Cesar Chavez Farm Workers Movement Summary

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Cesar Chavez was an activist for the farm workers movement and had an article published in the magazine of a religious organization on nonviolence on the tenth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in the 60’s at the height of the civil rights movement. Many people wanted to turn to violence but Chavez leads them away from that course through his uses of the causes and effects of violence and nonviolence with the appeal to historical events, compelling diction, and his appeals to basic moral beliefs of his reader to achieve his overall purpose of calling the farm workers to unify and to gain direction to stand up to the manipulative rich. …show more content…

Chavez also states that non violence lets you “stay on the offensive” which also exemplifies the significance of a nonviolent movement. He also is morally appealing to his religious audience by discussing those who are “truly concerned” about a movement, will stick to nonviolence and not turn to the side of violence. This then forces the audience to feel relation to the good people, as they view themselves as a good person, and thusly side with nonviolence. He also uses powerful word choices to exemplify the superiority of nonviolence that connect with his American audience such as “democracy” and “freedom.” He then contrasts this with the “most vicious type of oppression,” violence. Chavez wants the working farmers to unite and protest, yet he wants them to do it peacefully, yet he is aware that “we are not blind to feelings of frustration,” and how they must search and achieve “balance” to achieve their goals. His powerful descriptions of nonviolence as a “nearly perfect instrument” contrasted with “those who espouse violence exploit people,” strengthens the support gained from the reader by the moral guilt of violence. Chavez’s compelling and forceful diction further provokes the reader and illuminates the upside of nonviolence and the harsh consequences and cons of violence, which increases the motivation to join the working farmers movement and unify behind a nonviolent

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