Before breaking the down the composition of an individual’s speech, one should first realize who that person is, and what he or she has gone through in their life. The events that we live through, good or bad, have a direct impact on the development of character and the sense of self. Their demeanor is a direct reflection of this. Titled the Perils of Indifference, Eliezer Wiesel delivered his address at the White House on April 12th, 1999. By then, he was already a decorated person, receiving the United States Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Nobel Peace Prize a year later in 1986.
The Nobel Laureate suffered and lived through one of the most devastating genocides to plague Europe during the early half of the twentieth century. The systematic, state-sponsored persecution, captivity, and extermination of targeted groups deemed racially inferior, primarily the Jewish people would later be termed as the Holocaust. The word holocaust was used prior as early at …show more content…
Often these rhetorical devices are line specific, but some are used over and over throughout. Repetition of words like indifference, used in varying context, brings the central message to light constantly. Rhetorical questions, such as “What is indifference?” or “Even in suffering?” are asked. The effect of alliteration is seen in the way that indifference is explained, with the p sounds of “political prisoner” h sounds of “hungry,” “homeless,” and “human.” Though not directly asyndeton, the groupings of places with his list of ‘failures’ stands out, separated by ‘and.’ Asyndeton does appear with the line “the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland.” These two instances are in contrast, the first being immoral and the latter being
The Nobel Laureate suffered and lived through one of the most devastating genocides to plague Europe during the early half of the twentieth century. The systematic, state-sponsored persecution, captivity, and extermination of targeted groups deemed racially inferior, primarily the Jewish people would later be termed as the Holocaust. The word holocaust was used prior as early at …show more content…
Often these rhetorical devices are line specific, but some are used over and over throughout. Repetition of words like indifference, used in varying context, brings the central message to light constantly. Rhetorical questions, such as “What is indifference?” or “Even in suffering?” are asked. The effect of alliteration is seen in the way that indifference is explained, with the p sounds of “political prisoner” h sounds of “hungry,” “homeless,” and “human.” Though not directly asyndeton, the groupings of places with his list of ‘failures’ stands out, separated by ‘and.’ Asyndeton does appear with the line “the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland.” These two instances are in contrast, the first being immoral and the latter being