Question

In Elie Wiesel's speech "The Perils of Indifference," one of the speaker's purposes seems to be to encourage the audience to prevent negative events in the past from being repeated in the future. Does Wiesel effectively convince his audience to keep history from repeating itself? Why or why not? Be sure to use specific details to support your argument.

Answer 1

In this speech, it is important to think about all aspects of Elie’s life. As a Holocaust survivor, why would he not want history to repeat itself?  His speech speaks to acceptance of all people and not following those around you simply because it is the easy thing to do. That said, this is a reflective question/activity meaning this is what you think as far as if he made him message clear and if it was effective on you. Use quotes from the text to explain why or why not.