Figurative Language In Ellie Wiesel's Keep Memory Alive
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Ellie Wiesel gave a speech, “Keep Memory Alive,” in 1986 when he was accepting the Noble Peace Prize, for his literally works in which he reveals his own experiences in Concentration Camps. Amongst all the things he says, one of the major things he focuses on is, “How could the world remain silent?” Why did American, this world in which we live on remain quiet when people, humans were treated so badly, groups of these people (The Jews) killed everyday, burned alive. For what? Being a different kind of human? This speech has a different kind of audience. His audience was just the ones there when he was receiving the award. No, the audience goes way farther than that. His audience is the ones who were there and experienced these tragic events,…show more content… One type of figurative language he uses is imagery. In one section he gives the audience an image when he explains a young boy and his reaction when all the Jews are being deported to the camps. Confused the young boys turns to ask his dad what is happening. “It all happened so. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. I remember he asked his father: “Can this be true? This is the 20th century, not the middle ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain quiet? And now the boy is turning to me: “Tell me,” he asks. “What have you done with my future? What have you done with my life?” This here gives you an image of a very young boy very confused as to what is taking place, he then looks to his father for an answer, and he doesn’t have one. He then looks at Ellie still searching for an answer that no one seems to have. But they do, or at least he has an idea of what is taking place, but does not have the heart to tell the young boy what is happening. It makes me (the audience) have serious sympathy for what is happening and somewhat angry that this took place and obviously caught people