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Blink By Malcolm Gladwell Summary

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Ava Oyen Sherry Lind English 120 10 May 2024 Detailed Conclusions The way an author writes can have a large impact on how the reader views the piece. In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, word choice, tone, and many other things are used to support his arguments. The way he writes allows the reader to see into his mind and understand the many concepts he portrays. I believe that the way Gladwell writes assists in proving his arguments about thin-slicing and how it affects people’s lives each day. In the conclusion of Blink, Gladwell writes about a woman named Abbie Conant who did a blind audition for the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. This audition consisted of her playing trombone behind a screen to a committee …show more content…

This insinuates that Celibidache has a strong opinion about his musical knowledge and his ability to identify skill in others. It also shows that he openly admits to being biased as to who can play what instrument. The dash makes the reader stop and think about what Gladwell wrote and how it correlates with Celibidache. Along with that, the dash points out what I believe to be verbal irony. Celibidache believes that traditionally “masculine” instruments should only be played by men who exude confidence, but when he first hears Abbie play trombone we hear him exclaim “‘That’s who we want!’” (246). He holds prejudices against women playing in certain sections of an orchestra, yet he unknowingly picks a woman to play in one of those sections. By doing this, he discredits his own biases and proves himself wrong. This part of the book stands out more and is almost comical, all because Malcolm Gladwell added in a dash. Another way Gladwell uses word choice to support his thin-slicing arguments is by keeping phrases in the original language they were

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