Cesar Chavez Literary Devices

Cesar Chavez uses aphorism, allusion, and other literary devices to give more of a lasting influence in this piece of writing. By using these devices, Chavez’ piece about nonviolent resistance is further developed. He also uses devices to help people understand what he is saying and connect it to their own lives/life experiences.

Chavez uses personification where he says, “The greater the oppression, the more leverage nonviolence holds.” (lines 73,74). You can see his use of personification where he says that nonviolence holds leverage. By doing this, Chavez is using personification in a way that makes his point, that if you are nonviolent, your movement and your perspective is going to matter more and have greater influence, easier for the reader to to understand. Overall, Chavez is saying that the greater the oppression, the greater influence nonviolence will have. Without his use of personification, the reader may not have been able to connect to Chavez’ point, and therefore may have passed over it without much thought about it.

Chavez uses allusion when he tells about Gandhi’s teachings

“People suffer from violence.” (line 77), “the rich may have money, but the poor have time.” (lines 91, 92), “human life is a very special possession given by God to man and that no one has the right to take it away for any reason or for and cause…” (lines 8-10), and “Non violence supports you if you have a just and moral cause. Nonviolence provides the opportunity to stay on the offensive, and that is of crucial importance to win any contest.” (lines 13-16) are all examples of Chavez’ use of ethos and aphorism. Chavez states these aphorisms in an authoritative way that makes it hard for someone to oppose his ideas and perspective. This helps to make people agree with his points and believe them, as they can’t counter aphorisms that they agree with separately from the movement of Dr. King and