Summary Of Power That Nonviolence Brings By Cesar Chavez

Being inspiring and optimistic, Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader, addresses farm workers in their struggle against growers. Throughout the article, Mr. Chavez extols the virtue of a nonviolence movement and criticizes violence in a movement in order to advocate for patience. First, Chavez portrays the effectiveness of nonviolence in a movement to advocate for patience and help farm workers achieve their goals. At the very beginning of the article, Chavez already ties nonviolence and power together in “… power that nonviolence brings” and refers to MLK’s life as an example of it. The mention of MLK would make the farm workers believe in Chavez’s claim that nonviolence brings power as MLK supported nonviolence and was very influential. The

Then, through the repetition of “we”, Chavez relates to the audience in an ‘us versus them’ form. Chavez places himself with the farm workers which would make them more agreeable to his advocacy for patience, and it also does not make it seem as Chavez telling the farm workers what they should do, but what both him and the farm workers should. This makes Cesar Chavez seem as having the farm worker’s interests in mind and that he is advising them. Moreover, Chavez, makes the nonviolence movement seem more appealing through hypotheticals about the effects of nonviolence like “… attract people’s support” and “… free men and women … prefer democratic change”. In a way, Chavez is leading farm workers to believe that if they can persevere with nonviolence, they will obtain the support of the people. This heavily relies on the farm workers’ perception of the rest of America as being good and just. Farm workers do need the support of the American people to change the policies they desire, which is why the hypothetical of sticking to nonviolence is so appealing to the farm workers and

Chavez mentions the teachings of Gandhi that “boycott … is the most nearly perfect instrument of nonviolent change” which combines with the introduction about MLK to further appeal to the morals of farm workers. It is a form of inductive reasoning combined with an appeal of a noble, and virtuous character. Both MLK and Gandhi succeeded with nonviolent change, so farm workers should also succeed with it. Gandhi and MLK are perceived as ‘good’, so their actions are also ‘good’. Furthermore, Chavez invokes God granting us life to deter farm workers from wanting to choose violence. The article is published in a religious magazine, so the mention of God is an effective deterrent as the farm workers are going to be mostly religious. Chavez relating nonviolence to success and being honorable, which violence to going against God, would make the farm workers desire to remain with nonviolence and be patient as success would be