The Outliers Gladwell Analysis
In the First Chapter of the book “the outliers”, Gladwell gives the reader a overall view of what his big message is in the book. What he is trying to inform the reader.
He titles the book “The Story of Success”, he titles the book this to appeal to his audience. He is trying to appeal to those who want to strive and succeed in life, people who believe in the “climb to success”. He then begins the first chapter with a story that he lengthens and draws out he fills the reader with a suspenseful feeling. Gladwell lets the reader begin to question what does this story about hockey have to with success, “why is this important?”. He goes on to criticize Canadian hockey by stating “ Canadian Hockey is a meritocracy”. Gladwell transitions from canadian hockey to merit then leaves the paragraph with an ambiguous conclusion that questions that there might be something more to hockey players performance …show more content…
other than skills.
Gladwell finally gets to his main point of the chapter, that there is more to success than ambition or a rags to riches story.
He does this by giving multiple examples of success stories that show huge similarities to prove a point. He states twice what the book outliers is going to prove or what the reader should take away from the book. This is where he states his “thesis”, his main point. “In Outliers, I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” ( Gladwell pg. 19) His main point in this chapter is to inform the reader what this book will be about which is the idea that success is not just ambition there are more factors that control who and who doesn’t
succeed.
Moreover, “Biologists often talk about the "ecology" of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured”. (Gladwell pg.19-20) In this quote reflects his point, trees don’t just grow because they are trees they grow because there are different factors that help the tree grow. It's the sun, the height of the other trees around, and what acorn it grew from. In comparison to his overall point in this chapter, people don’t just succeed because they strive for it, they succeed because of certain factors around them. It's not about the tree it's about the forest. It's not about the person who succeeds but about their environment around them that had some control over their success.
He titles the book “The Story of Success”, he titles the book this to appeal to his audience. He is trying to appeal to those who want to strive and succeed in life, people who believe in the “climb to success”. He then begins the first chapter with a story that he lengthens and draws out he fills the reader with a suspenseful feeling. Gladwell lets the reader begin to question what does this story about hockey have to with success, “why is this important?”. He goes on to criticize Canadian hockey by stating “ Canadian Hockey is a meritocracy”. Gladwell transitions from canadian hockey to merit then leaves the paragraph with an ambiguous conclusion that questions that there might be something more to hockey players performance …show more content…
other than skills.
Gladwell finally gets to his main point of the chapter, that there is more to success than ambition or a rags to riches story.
He does this by giving multiple examples of success stories that show huge similarities to prove a point. He states twice what the book outliers is going to prove or what the reader should take away from the book. This is where he states his “thesis”, his main point. “In Outliers, I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don't work. People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” ( Gladwell pg. 19) His main point in this chapter is to inform the reader what this book will be about which is the idea that success is not just ambition there are more factors that control who and who doesn’t
succeed.
Moreover, “Biologists often talk about the "ecology" of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other trees blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured”. (Gladwell pg.19-20) In this quote reflects his point, trees don’t just grow because they are trees they grow because there are different factors that help the tree grow. It's the sun, the height of the other trees around, and what acorn it grew from. In comparison to his overall point in this chapter, people don’t just succeed because they strive for it, they succeed because of certain factors around them. It's not about the tree it's about the forest. It's not about the person who succeeds but about their environment around them that had some control over their success.