Outliers Chris Langan Character Analysis

We all change whether good or bad. It is in us to make decisions that shape the way we act towards everyday occurrences. In this cases Chris Theodorakis changed immensely. Chris went from a unconfident recluse to an outgoing professor. This just shows how fast you can change to become a better person for yourself.

Natalie Sterling, a seventeen year old senior at Ross Academy had just won class president and beat her opponent Mike Domski. Mike was the kind of guy that Natalie and her best friend Autumn tried to stay away from. The girls at Ross Academy were known as demeaning and “boy crazy.” One day, during the pep rally a bunch of freshman dressed in trampy clothing and started to dance inappropriately. The leader’s name was Spencer a girl Natalie used to babysit for. The flirty freshman called themselves “Prostitutes” or Ross Academy prostitutes. Not only was Natalie embarrassed and angry by Spencers action but, she was disappointed. When the principal and Ms. Bee the student council head were talking to the girls punishments Natalie barged in. Natalie explained how she wanted to have a lock-in for all the girls in trouble and any others from school who wanted to come, about feminism and women's rights. Ms. Bee and Natalie agreed that it would be a good idea for

Jimmy knows too well the agonies of abandonment. First, when his mother, Cecilia, ran away with Richard to pursue a better lifestyle. Then, due to his father’s, Damacio Baca, alcoholisms and violent behavior; he also had to leave Jimmy behind. In spite of the drawbacks from abandonment to being a maximum security prisoner in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy preserver’s the darkness of prison by overcoming his illiteracy. However Cecilia and Damacio is not as fortunate as their child; Cecilia is shot by Richard after confronting him for a divorce and Damacio chokes to death after he is released from the detox center(Baca 263). Therefore the most significant event in this section of the memoir, A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is the death of Jimmy’s parents.

Hence, when James has been barely a senior in high school, his girlfriend got pregnant. James did not choose to abandon the responsibility. Instead, he put himself in homeschooling, and at the same time, James went to work full time for his Uncle, rented an apartment, married, and then when his child was ten days old, James graduated from High School wearing a cap and gown. That is the honor, emotional intelligence that he comes to know from the two women in his life growing up. His grandmother and his mother are his legacies. Just as the families were influenced by their families while growing up in the Appalachians, these two women influenced his attitude and behavior. Although, his family did not feud with anyone. In Outliers, Gladwell

In his book Outliers: the Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell discusses successful people, and what it is in their lives that make them successful. While many believe that it is one’s intelligence and personality that allows them to succeed, Gladwell argues that it is the environment they live in. The author provides numerous examples that support his argument, including the people of Roseto who rarely die of heart disease, sports players born at a certain time of the year that are highly accomplished, the importance of culture in airplane pilots, and many more. Out of all the various people doing extraordinary things described by Gladwell, a certain individual caused me to stop and think. Christopher Langan is known as the smartest man in America. With an IQ of 195, Langan is a clear example of what is referred to in Gladwell’s book as an outlier. His cognitive abilities are far higher than than that of the average person, who possesses an average IQ of 100. Langan should be a highly successful man, but he isn’t. Chapters 3 and 4 of Outliers explores why Langan, who is possibly the most intelligent person in the world, has accomplished nothing more than what an average person will accomplish in his or her lifetime. This inspired me to further examine people like Langan, and why they weren’t as successful as they were expected to be.

To start, in chapter 4 of Outliers, Gladwell describes a genius by the name of Christopher Langan. His IQ is 195 and he is considered one of the smartest men in America. Take a look at his accomplishments. He doesn’t have many, and for a very distinct reason. The reason is he doesn’t have anyone to help him; he never did. Growing up, Langan’s family struggled with being poor. His parents never helped him that much while he was developing, so therefore he never learned to take initiative and to work hard. Compare him to Einstein. Einstein’s IQ, being significantly lower, accomplished so much in both the science and academia fields. Einstein had much help to bring him to the position he was in, allowing him

Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, is about how a person becomes successful and analyzes the factors that cause the success. According to the author, success is the combination of talent, deliberate practice, family environment, opportunity, and practical intelligence. These factors are complementary and influence each other. However, among the many factors of success, the only thing that can be controlled is the deliberate practice. Therefore, in my view, success is due more to deliberate practice.

