Cesar Chavez Pathos

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In 1978, the 10th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader and leader of the National Farm Workers Association, wrote an article advocating for the acts of nonviolence. In his support for nonviolence, he made many rhetorical choices to assist his argument. He cites other leaders who found worth in nonviolence, uses pathos, personifies nonviolence, and employs an anaphora, but his overall lack of flowery language gets his argument across much clearer. Chavez opens his article by speaking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who this work was originally commemorating. Another civil rights leader, especially in the fight for equal rights for African Americans within the US, “Dr. King’s entire life was an example of power that nonviolence brings to bear in the real world.” Chavez called upon other people supporting his belief of nonviolence to advance his argument. Therefore, he showed that he was not alone in his belief. He supported nonviolent boycotts and begins to use in the teachings of Gandhi; “the boycott, as Gandhi taught, is the most nearly perfect instrument of nonviolent change.” This shows respect for those before him and that nonviolence had worked before. Chavez exercises the idea of power in numbers to develop his argument. …show more content…

He shows that everyone’s “human life is a very special possession given by God to man and that no one has the right to take it for any reason or for any cause, however just it may be.” He harkens back to his dedication of the article to Dr. King, through as Dr. King was assassinated. Showing this, he leans towards suggesting that violence caused Dr. King’s death. By having the audience feel distraught over the death of Dr. King, which he says was caused by violence, he can connect more people into the belief of peaceful