The Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell: Literary Analysis

In "Outliers: The story of success", Malcom Gladwell explained and gave examples of ways to be successful. There are many ways that Gladwell mentioned, such as luck, practice, background, family, and culture. There are many more of course, but I will save time. There are three of which I think are the most important, these being Intelligence, Social Skills, and Location; and these are explanations as to why I think these are the most important.

One of the few negatives about book Outliers is that the author provides many arguments that an individual's success is influenced on situations in their lives that are inherited. For example one of the first examples Malcolm gladwell provides in the book is with hockey players. Gladwell explained that kids born in February have a better chance at playing professionally. This gave the impression that success is based more off of inheritance or ecology instead of individual merit and hard work.

In the article Beautiful Brains by David Dobbs, evolutionary research conveys that during the adolescent and teenage years the brain encounters an astonishing amount of growth and transformation. Dobbs states that these developments contribute to many of the irresponsible decisions made by teens. In the past, the brain was thought to cease maturing around the age of ten, however, new investigations have found that between the ages of twelve and twenty five, the brain continues to develop, undergoing a considerable metamorphosis. During this metamorphosis, myelin insulates a greater number of neuron’s axons, increasing the speed in which messages are exchanged, dendrites branch out and become broader, accelerating the rate at which messages are received, and synaptic pruning occurs which causes the brain’s cortex to become slimmer and more adept. During teenage years, the brain is still learning to network as well as deal with day to day obstacles such as stress, exhaustion and problems. Dobbs explains that teens act the way they do because their brains are not done maturing.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell challenges those who assume hard work is the only path to success. “It is not the brightest who succeed. Nor is success simply the sum of decisions and efforts we make on our behalf.” Gladwell states that success can happen through a series of different factors.

Does cultural legacy effect your success? According to Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the book Outliers, believes that cultural legacies can affect your success in a positive or a negative way. Cultural legacy can be defined as the cultural or family background that is left behind by past generations and “they persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished”( Gladwell 175). One example that Gladwell gives in Outliers of these “powerful forces”(Gladwell 175) includes Chinese math students learning how to work harder in school than people of other countries because of their cultural legacy of their ancestors working the rice fields, which Gladwell

In Outliers: the story of success, Malcolm Gladwell tries to prove why successful people are successful. Particularly in chapter eight; Gladwell claims that rice farmers are hard workers, that hard workers are not successful, and that Asians are better than Westerners in math. Gladwell uses many techniques to persuade the audience to his point of view, which he does beautifully. Gladwell uses these different techniques to prove his claims in a variety of ways. All of his techniques can be categorized as Ethos, Pathos or Logos.

The second part of the book deals with a different theme than the first while still helping to establish the core idea. The second part of the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell outlines and explains the idea that your background and culture is a key part in who you are, which in turn helps explain the course of your life. As with the first part of the book this part starts with an example of how the second half idea will be explained and he starts by using a small town called Harlan Kentucky as his setting. In this town during the nineteenth century there was a feud between to families in the town that is talked about in this chapter, and those two families were called the Howard’s and Turners’. As his telling the stories of the families in

There are certain instances of juveniles being tried as adults and sometimes ending up getting a life sentence without a chance of parole. I find that pretty harsh because there have been some cases where the juvenile meant no harm, they were either confused or brought along by gang members and they end up being charged along with the gang members for just being with them when a crime goes down. I believe that juveniles do not deserve to be given a life sentence because for one they are still maturing, they can learn from their mistakes and make amends, we still have to combat crimes like intended murder committed by a juvenile with extreme punishments especially if they are well over the age of 16.

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell 's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy are what really drive them to the pinnacle of success.

The article “ Inside the Teen Brain” by Marty Wolner, states that recent resherchers on the human brain provides parents with shocking evidence abou there teenager that probably explains there irational, ilogical, and impulsive behavior. As it turns out, brain developement during the teenage years is radically more active than previously thought. Even though the brain is almost matured the grey matter in the thinking part of the brain is still making connections. The information proccesed in the limbic system, without benefit of higher level processing in the pre-frontal cortex may result in impulsive, egocentric,, and even risky behavior. Because of the construction of the teenage brain is that its not capable of fully processing information

Malcom Gladwell is author of Outliers The story of success. Gladwell speaks on success how circumstances may out come your success but that may not be that case. Tony Robbins a motivational speaker, author, and philanthropist. Robbins doesn’t see circumstances as a determined factor. He is a prime example of that.

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, discuss that “If intelligence matters only up to a point, then past that point, other things – things that have nothing to do with intelligence – must start to matter more,” (86).

Gladwell's studies reveal, “The reading scores go up by .26 points. When it comes to reading skills, poor kids learn nothing when school is not in session. The reading scores of the rich kids, by contrast, go up by a whopping 52.49 points. Virtually all of the advantage that wealthy students have over poor students is the result of differences in the way privileged kids learn while they are not in school…” (Gladwell 8) Due to their long breaks that don't include any education they go back to school struggling. Wealthy kids own the supplies needed to grow academically during the summer, thus being at an advantage. The more they practice the better they get, which shows in their increase of points during the summer. Opposed to the kids of the lower class who don't have the supplies, and most likely don’t touch a book which puts them at a disadvantage. For example,“This is the advantage that Oppenheimer had that Chris Langan lacked. Oppenheimer was raised in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan, the son of an artist and a successful garment manufacturer. His childhood was the embodiment of concerted cultivation.” (Gladwell 108) It seems as if Oppenheimer was destined for success because of all his resources and through the connections from his rich parents. He had everything he needed to lead him to success. On the other hand, Chris grew up extremely poor. He was all alone and hardly had any

Imagine what it would be like if everyone in the world had a chance to be successful in what they are passionate about just from many amounts of practice. Malcolm Gladwell, the author for the book, The Outliers, mentions an idea named the “ten thousand hour rule”, stating if one practices for many or so hours, he or she evolve closer to success. However, practicing shouldn’t be sponged since practice isn't always the key or easy way in. For example, one can practice for so many years yet never reach that potential. Meanwhile, how many years does it take in order to have a small chance of success? Can one practice so little yet be advanced? Can someone practice for so long yet still be underappreciated? Gladwell’s perspective of the ten thousand

Intrinsic factors critically considered when people think about the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts this tendency through the book, Outliers. The book, Outliers insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the intrinsic ones. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion: “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires (Gladwell, 2008).” The assertion implies that individuals could achieve success only with those intrinsic factors. Gladwell’s assertion is wrong because people can’t achieve success without an opportunity of relative age, an opportunity to have practical