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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Nonviolence, By Cesar Chavez

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Dr. Martin Luther King was a well known civil rights activist who worked during the 1960’s. This decade was perhaps the pinnacle of the civil rights movement in USA. King dedicated his life to see improved conditions for colored people in USA. He was assassinated during one of his speeches. His dedication in bringing equality has lead to him becoming a martyr. On the tenth anniversary of King’s assassination, a labor union organizer and civil rights leader, Cesar Chavez published an article in a magazine, further preaching nonviolence. Cesar Chavez tries to tell the people that nonviolence is the key to beneficial and effective change. He mentions that King’s actions were an example of the strength that nonviolence holds. He strengthens his …show more content…

The author uses the words “power” and “non-violence” to depict that nonviolence is powerful. The author mentions “Dr. King” as an example of the “power” of “non-violence”. These words force the audience to acknowledge nonviolence to be a powerful force. The author later states that “ men and women who are truly concerned about people are nonviolent by nature”. This is a statement that forces the audience to take the side of nonviolence because according to this statement, people who don’t, are selfish and detrimental. The use of the words “truly concerned” places a limitation on people, almost in a criticizing manner. The author ties the words “Freedom” and “perfect” to nonviolence, while he ties the words “vicious” and “oppression”. These comparisons portray violent revolt in a negative light and encase nonviolence in a positive light. Chavez utilizes the tool of diction to weave the audience into a trap which forces them to agree with him. To establish some neutrality in the tone of his article , Chavez writes, “we are not blind to the feelings of frustration, impatience and anger”. These words establish that the author is not ignoring the natural human feelings, he is just moving past them to be more efficient. In this segment, the author used diction to establish the tone. Towards the end, the author ties the words “fail” and “kill” with violence in

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Cesar Chavez, in his excerpt He showed us the Way, utilizes strong pathos, ethos and logos statements, precise diction, and valuable patterns of development to convey the power nonviolence has in fights for freedoms and rights. First, Chavez provides strong pathos, ethos and logos to convey the power nonviolent actions have to change the world for the better. He applies ethos to show that nonviolence is something that people are drawn to. In fact Chaves presents a great nonviolent advocate who lived during the segregation: “Dr. King’s entire life was an example of power that nonviolences brings...”

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Influential labor union organizer and civil rights leader Cesar Chaves’s facilitates compelling claims through the use of rhetorical devices in his article. Chavez utilizes diction to convey his passion toward the subject, he also uses several anecdotes to support his claims made toward ineffective violent protests. In addition to those devices, he uses his ethos to obtain social influence through the use of his writing. Chavez uses diction with an informative sentence structure that contains strong adjectives to establish his personal connotations regarding the wide spread inequality toward the African American race. He depicts how violent protests produce the opposite of the desired effect by stating, “When victory comes through violence, it is a victory with strings attached.

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This gives the readers the impression that nonviolence is primarily connected with power and importance. He goes on to say that those who are truly worried about the people will always support nonviolence. He is telling his readers that they should agree if they want to consider themselves good people. He contrasts words like freedom and democracy to harsher, and cruel words like “vicious type of oppression” and “no honor” to describe violence. This shows the readers that violence is very corrupt, and shows that nonviolence represents the

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Chavez relies on the reader, to understand morally the benefits of nonviolence, and how it provides safety to the protesters and also to those around them. Many times when protests become violent, property is vandalized, people’s homes or businesses damaged for no other reason other than to make a statement, or to get what those who turn to violence think is, for some reason, their right to do. It becomes even more dangerous for the public when the violence erupts in the streets, while protesters might be willing to lay down their lives for their cause it isn’t fair for a common citizen to be injured or killed for a movement they do not support “Who gets killed in the case of violent revolution? The poor, the workers. The people of the land are the ones who give their bodies and don’t really gain much for it.

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In a magazine article by Cesar Chavez on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, Chavez discusses the advantages of nonviolent resistance versus violent resistance, arguing that “nonviolence is more powerful than violence.” Chavez successfully develops his argument for nonviolent resistance by utilizing the rhetorical strategies of repetition and allusion. Chavez utilizes the rhetorical strategy of repetition throughout the article, repeating words like “nonviolent” and “we” to develop his and others’ stance on nonviolent resistance. Whenever Chavez states the word “nonviolent”, it is usually followed by its positive effects. For example, in the quote “nonviolence supports you if you have a just moral cause,” the word nonviolence is stated and is followed by its positive effect of supporting those with a righteous reasoning,

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