Cesar Chavez Speech Analysis

Chassidy Walton
Ms.Mignott
Literature
1/3/15

Cesar Chavez uses morals and his audience fear of destruction to justify his stance on non-violent protests . Martin Luther King jr was an activist and civil rights leader that did not use violence to get his point across like many other activists at that time. Cesar Chavez wrote on the anniversary of his death explaining why using nonviolence is the way to advocate rights for those in need. His article was put in a religious organization that helped people who were in need of help. Cesar Chavez uses morals as a way to appeal to the religious side of his audience. Cesar Chavez also uses the fear of losing power to prove that doing nonviolent protests are the right way to spread his cause.

Cesar Chavez explains the effect of violent protests by stating, “ Nonviolence 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. If we resort to violence then one of two things will happen: either the violence will be escalated and there will be many injuries and perhaps deaths on both sides, or there will be total demoralization of the workers.” Cesar believes that using violence is the immoral thing to do, that can result in accidents. Not using violence will always help you have a stronger message than using violence will. By addressing morals his readers will have a closer understanding about what he is saying. The activist shows how violence is immoral by stating, “ 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.” Cesar Chavez explains that using violence to injury people is an immoral way to act and it will not help your cause. The idea of injuring is not a moral way to protest and Chavez uses this argument to appeal to his religious