The book Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, never defines the word "success," a concept explored in its entirety throughout the book. Rather, the term Outlier is defined as “something that is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body,” and “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample,” which relates to the popular view of success. Conversely, Gladwell’s theory of success is that the outliers could not have achieved success without both the opportunity to achieve success, and the hard work to make use of the opportunity. Following this principle, I have related my own successes to this theory. The first opportunity for success came from my parents wealth
For someone to make a good decision they need to look at the choices from multiple objective positions. Therefore, if we are blinded by the government to relevant perspectives, we are in turn blinded to important options, which leads us to make bad decisions. This is portrayed very well in Fahrenheit 451 by George Orwell as one of the main plot points of the book is the destruction of books and other thought provoking medias. Through the systematic destruction of these medias many important perspectives have been removed from the American population turning a lot of them into thoughtless beings. With these perspectives removed the general populace of American have been making poor decisions, leading them to miserable almost meaningless lives.
“The bravest of individuals is one who obeys his or her conscience.” - J.F. Clark. This suggests, that someone who listens to their conscience, is considered to be a brave individual. In terms of agreeing, or disagreeing with this critical lens, I agree, because it often takes a great deal of courage to do what you truly believe is correct.
Dystopian Affairs Ray Bradbury’s depiction of a dystopia is interpreted through Guy Montag and his escape from society as well as Captain Beatty and his desire to get rid of books when they explore the technology and its advances in his novel, Fahrenheit 451. Born in a time of despair from the ongoing World War II, Bradbury fell in love with books as well as horror from a young age, and he enjoyed the sense of adventure it created (“Ray”). Bradbury uses “Fahrenheit 451 [as a reflection of his] lifelong love of books and his defense of the imagination against the menace of technology and government manipulation” (“Ray”), and bases his plots, characters, and themes on his past experiences and memories. World War II is a time period when literature was suddenly disappearing and technology became greatly significant. Realizing the troubles technology will create, Bradbury wrote stories based on dystopian affairs, including his most powerful novel, Fahrenheit 451.
Matthew Nodder ENG 3UC Mr. Hokstad May 2, 2017 Essay Rough Copy Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian society where knowledge and critical thinking is considered to be different. The novel revolves around the main character, Guy Montag, referred to as Montag throughout the novel. Montag is a firemen, which means that in his society he starts fires rather than puting them out. A ban was put on books by society the people because they were seen to create a form of inequality, and contained controversial content. This was replaced by modernized technologies such as wall televisions.
In every Disney movie the villain is generally portrayed as evil or crazy, and it is taken as a personality type, but Disney movies also tend to sneak in a backstory for the villain geared towards explaining how they had come to be evil. And in the end, the villain is usually convinced that they should be “good” (again). So from this perspective, it may appear more so that the villain is not a personality type but a product of the situations they were in each moment that lead to he or she becoming the villain. Malcolm Gladwell is an award winning author who constructed a theory labeled The Power of Context, a chapter in his book The Tipping Point, to prove that people, such as villains in Disney movies, are products of their situations. In essence, to be a product of situations is to be a product of context.
With his hands tied down the pole, the criminal whimpered for help, but no one cared, because all they wanted to see him be punished for the robberies he committed. He became the next to be publicly humiliated and punished with flogging instead of incarceration. Jeff Jacoby’s “Bring Back Flogging” is an intriguing piece of writing that pitches a wild idea that i am unsure is worth catching. Jacoby wrote a thorough essay and presented the idea well but did not have enough evidence to convince his audience.
The essay “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives a brief explanation of a 1960’s boycott sit-in organized by a small group of African Americans who weren’t allowed to sit at the snack bar that was reserved for Caucasians. Gladwell used this example to further elaborate about how high-risk activism requires a strong hierarchical structure in order to thrive. “Tweet like an Egyptian” is about the Arabs that are located throughout Africa and the Middle East gaining access to social networking. Attaining the internet allowed Arabs to acquire a virtual life of freedom of speech and expression. The internet empowered these people with information to challenge their authorities in real life.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw” People’s reliance on the straw man theory is prevalent in today’s world, and is an adequate yet shallow way of expressing one’s opinions and denouncing the counterarguments. The straw man theory occurs when someone ignores a person's position and instead exaggerates, misrepresents, or creates a distorted version of that position. Malcolm Gladwell, like many other authors of opinion-based pieces of literature, uses this theory as a method of persuasion. Gladwell’s “What the Dog Saw” uses this theory as a method of persuasion.
Whenever there is political corruption, power and control are involved. Although there are a few similarities between Castro’s dictatorship and Big Brother’s totalitarian from 1984, not many parallels can be seen. As someone who controls Oceania, Big Brother is known to be very powerful. He has the ability to manipulate his party members into thinking that he is superior.
The “Lessons from Jonestown” article from the American Psychological Association explains what happened in Jonestown, Guyana and why it happened. The members of the church wanted to leave the United States to escape racism, so they agreed to follow Jim Jones to South America. They hoped to live more peaceful, happy lives, but their lives were cut short due to a mass suicide led by Jones. Psychologists, such as Philip Zimbardo, believe that Jones’ success came partially from George Orwell’s book, “1984.” This book explained different facets of mind control and how it is executed, and there are many parallels between the examples in the book and in Jim Jones’ church.
Have you ever thought about how living in a dystopian society would influence your life? Well, the idea of censorship is used in the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, to make an impact on the audience. Bradbury uses certain elements of dystopia in his novel to show censorship, which significantly effects the society in the novel. For example, Bradbury uses the dystopian element that says citizens live in a dehumanized state, to show that their society believes that curiosity is unacceptable. Next, he uses the idea that in a dystopian world, information, independent thought, and freedom is restricted, to show how books are bad in their society.
A dystopian society is a dysfunctional society that is marketed to its citizens as a utopian society. It includes elements such as a lack/ downplay of religion or one government sanctioned religion that everyone must follow. The government either uses force and or fear to control its population. There is a suppression of freedom of speech and a suppression of intellectualism. In this society, there is a protagonist who rebels against the status quo.
The book 1984, by George Orwell, gives an eerie vision of a futuristic society with a totalitarian entity, who controls the nation of Oceania. In this society, no one has freedom and the government controls everybody with technology and power. Orwell’s book showed me how horrifying society could be if a government could attain an immense amount of power through technology in order to control everybody 's life. In his book, Orwell introduces The Ministry of Love, The Thought Police, and Big Brother.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change,” he explores the role of social networking in the modern world and its power in influencing social change. Ultimately, Gladwell suggests that for social change to be successful it requires hierarchical organization and strong ties. Social media is a perfect means of building networks and increasing participation in those who have no personal ties with a particular cause. Although, the lack of strong personal ties is what causes the lack of motivation for people to get involved, and these networks are only effective at lessening the motivation that participation requires. Gladwell shows that though social media is ideal for stirring up a group for the right kind of cause, the networks it creates cannot
