Outliers Rhetorical Analysis

In the book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcom Gladwell intended to teach the readers about the many different rules that he discussed in his book, to help with the understanding people have of success. Gladwell defines outliers as “men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary” (Gladwell 17). Gladwell accurately applies the rhetorical techniques of logos, exemplification, and repetition to effectively employ how highly successful people are outliers.

People do not rise from nothing, according to Malcolm Gladwell. There are many components that effect the way an individual becomes successful. Gladwell argues that where, when, and how the person was raised has the biggest impact on their future successes. The use of pathos, logos, and ethos benefit the points that are being convey by Gladwell. They persuade the reader in thinking with the same mindset as the writer. In Outliers, pathos, logos, and ethos are found throughout the book, multiple times, through examples of people that achieved success. For pathos, connecting to the reader emotionally is essential to convince the readers of Gladwell’s argument. He uses pathos to evoke an emotional response. One of many examples of Gladwell’s use

Audience: Outliers answers the unanimous question about those who become successful and “what they’re like”, “what makes someone successful?” or “what are successful people like?”. Gladwell directs his book towards an extremely broad audience. He talks about financial success, musical success, athletic fame, and everything in between, interesting everyone because who does not want to be successful? Outliers teaches lessons that are beneficial to people of all ages, and shows the readers what it takes to make it to the top.

Then goes and re-examines each story in such a detail matter, that he pinpoints the unknown facts that led to that person success. Gladwell unmasked our so called "big shoots" in our nation through a series of factual, ethical, and emotional evidence. He uses a structured balance between logos, and ethos to truly define an outlier in our society. In the first chapter of the Outliers Gladwell

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he depicts certain situations that created success stories. In Jeannette walls’ The Glass Castle, Jeanette is raised in a crazy and poor family that gives her no chance for success, but she is able to overcome her family’s history. In both the Glass Castle and Outliers, Jeanette Walls and Malcolm Gladwell develop a central idea that people become successful based on the their families cultural legacy. Gladwell believes that the advantages given to people at birth is their cultural legacy and will go on to affect how their success in the future. However, Jeanette Walls’ life negates Gladwell’s belief as her parents legacies completely set her up to fail but she does the opposite.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print

In the novel Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, he explores the idea of of misunderstandment of relationships among individual talent and opportunities. Gladwell argues this statement by showing that talent is necessary but not the reason to achieve success. I agree with Gladwells statement: The opportunities that are offered creates a straight path to success.

"The biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work” (Gladwell, 42). Outliers is a book that praises the success of great men, then cuts them down to size by explaining how it wasn’t pure hard work and sweat. Gladwell studies those who have already achieved society’s idea of “success.” Every chapter is filled with detailed examinations of cultural heritage and environment in relation to the idea of “success”.The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore is a detailed analysis that undergoes a comparison between two characters with outwardly similar beginnings but entirely different destinies due to personal choices, self-determination, and effort. The book values the importance of discipline and

What exactly is an Outlier? Malcolm Gladwell explains to his readers in "Outliers" that an Outlier are "men and women who do things out of the ordinary." Gladwell explains to us that an in order to become successful, there are many factors that can lead to it including birth dates, community and culture, and legacy. He doesn't entirely believe that you can achieve success just from individual merit and hard work but that it takes the environment around you and opportunity to become successful. In the contrary, Gladwell writes a whole chapter titled, "The 10,000-Hour Rule" which he explains that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become successful in something. Then he mentions that it opportunity plays a part in this success, when speaking about The Beetles, and how they were giving an opportunity to play at a club for about ten thousand hours. If it wasn't for this opportunity that was given to The Beetles, Gladwell believes that they wouldn't be as who they are now and would have never been as successful and wealthy as they are now. Gladwell claims that social and economic background can determine whether or not a individual will succeed. This claim is false becaus a person who is wealthy can not be as successful as one who is not wealthy.

Essentially, the topics Gladwell covered in this book include are, being at the right place at the right time, the 10,000-hour rule, timing, upbringing, and pursuing a meaningful career. Although all of these have been proven by Gladwell to be a major component of success, I do not agree with the idea of a particular upbringing will determine success. With this idea, Malcolm also includes that

The author explains exactly what the professional asserts and how particular pieces of evidence relate to Gladwell’s unconventional idea of success.

Outliers is Malcolm Gladwell 's examination of what makes some people excessively more successful than others. These "outliers," as he calls them, are commonly thought to possess talent and intelligence far above that of the average person, but he challenges this popular belief by looking at the background of some notable outliers.

An Outlier is someone who stands out in a group due to their mastery of a certain skill and because of that they are successful. According to Gladwell not anyone can become successful; it takes the right circumstances and opportunities. Human’s capability seems limitless, and if we put in the time and hard work we can achieve our goals. We as a society love to think that a person may become successful and that we all have the same opportunities and chance of succeeding if we just work hard enough. According to Malcom Gladwell, the author of the book Outlier’s these common beliefs are incorrect and are not the means of a person becoming successful. The main theme throughout Gladwell’s Outlier’s is that successful

Right away the readers get interested in learning what the then thousand hour rule is about. Gladwell reviews the lives of extremely successful people and how they have had success. There are many ways in which logos are used in Outliers. Gladwell viewed children in Berlin playing the violin and saw that kids having ten thousand hours of practice, were proven to be better at playing the violin, than kids with less than ten thousand hours of practice. He also took a look at Bill gates, which dropped out of college and started a very successful company, called Microsoft. Bill Gates had thousands of hours of practice in programming and other abilities learned through his short years at college. There are no shortcuts at becoming great; everything can only be achieved with lots of practice and hard work.

“There is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success” (Gladwell 18). In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell is trying to convince his audience that they misunderstand how people become successful. Many believe one only needs hard work and determination in order to achieve success. However, Gladwell complicates this idea by explaining that hard work and determination is not how people become successful and instead, it is all about the opportunities one is given that decides if he or she is successful or not. Gladwell uses the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos in order to persuade his audience to accept his idea of the process of becoming successful.