To be indifferent to suffering is to lose one’s humanity” (Wiesel, 1999). Wiesel persuades the audience to embrace a higher level of level moral awareness against indifference by stating, “the hungry children, the homeless refugees-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”. Wiesel’s uses historical narrative, woven with portions of an autobiography to move his persuasive speech from a strictly deliberative genre to a hybrid deliberative genre.
Every man, woman, or child has his or her breaking point, no matter how hard they try to hold it back. In Night by Elie Wiesel the main theme of the entire book is the human living condition. The quality of human life is overwhelming because humans have the potential to make amazing discoveries that help all humans. Elie Wiesel endures some of the most cruel living conditions known to mankind. This essay explains the themes of chapter one, chapter four, chapter eight in Night by Elie Wiesel.
You might wonder how the deaths of eleven million people could go unnoticed and why no one spoke up. This proves the ignorance of others. People knew what was going on, they just chose not to do anything about it because it was not happening to them. “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communist and I did not speak out- because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out- because I was no not a trade unionist. Then they came for me- and by then there was no one left to speak out for me” (Poem Pastor Niemoller). This poem proves that no one spoke out for others because it was not them who it was happening to. Wiesel wants to educated people so they will not only care about them selves, but they will care enough other people to stop the hatred that might be happening to others. He wants to show people that if it were you, then you would hope that someone would speak out for you and maybe make a difference.
The message that is sent across in this speech is also something that makes it so effective. Wiesel’s goal is not only to inform the people of the horrible events of the Holocaust, but also a call to action. This call to action is to end indifference throughout the world. Wiesel tries throughout the speech to inspire his audience within the White House, as well as the people of the world to act in times of human suffering, injustice, and violence. Within this call to action, Wiesel argues that indifference is an action worse than any other. Even anger, according to Wiesel, is a more positive action than indifference. “Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.” When Wiesel states this simple, yet powerful statement, it forces any listener to consider how negative of an emotion hatred is, then puts indifference well below it. Wiesel also addresses how easy it is for any person to be indifferent. He states, “Of course, indifference can be tempting—more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims.” This quote
The general argument made by Elie Wiesel in his speech “The Perils of Indifference,” is that we need to open our eyes and realize that not everything can be sunshine and flowers all the time. More specifically, Wiesel emphasizes that the world needs to be aware and to empathize towards the victims of those of us that have
After hypothesizing how indifference could affect society, he questions the audience about the possibilities of America knowing about the Holocaust by adding his personal experience of how indifference split his community, “In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders.” This portrays the reaction indifference can cause in one community and how not only the Nazis but also the American government has displayed a sign of indifference. Wiesel hoped that if Americans intervened just once everything would have changed, “If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene…They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau,
Wiesel is effective with his speech by connecting exaggeration within his revelation. He questions the guilt and responsibility for past massacres, pointing specifically at the Nazi’s while using historical facts, such as bloodbaths in Cambodia, Algeria, India, and Pakistan to include incidents on a larger level such as Auschwitz to provide people with a better idea (Engelhardt, 2002). He is effective in putting together the law and society’s need for future actions against indifference by stating, “In the place I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killer, the victims, and the bystanders” 7.(Wiesel 223).
Elie Wiesel questions and asks that even though people see photos, are aware and feel empathy for what is what is occurring around the world, why don’t they just do something? “Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences” (Perils of Indifference)? Though that the holocaust has supposedly taught the world the responsibility of prevent, have we all really learned that? He also wanted to convey that indifference is worse than any other feeling such as hate. “Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction” (Perils of Indifference). Indifference is when solicitude is missing which indicates that there is a lack of awareness. Elie believes indifference is worse than hate because it implies that someone’s suffering isn’t worth rumination and consideration. The inhumanity that was put upon the Jews could have been stopped if people cared enough to take action against the Germans. Both messages are relevant and matter because they
Writer, Elie Wiesel in his metaphorical speech “The perils of Indifference” argues that the future will never know the agony of the Holocaust and they will never understand the tragedy of the horrific terror in Germany. Wiesel wants people to not let this happen but at the time many modern genocides that are occurring and people shouldn’t be focused on just the Holocaust, they should focus on making this world a better place; moreover, Wiesel expresses his thoughts about all the genocides that has happen throughout the years. He develops his message through in an horrifying event that took place 54 years ago the day “ The perils of Indifference” was published. Wiesel illustrates the indifferences of good vs evil. He develops this message