REHUGO Analysis Speech

Daniela Lalopu

Mr. Soeth

February 2, 2011

English 3 AP

REHUGO Analysis—Speech: The Perils of Indifference

A. Speaker of speech: Elie Wiesel Name of speech: “The Perils of Indifference”

B. This speech was delivered 12 April 1999, Washington, D.C. by Elie Wiesel. He was giving his speech to President Bill Clinton and the First Lady Hillary Clinton. The speech was a remembrance to the fifty-fourth anniversary of the end of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his survival of the Holocaust.

C. While giving his speech Wiesel stresses the meaning of “indifference” quite passionately. He describes it as an example of the differences, “crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.” The comparisons bring a variety of classes that indifference can evaluate on. Wiesel also emphasizes how those who are indifferent show no meaning as he said, “Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless.” His stressing the facts of indifference shows that being indifferent shows no value or that it is worth anything. He also expresses in simplistic yet effective detail the conditions and outcomes of the “Muselmanner” prisoners in the camps during the Holocaust, “Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were -- strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.”

D. Rhetorical Strategies:

a. Wiesel uses the repetition of “indifference.” The effect of this particular repetition is that he depths the meaning of indifference, “indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim.” The fact of how indifference is more beneficial to the “aggressor” instead of his “victim.”

b. His counterpoints of the different categories that he identifies of indifference, “crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil.” This brings the effect of comparing and contrasting those particular categories to the topic in which they follow indifference. He also uses exemplification, “The most tragic of all prisoners were the "Muselmanner," as they were called. Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were -- strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.” The effect of his exemplification is that he describes the outcome of this particular camp group that could not realize that they were dead.

MLA Citation for Speech:

Wiesel, Elie “The Perils of Indifference” East Room, the White House, Millennium Lecture Series, Delivered 12 April 1999, Washington, D.C.