Silence In Elie Wiesel's Ruling In The Scottsboro Trial

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim” (Wiesel). A true statement made by Elie Wiesel, one of the survivors of the holocaust, he decided to tell the world what happened, he decided not to become a bystander because silence can never help the victim. The consequences of silence can be seen everywhere but in the fictional story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the non-fictional story the “Ruling in the Scottsboro Trial” by Judge James E. Horton we can clearly see how silence made a huge difference in someone else’s life and in Elie Wiesel's nobel prize acceptance speech we can appreciate how silence can make you guilty. We can not be innocent if we are bystanders, we have to speak for those who stay silent, it is our …show more content…
In the story “The Lottery” Mrs. Hutchinson never missed the lottery, and she never said anything about its wrongness, she would only feel for them. But when Mrs. Hutchinson won the lottery she realized that “[It wasn’t] fair, it [wasn’t] right” (Jackson). Unfortunately it was too late for her, and her silence decided for her and its consequences were the worst thing we can imagine; death. In the contrary in the “Ruling of the Scottsboro Trial” Judge Horton noticed that Victoria’s “testimony was contradictory, often evasive, and time ad again she refused to answer pertinent questions” (Horton). Judge Horton could have stayed silent, he could have been a bystander, but he knew that it wasn’t right, he knew that his silence could affect the boy’s lives. Afterwards Judge Horton decided not to stay silent, not to be a bystander and make a change in the boy’s lives. Every action has consequences and in this case they were good ones, thanks to Judge Horton the boys lived more than expected. At the end the only one regretting her silence was Mrs. Hutchinson because silence can be the difference between life or