The Perils Of Indifference By Niemoller

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Indifference is the lack of interest, concern, or sympathy for a subject. It is one of the many problems man suffers from today. Both Niemoller and Wiesel’s works talk about indifference. They discuss apathy, about the lack of interest for your fellow man. Niemoller 's poem, “First they Came…” and Wiesel’s speech, “The Perils of Indifference” are quite similar in terms of the message. However, they are very different when it comes to the tone. Firstly, in Niemoller’s poem, “First they came…”, the tone is regretful. Niemoller regrets not speaking out against the Nazi’s. The message is to stand up for your fellow man. Niemoller uses many devices to convey his tone and message, such as repetition, more specifically epistrophe. Epistrophe is the repetition of words or phrases at the end of sentences. Niemoller shows his regret by repeating “and I did not speak out” at the end of every sentence. By doing this, he puts emphasis on the words “I did not speak out”, therefore creating a tone of regret for not helping his peers. Niemoller also uses pauses in his poem. These pauses, such as “and i did not speak out ---” show Niemoller 's silence toward the groups the Nazi’s were taking. He shows his regret for these silences in the last sentence, “Then they came for me---and there was no one left to speak for me”. Lastly, Niemoller uses Parallelism in his poem to create a tone of regret. Parallelism is parts of a sentence that have the same construction. The parallelism Niemoller
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