A child’s abnormally high IQ may trigger thoughts of undoubted success for many of us, but Outliers shows us that many with unbridled promise fail to deliver. This study shows that almost all “geniuses” that fail to complete post-secondary degrees have one glaring trait in common: socioeconomic status. Gladwell presents the case of Chris Langan, a man who’s IQ nears 200 and taught himself to read by age four. Langan spend his adult years as a bouncer and later ran a horse farm. This is hardly dignified work for “the smartest man in America.” Langan’s only mistake was growing up poor. Gladwell compares Langan with Robert Oppenheimer, architect of the atomic bomb. While both were extremely intelligent, only Oppenheimer grew up affluent and gained necessary skills needed to succeed. While Langan had difficultly figuring out the procedures necessary to fill-out financial-aid forms in college, Oppenheimer was raised to learn social niceties. The author goes into great detail explaining how the experiences provided to Oppenheimer through family wealth helped separate him from a fate all-to-often

Times Square in New York City, Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., and Denali National Park in George Parks, Alaska. The moments I spent in these places are characterized by my ability to roam for hours and just explore. Whether it be meeting street artists who are creating caricatures of tourists, running into John Kerry, finding grizzly bears in their natural habitat, these moments weren’t just mundane hours; they ushered in the notion of mindfulness. Every instant during these trips, I thought of living in the moment and not dwell on the past or the future. The unknown experiences that awaited me as the day progressed in these places correlate my ability to finally embrace one idea:

Our actions and interactions with others and society are what define us. Society’s perception of an individual may contrast with that individual’s perception of self. Our actions and interactions with others create certain stigmas which may not change despite progression and change an individual has undergone. But however at the end of the day we are our own creators and we chose who we interact with.

A personality is a person’s unique everyday behavior, thoughts and feelings. To assess personality, there are different ways it can be done: therapy, personality matching, mental disorders, projective testing and etc. In I Heart Huckabee’s, they use several different assessments on Albert and Tommy the two main characters. The number one method the existential detectives used was personality matching. You match two people with many similarities; put them together in the same environment. Personality matching could be used with online dating, group projects and for this movie it put two men together who look at things in a physiology connection.

Orr is an optimistic young pilot who has a real knack for crash landings. He’s described as being small with “buck teeth and bulging eyes to go with his big cheeks”(Heller, 25). Orr was quite the handyman and one of his main goals was to make his and Yossarians tent as comfortable as possible. He was constantly tinkering, fixing and building objects for their luxury- “Each time Yossarian returned from one of his holidays in the hospital or rest leaves in Rome, he was surprised by some new comfort Orr had installed in his absence- running water, wood-burning fireplace, cement floor”(Heller, 17). As it turns out all of Orrs seemingly mad actions are all done with a deep purpose and passion to escape, he remained patient and he convinced all

A 16-year-old protagonist who was born and raised by her family in Abnegation faction but chooses Dauntless as her new faction despite of knowing that she is a Divergent. In Dauntless faction, she changes her name into Tris and faces many struggles and wonderful experiences that make her a strong individual. Trisis an example of a round character because at the beginning of the movie, she is weak in physical and doesn’t act on her own will but after her experiences she became strong when it comes to her personality and physical aspects.

Regardless of location, age, sex, or cultural identity, everyone strives for success. Like most people, I associated success with hard work, intelligence, talent, and a striving for greatness that is present in many but perseveres for few. However, Malcom Gladwell’s novel, Outliers: The Story of Success, compared Canadian hockey players, Silicon Valley geniuses, Korean pilots and Asian mathematicians to propose the concept that success does not inherently form from hard work and skill alone, but comes from everything from time of birth to cultural respect; after seeing the results, Gladwell convinced me.

Chris Langan’s IQ is 195, and one of the smartest men in the U.S.A. He dropped out of college, and was not a success in the eyes of a normal american. Chris is compared to Robert Oppenheimer who helped design the first nuclear bomb. Gladwell compares these two because of the traditional sense that we as Americans value success. Oppenheimer had the real life tools in order to become a successful person but Chris did not. Gladwell also summarized a study by Annette Lareau, a sociologist. She stated that there are two parenting styles, the upper class (concerted cultivation), and the lower class (accomplishment of natural growth). In essence Gladwell was using the study to compare Oppenheimer (the upper class) and Langan (lower class) and how