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The Perils of Indifference

Elie Wiesel uses pathos, imagery, and diction in his speech "The Perils of Indifference" to make the audience feel guilt for their inaction during the Holocaust. He references a "young Jewish boy" to elicit empathy and responsibility. His use of vivid phrases like "darkest of times" and "death camps" paint disturbing mental images of Jewish suffering. Wiesel switches between an accusatory tone in questioning why refugees were denied help, and a calm tone in expressing confusion over Roosevelt's inaction, to make the audience feel different emotions ranging from guilt to sentiment. His overall goal is to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust are not repeated by compelling the audience to understand what happened through empathy for the

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774 views3 pages

The Perils of Indifference

Elie Wiesel uses pathos, imagery, and diction in his speech "The Perils of Indifference" to make the audience feel guilt for their inaction during the Holocaust. He references a "young Jewish boy" to elicit empathy and responsibility. His use of vivid phrases like "darkest of times" and "death camps" paint disturbing mental images of Jewish suffering. Wiesel switches between an accusatory tone in questioning why refugees were denied help, and a calm tone in expressing confusion over Roosevelt's inaction, to make the audience feel different emotions ranging from guilt to sentiment. His overall goal is to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust are not repeated by compelling the audience to understand what happened through empathy for the

Uploaded by

gaby
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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[Last Name] 1

Gaby Shaw

Mrs. Johnson

Adv. English 10

4/13/23

The Perils of Indifference: Timed Writing

In “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel the author uses Pathos, Imagery, and

diction to portray the purpose, which is to make the bystanders, specifically the US, to fee guilt

for not interfering during the events of the Holocaust.

Pathos is used a lot in this text, but a certain part really stuck out to me. Wiesel refers to

this “young Jewish boy” twice in the text, once in the very beginning and another at the very end.

As Wiesel comes full circle here, we feel a sort of empathy for that young Jewish boy more so

than we would if he just referenced himself as an elder. We feel this way because this was an

awful point in history and to imagine a child going through it is difficult. Since there were more

parents in the room when Wiesel delivered the speech, he definitely made them feel for him as a

kid because when it comes to parents imagining their own kid in this situation, they would want

someone to help. The purpose of this use of Pathos is to make the readers or listeners feel

responsible for refraining from helping such a small child.

The author also uses Imagery multipole times in the speech. He uses lines such as

“darkest of times” and “death camps” these harsh choices of words and visuals can really show

how horrid these times were for Jews. "Over there behind the black gates...they were dead and

did not know it.” (Wiesel 6) This line really speaks out from the rest for reasons that are

unsettling. Jews would be “sitting in darkness” and “not knowing where they were” he also

explains that they were “lifeless” not functioning and just overall feeling nothing, they were too
[Last Name] 2

tortured at that point to bother. Wiesel does a proficient job depicting this image in the readers

head and makes them feel guilty for being bystanders. Wiesel also compares these experiences to

another example of indifference. “The Depressing tale of the St. Louis” (Wiesel 13) he goes son

to explain how the Jews on the St. Louis were turned back to “Nazi Germany” and because they

were turned back “thousands of people were put into concentration camps” and “Jews shops

were destroyed” “synagogues burned.” All these things happened because of the US, the

listeners, not lending a hand.

Lastly, we have diction. The diction that Wiesel uses is important to know, he switches

the tone of his voice in the speech at multiple different points. He switches from being calm and

collected to being accusatory. At points where he’s asking questions and stating something

strong his tone and diction is accusatory. For example, “Why didn’t he allow these refugees to

disembark?” (Wiesel 14) and when he states “But this time, the world was snot silent. This time,

we do respond. This time, we intervene.” (Wiesel 18) In this example and the first his word

choice such as “allow” and the “we” pronoun choice he’s being very strong and including we as

a group together as in they didn’t help any of us (us being jews.) He knows it’s the USAs fault

and wants them to step up and admit it. After, he uses this calm diction and tone and portrays a

sort of helplessness. He says, “I don’t understand Roosevelt was a good man, with a heart.”

(Wiesel 13) As his diction shifts the audience feels different emotions for each line he says

whether it be sentimental or guilty.

Overall, Wiesel makes the readers and listeners feel self-remorse for being bystanders

through pathos, imagery, and diction. He wants us to have empathy and puts us in a position to

understand what happened in this terrible but important part of history and his life, so it does not

happen ever again.


[Last Name] 3

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