Rehugo: speech

Phan 1
Taylor Phan
Mr. Soeth
English 3 AP
February 2, 2011

REHUGO Analysis—Speech
A: “The Perils of Indifference” delivered by Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, at the White House on April 12, 1999.

B: In this speech given by Elie Wiesel directed toward the President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, and friends to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the end of the World War II.

C. Wiesel effectively conveys different aspects of his child hood and described in great detail what he saw and for the most part, what he and almost every other person trapped in a concentration camp during World War II felt. He establishes his ethos when he says that he was a young Jewish boy, and now he stands before the president showing the audience that he survived being in a concentration camp during the war. He goes on define “indifference” which means “no difference” in the words of Wiesel. After he defines the word indifferent, he links it back to how the prisoners felt while they were incarcerated in these camps. “They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.” This quote shows that each prisoner was isolated and deprived of the bare necessities of life such as food, water, and family. Family is a necessity because with out food and water there is no reason to live but they you reasons to live, they give you hope, and they also give you love. Without these essential pieces of life, how can a person feel alive? As Wiesel states, “indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.” Wiesel shows that being indifferent never benefits the victim because it is a friend of the enemy.

D. Rhetorical Strategies:

a. Rhetorical Question: Wiesel uses a series of rhetorical questions on after another to challenge the audience and make them give some thought on the topic of indifference. The questions asked force the audience the think critically and search for a right answer. For example, “Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war?” This rhetorical question establishes logos because it can’t be justified by the audience or the government. These questions work well with his argument because they can’t be answered in a way that would make the Americans proud of what they did after they defeated the Nazis.

b. Allusion: In the beginning of the speech, Wiesel alludes to different assassinations that have to occured to people who have fought for people’s rights. Wiesel also alludes to different genocides such as the Rwanda genocide and the Cambodian genocide. He then asks a rhetorical question of whether we have learned from the mistakes and crimes that the world has committed.

MLA Citation:

Wiesel, Elie. "The Perils of Indifference." Millennium Lecture Series. White House, Washington, D.C. 12 Apr. 1999. Speech