Notes

In Elie Wiesel’s article, “We Choose Honor”, Wiesel reminisced of what he was doing when 9/11 happened, his first thoughts and conclusion about what he believed about the horrific event. On the tragic day of September 11, 2001, Wiesel was with his wife when a plane, which was hijacked, flew and hit the world towers. Wiesel thought that the attack happen in order to separate Americans and implant fear and weaken them, however, despite the grief and shock, Americans came together in unity. He believed that through these attacks, Americans came together united better than times before and stayed hopeful and strong rather than cower in fear and weakness. From beginning to end, Elie Wiesel’s shift in tone from disapproving to awestruck to reassuring sheds light on how the events of 9/11 brought people together rather than tear the nation apart while using rhetorical devices such as syntax, diction, and figurative language to get his point across.
Wiesel uses syntax with a disapproving tone and establishes how he hated the idea of terrorists hurting others just because others didn’t listen to their ideologies or religious principles. The parallelism Wiesel used was, “A human earthquake, it was caused by people whose faith had been perverted. There can be no justification for it. Can it be explained? Yes, by hatred. Hatred is the root of evil everywhere. Racial hatred, ethnic hatred, political hatred, religious hatred. In its name, all seems permitted.” The parallelism in the quote is the repeated types of hatred, ‘Racial hatred, ethnic hatred, political hatred, and religious hatred.’ Wiesel repeats himself to get his point across to the reader with the different types of hatred that would be the most likely factor behind the attack. In another quote, Wiesel expresses his disapproval, “For those who glorify hatred, as terrorists do, the end justifies all means, including the most despicable ones. If they could, fanatics of violence would slaughter all those who do not adhere to their ideological or religious principles. But this they cannot achieve and so they resort to simply arousing fear, the goal of terrorists since they emerged in history.” Wiesel is in disapproval as he disliked the way terrorists acted as a result of others not listening to their ideas and religious principles. Wiesel disliked the reason and took note of the tragic occurrence that followed the attack. Due to the attack, many were killed or left with an everlasting memory engraved into their mind.
After stating his disapproval for the most possible reason behind the attack, Wiesel explains that even after the government does something, the attack of 9/11 will still have a big effect on the lives of many. Wiesel uses syntax in a tragic tone to describe how 9/11 will be life altering for many across the nation and even the world. Syntax, Wiesel used was, “But now there is a before and an after. Nothing will be the same.” The sentences are short and straight to the point. These sentences have an emphasis that gains the reader’s attention as it explains generally how the event will have an impact on many. In addition, Wiesel states that “Everything has changed. One will not, as before, take a plane without considering the possibility of sabotage. Nor will one look at his or her neighbors without suspicion. We may never visit Lower Manhattan without pangs of sadness; we all know of someone who perished simply because he or she was there.” Wiesel states this in his article because the attack had a negative impact on many people. The negative impact were deaths of people who couldn’t get away or stop the attack from happening as it wasn’t in their control nor did they know it was going to happen. In addition, many people will begin to doubt others and fear the future as they hope what happened to the planes that were sabotaged before the attack, will not happen to them either. Following the tragic feeling, Wiesel becomes awestruck at the result of the attacks and how Americans had responded.
Wiesel uses figurative language alongside an awestruck tone to express how many Americans had reacted on the day of the attack and helped out. One example of figurative language is an idiom and is shown: “But the American people did not bend.” In this quote, Wiesel uses an idiom to explain how Americans were following the event. By ‘did not bend’ Wiesel meant that Americans didn’t give up over an attack that resulted from terrorists trying to terrorize people and isolate them by scaring and saddening them. Instead many Americans were motivated, as stated in the following lines, “Their behavior was praised the world over. Instead of trying to save themselves, men and women, young and old, ran to Ground Zero to offer assistance.” In that quote, Wiesel is conveyed to be awestruck by how people came together to help those who were wounded and near death, rather than hide in fear with the idea that they would be injured or killed by a hypothetical attack or war.
Wiesel’s changes in tone and use of rhetorical devices show how the 9/11 attack united many Americans instead of separating them. The purpose behind the article was to explain how the attack of 9/11 resulted in the unification of many who were both affected and not affected by the attack while going off the point of view of someone who wasn’t exactly there at the attack but who was nearby to see the attack in person. Throughout the article, rhetorical devices were used to express feelings of the attack through syntax, tone, and figurative language. By Wiesel using the rhetorical devices in his article, he was able to convey how he felt and explain his thoughts on some points from the attack such as stating his thoughts on terrorists and explaining how he felt when he saw how many Americans reacted to the attack.