Summary Of Nonviolent Resistance By Cesar Chavez

Labor union organizer and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez in his article in the magazine of religious organization establishes the argument about nonviolent resistance. Chavez’s purpose is to argue that nonviolence is a more effective way of bringing change. Chavez adopts a purposeful tone to convince his readers that nonviolence is the better option to resistance. Chavez presents his argument on nonviolent resistance by claiming that “Non-violence is more powerful than violence” (12). Chavez compares Non-violence and violence using diction. He positively describes non-violent protests as “powerful” and the protestors as “having a just and moral cause” (14). On the other hand, he negatively describes violence as “temporary successful,

He uses cause and effect argumentation to make his argument dramatic and persuasive. The overall structure of his article follows this tool. Throughout his article, he supports non-violence and then uses the “If” clause to strengthen the effectiveness of nonviolence by dissuading violence. For example he states in line 66-68 “If we beat the growers at the expense of violence, victory would come at the expense of injury and perhaps death”. The author uses this cause and effect sentence to make readers understand that violence leads to bad and dangerous results, persuading them to side with non-violence. To strengthen and provide credibility to his argument, Chavez uses credible peaceful protesters in the past in order to gain the support of his readers. In the article, Chavez uses Gandhi, a respectable and recognizable peaceful protestor to allude to the success of peaceful protest because Gandhi was able to win back India from the British Empire using “boycott as an instrument of non-violent change, allowing masses of people to participate actively in cause” (63-65). This implies that non-violence is successful because it attracts people’s support in contrast to demoralization and death. By using examples from history and contrasts, Chavez is able to portray non-violence as the better option to resistance, as it attracts the people’s support, and it is proved to be safe and