Precis
Gladwell's Outliers continues analyzing success in chapters five through seven. While doing the same thing the author goes about a different way of doing it; Gladwell still uses statistics, tables, and rhetorical questions as he had consistently throughout the first chapters, but this time he begins to interweave cultural background with his argument. Gladwell brings in flight statistics on crashes that were base on human error and begins to trace these crashes to the pilots and the pilot's cultural customs. Gladwell does this so his audience can understand what can be possibly be holding them back in their pursuit of success whether it be contempt of authority or fear of it. In these chapters Gladwell is writing to help people who probably haven't realized their problems that inhibit their success and open their eyes as to what these problems are.
Vocabulary
Demographic- A specific portion of a population.
Mitigation- To decrease the intensity of something
Anomalies- A strange occurrence
Tone
Informative, Critical
Rhetorical Strategies
Statistics- "Here are the top five 'uncertainty avoidance' countries..." (Page 203)
Allusion- Alludes to previous plane crashes "Consider for example the famous... crash of the Columbian air liner Avianaca..." (Page 185)
Historical Facts/ Occurrences- Talks of the great migration into the US of several different cultures and how this was a deciding factor in being successful, "A russian tailor comes to America... works in a swear shop for a small salary... The sons children [Grandchildren of fore named father] become educated professionals." (Page 152)
Tables- Used a table to show the odd drop of births in 1935-1945. (Page 134)
Questions
As Americans, why do we share a different form of respect for authority than other cultures?
What does Gladwell do to make his analysis on Racial affects on success sound analytical instead of racist?
How credible is Gladwell's information pertaining to Jews and their success in America because of their parent's harsh jobs?
