Top Speeches in History: “The Perils of Indifference” Analysis It is sometimes human nature to turn a blind eye to the suffering of fellow human beings, simply because it is troublesome to become involved in the misfortune of others. Attempting to combat this fact, Mr. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the infamous Holocaust, delivered his famous speech, “The Perils of Indifference.” He did so successfully, delivering a speech that would stay imprinted in the minds, and in the hearts of all those who heard it. Delivered in the East Room of the White House on April 12th, 1999, Wiesel’s speech was a huge stepping stone towards the extermination of indifference from the face of the earth. As a part of the Millennium Lecture Series, hosted by President Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary, Wiesel delivered his speech to an audience of well known and influential leaders. Among these leaders were scientists, scholars, and other creative individuals.
He survived the horror and was liberated by American soldiers, but he has been changed forever. Since then Wiesel’s purpose in life is to create peace and understanding. He has been writing and speaking to people around the world educating them on the cruelty and mistreatment that occurs. Not only does he mention the Holocaust, he addresses other catastrophes such as Uganda, Kosovo, Ireland, Rwanda and many others. Among all of these examples Wiesel notes a common similarity, indifference.
Although his childhood was ultimately hard it still led him to becoming part of the war effort. After WW1 Hitler focused all of his efforts on giving his country a way out of their struggle. Hitler wanted to reboot his country after WW1. He was very successful at this because he was a very good speaker which made him likable. He had a way of gaining peoples trust and respect that brought in many followers for his organization the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDA).
The way he speaks of human indifference in the world makes it seem like the audience isn’t aware or just dosn’t care about the issue going on around us. Wiesel points out “It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair.” (Wiesel 606) With the evidence given through his experience as child coming from “a place of eternal infamy,” he emotionally gets his audience involved and continues to show his reader that throughout history there has been many traumatic times that humans of been indifferent toward others. (Wiesel 605) This being said, he shows how this can have very negative effects on human beings and our society. Wiesel gives facts by listing events in history that brought darkness to our nation, from wars to assassinations, leading to
George Bush did a marvelous job in addressing the main point of his speech. “We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation's sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who loved them.” Not only do we know that he is going to be talking about the attack on the twin towers he also made it clear that the speech is more towards the deaths of the innocent people that where in the middle of this horrific moment in history. The words for the opening speech were properly used which is what gave it more of a depth meaning.
Saying that he does not deserve this is as if almost to say he did not exist. Hitler deserves his reputation without a doubt, even though Hitler’s reputation is a horrible one, why can’t Alexander receive his, much more it is not a negative one, one that killed a mass of people. Now maybe Alexander did kill many people in his time of reign, but most of those kills were because of war. Hitler’s reason was for an evil hatred of the Jewish community. I think that the idea that he does not deserve his reputation is solely for argument, because some people love the feeling of making other people angry.
I also feel he already knows that he is going to do the complete opposite. I feel that our great speaking President walks a fine line and plays both sides of good and evil. In President Obama’s speech “Debate over Action,” he is addressing the people of the United States over what to do about the chemical weapons attack on the people of Syria. Many Syrian people lost their lives that day. Old and young, male and female there was no discrimination.
One name that is still familiar with society today and still creates controversy all around the world is Adolf Hitler. This man touched and transformed the lives of many citizens around the world, targeting mostly minorities. His life started out with misery, being denied into art school then to gaining enough power to create his own political group Nazism and becoming Chancellor of Germany, a powerful dictator. Hitler was intelligent knowing who to target, the youth; his charisma shined and gave hope to his people. Everything in history could have been different if the treaty of Versailles was different and Germany was not in despair and desperate for a proper leader.
He explains the crisis of war, economy, education and energy. His goal is to clearly state what the problems are which eventually leads him into his next goal of explaining to the audience how each citizen can help. Obama makes it clear that each of us has to contribute in order to get the United States back on its feet (Brenner). His goal is to tell the audience ways in which they can get involved and help the nation. He targets the audience by saying “what is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves” to tell the audience that in order for changes in the nation to be
Analysis of speech by Barack Obama– “Yes we can.” From the introduction of the speech it is clear that the tone of the speech is inspirational. The speech is about change, reaching for a higher purpose and uniting to solve the problems in America. Obama sums up his introduction when he states: “We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again.” Obama uses several anecdotes to describe the problems being faced by America. He does not describe the problem but rather uses anecdotes from the trenches which add to the appeal of the speech. He uses these stories to expose the problems of healthcare, education, the economy and the war in Iraq.