Cesar Chavez Rhetorical Summary

The late twentieth century is the pinnacle of civil rights movements in the United States of America. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of many who held America’s hand into this time of racial metamorphosis, he was one of the main leaders of the Civil Rights until his tragic and violent assassination. To venerate the marking of ten years since King’s death, Cesar Chavez-- a labor union organizer and civil rights leader-- continues to uphold/argue King’s ideals of peaceful protest in this newspaper article by incorporating distinctive diction, alongside contrast and then progresses to reason with the morality and beliefs of the general american populace. At the start of the text, Chavez bluntly states to the reader the partnership of nonviolent

In the entirety of the structure of the text Chavez provides support for nonviolence and then provides the reader with hypothetical situations with the use of the word “if.” The contrast of these hypothetical instances becomes ingrained into the reader's mind throughout the repetitive use and give the association of goodness with nonviolence in comparison to loss of self and emotion by violent ferocity. Seen in the example below, “When victory comes through violence, it is a victory with strings attached. If we beat the growers at the expense of violence, victory would come at the expense of injury and perhaps death. Such a thing would have a tremendous impact on us. We would lose regard for human beings. Then the struggle would become a mechanical thing. When you lose your sense of life and justice, you lose your strength,” the text talks about how if we decide to use violence it comes with other unforeseen repercussions and goes into detail of what these consequences are. The references to time provide a contrast and traits of similarity in order to further reinforce Chavez's supportive stance on nonviolence. The use Dr. King, Gandhi and mentions of history in itself provide an ethic to the writer by point out past examples that have proved to be key in rebellions and