Rich-poor, lucky-unlucky, and fair-unfair are the problems of human society at any time due to the fact of imperfections in the world. Armstrong Williams, a political commentator and an author of the book “Reawakening Virtue” emphasized that “We are not equivalent, there are certain fact that are unavoidable.” Some are born with many good opportunities to achieve success; some are born with talent, but some are born with disabilities, lack of chances to obtain achievement (Williams).…
Jon Urbana was a leading player for the Villanova Wildcats a few decades ago. During that time he received several awards for his athletic ability on the lacrosse field. Jon Urbana is an example of a man that turned his success on the lacrosse field into a lifetime success with his other numerous endeavors like his charity work, flying interests, and impressive photography work. Today, Jon Urbana is taking time out to lend his talent and experience to future lacrosse players. Certainly, he has a very powerful and positive influence on these young athletes.…
Published in 2008, Outliers: The Story of Success is Malcolm Gladwell’s third consecutive best-selling nonfiction book, following Tipping Point (2000) and Blink (2005). While Tipping Point focuses on the individual’s ability to effect change in society, Outliers deals with the cultural and societal forces that give an individual a chance. Through a series of case studies, Gladwell insists that we have all too easily bought into the myth that successful people are self-made; instead, he says 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.”…
Blowing the minds of ‘bigger is better’ believers everywhere David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell stresses the idea that sometimes having a disadvantage can actually be an advantage, and even more surprising, advantages do not always yield victories. Gladwell does so by sharing a plethora of various stories in which the poor, disabled, or discriminated against actually become successful. He also includes the many stories of people who have lived a prosperous life but have found it to be less rewarding than they expected. Portraying the same outlook of the disadvantaged reigning supreme over the advantaged is the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand. This novel follows main character Equality 7-2521 who realizes he’s quite a bit different from his fellow peers and must deal with the consequences of not being as his name suggests equal to them.…
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell is about how there are certain cultural and societal events that happen to give rise to successful people. He debunks the myth that successful people are “self-made”. In this book he explains how there are hidden advantages for certain and how these people are able to rise in the world where others cannot. Gladwell states “great men and women are beneficiaries of specialization, collaboration, time, place, and culture.”…
When a child is not properly taken care of they can pick up bad habits. A child that isn’t thought properly will most likely fail economically in the future. They won’t just fail because of bad habits they pick up but also because of the corrosive relationship that uninterested students and unequipped teachers have. They will not be able to do well in school and feel as though a good education is too far for them to reach. Children that grow up in poverty are missing too much and it leads to a cycle that continues generations of impoverished people that will have impoverished children. As Leslie Lenkowsky wrote in her review of Shipler’s book “Still, he is convinced that the key fact about the working poor is their lack of income, which gives them and their children less room for error in everything they do. "Without the buffers of family affluence, achievement, and ambition," he writes, "a child is dangerously exposed." Children in poor families don’t have much room for error if they want to leave their poverty…
If a child is taught encouraging skills, they are better off as they grow up. In Outliers, children of wealthy and poor families are compared to show how the wealthier child is geared towards success. It is not the fact that the child is born into wealth, but the fact that the parents taught the child skills needed to gain success. Gladwell writes on page 108 that "The sense of entitlement that he has been taught is an attitude perfectly suited to succeeding in the modern world." Meaning, that the reason why this child is more likely to succeed is because of the skills he was taught. Similarly, a successful family friend of mine would not be where she is today if she were not born into the family she is in. Her family has provided her with the support and skills she needs to become a famous singer. They have supported her from the time that she was doing drama plays, until now, as she has very popular songs on Spotify and iTunes. She was born into wealth, which has provided her with many opportunities that others do not have. For example, her family has the ability to pay for the advertisement and production of her music. Also, if she hadn't been born into this family, she might have never gained her fame from X-Factor. From being on this show, she had to fly to many destinations and also had to try out several times to finally make it to the last round of tryouts. Obviously, this can get very expensive and nerve-wracking, which is why it was great that she has such a supportive family. If she hadn't been born into this family, she might not have become famous. From growing up around successful parents, she has learned the traits needed for success. All in all, people who are born into better opportunities have the advantage when it comes to achieving…
After reading “As a Weapon in The Hands of The Restless Poor” one can feel motivated to help those in need. Earl Shorris appeals to emotion when he talks about creating a program to start to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. He starts out the story to say he is writing a book which makes him an author which is an example of ethos because he seems reliable. Shorris then states that the poor have been “Cheated” which is substantially true because the rich were given the opportunity to succeed more as someone who is poor and cannot even afford to feed themselves. In order to help the less fortunate out he has to create a program to help the poor succeed. After a Rhetorical analysis of “As a Weapon in The Hands of The Restless Poor” by Earl Shorris one can conclude that most people take for granted even the little things in life, if one were to open their eyes and see there are many people who do not have a dollar to their name, and we have so much that we tend to lose focus on helping the less fortunate succeed in the world we live in today.…
. John can be seen as a typical example of inequality within society. A lack of employment, a difficult upbringing and substance abuse all bring John to feeling like he has been excluded from society.…
In Ragtime, a famous piece of American literature written by E.L. Doctorow, Father suffers the fate of being unsuccessful. It seems that Father’s character is depicted by Doctorow as an extremely ordinary upper-class American of the 1920’s. He’s conservative, fairly wealthy, sexist, and racist. He’s an explorer, an entrepreneur, and a patriot. Doctorow uses Father to show us that success certainly cannot be found through money, and for that matter, fitting in with the status quo. In fact, Father’s role as the status quo American – in some ways – leads to his unsuccessfulness. In Father’s particular case, the primary attribute of his that makes him unsuccessful is his incapacity to be a good husband. It is quite apparent that Father could not – or did not want to – adapt to occurrences around him. That, too, contributed to his eventual failure.…
John Steinbeck does not only explore how people struggled for their American dream, but also describes how difficult this melancholy period in history was for the “lesser” group of individuals at the time: the disadvantaged characters.…
The significance of literature serves as a gateway to learn about the past and expand knowledge and understanding of the world. Literature holds the power to expand minds by raising questions such as: “what are the goals of this work? Why is it relevant today? What is its purpose?” The answer to these questions and others similar to them exist in a gray world where answers are just as unique as a fingerprint. But some minds might not open to thoroughly experience the wide world that is beyond them. Generally defined, the term social misfit refers to someone who does not in--an outcast. Social misfit is applied in regards to people who either do not fit in but try to do so; or, towards someone who does fit in with society on purpose. In A Confederacy…
However, Miller (1962) argues that the lower working class have their own subculture with different values of the mainstream society which doesn’t value success and thus the members are not frustrated by their status and deviance occurs when people try to achieve their own goals.…
In my opinion, the underprivileged have a sense of respect for things, they things in their life are valuable and don’t take it for granted. In Horatio Alger, Jr.’s novel, Ragged Dick, the main…
Being less fortunate, doesn’t describe who you are as a person. It doesn’t change your personality. Just because I don’t shop at the same store as you, or live in the same neighborhood, doesn’t change the fact that I am smart, unique and talented.…