Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Power of One Person
In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Wiesel says: "[O]ne person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs" (p. 120). How has Elie Wiesel fulfilled this purpose with this book? How does this statement make you feel about your place in the world?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
He did by making a mark in the world with this great account. The words that he wrote in his account was to make many who will or have read it not forget that things like that happen all over the world and by people not standing up for what is right and speaking for those who can't we should make an effort try if we know things like that are going on. It tells me as a person apart of humanity i shall stand up for those who can't do it for there selfs. That i should be willing to give a helping hand to those who need it because someone would do the same for me. That as we stand on this earth togather we should make an effort to those who need our help. I feel from what he has said up there made me think that he is right and that we all depend on one another for these quailtys of help and the trust we need to have with one another as our place in the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with cheyanne when she said the book "marks" people in the world when they read it or experienced it. When people read the book, Elie Wiesel puts average people in his shoes to show how the concentration camps were. The descriptive detail makes you think twice about the Germans. By this "mark" in the world, people have been changed, I think, in what they believe. This just comes to show everybody that what happened in Elie's time was cruel and wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree with cheyanne about the part when she said he made this book so people will not forget about the things that others went through. Also for the people not standing up for their rights. I Also think that he created this book to give us the insight on the holocaust and show us, how his life was different from others who might have survived the holocaust. I also think he created this book to inform us about what actually happened to him because everybody has a/many different stories to tell. Why? because everyone went through different things. This book makes me feel that i only have a little corner in the world because i have not really done anything that could or will affect the world right now. Although I do plan to change that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with every one because like Cheyanne said he “marks” what he is feeling in the book. How people think even harder about what the Germans did. He also shows how he thinks all of this is shameful for the Nazis/Germans to hate them so much. Like Aryonn said he knows everyone else has like a different side of the story or different story period. It makes me feel like my life is not totally bad compared to what they had because theirs was bad. It also changes how I feel about the world and how different and difficult it was for others. I feel like I am in a safe place with my family unlike the Jews.
ReplyDeletehe fulfilled his purpose by stating what he felt. he felt that starving little kids was wrong, and inprisoning jews in consentration camps. it makes me feel like according to his life my life is a piece of heaven. i feel like i have so many more oppertunities than any jews. i also feel extemely bad that i cant relate to them and feel what they feel so that can understand their pain alot more than i do. that is how i feel.
ReplyDelete