Cesar Chavez's Speech

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” In Cesar Chavez’s speech, he had the daunting task of simultaneously writing a eulogy in remembrance and love of Dr. King’s immensely influential life, and the job of delivering their shared message of promoting nonviolent action to oppose discrimination. Both Dr. King and Chavez had spent their lives fighting racial inequality, and both brought about major changes for Americans (and the world) due to their efforts. Throughout Chavez’s thought provoking speech, he attempts to persuade Americans that nonviolence is the only real way to solve our problems, through emotional and powerful language. Chavez is able to accomplish this through the repeated use of assertions, a specific point of view and his diction. …show more content…
An assertion is a confident and forceful statement of fact or belief. For the whole of his speech, Chavez uses numerous assertions to push his argument on nonviolence: “Nonviolence supports you if you have a just and moral cause. Nonviolence provides the opportunity to stay in the offensive, and that is of course importance to win any contest.” This is a strong, straightforward statement of Chavez’s ideas, and a very clear presentation to his audience of what he believes nonviolence accomplishes for the world.
Through the strength of his bold statement on nonviolence, he makes himself all the more persuasive to the audience and builds his argument with many cases of assertions throughout his