Outliers Rhetorical Analysis

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell teaches you the understanding of success. Malcolm Gladwell in the book Outliers uses logos, pathos, and ethos to get his argument across. Outliers was written for the purpose to show the audience that success isn’t all on how hard you work, raw talent, intelligence or personality traits. Success comes from your culture, who your parents are, when you were born and the opportunities you have been given. The argument by logic, emotion and character are all put into Outliers to convince the readers that success is what you make of it. Pathos emotionally connects with the reader. Outliers shows many examples, one would be the story of 12-year-old Marita living in a one-bedroom apartment with her mom. To reach her success “I wake up at five-forty-five a.m. to get a head start, I brush my teeth, shower. I get some breakfast at school, if I am running late…” (Gladwell, 264). Marita goes to KIPP Academy a desired school from all around New York. “90 percent of KIPP students get scholarships to private or parochial high schools instead of having to attend their own desultory high schools in the Bronx.” (Gladwell, 267). With Marita having the chance to go to KIPP Academy she is able to be more successful outside of her area and getting more opportunities to achieve greater things.

Gladwell first talks about the hockey teams best players corresponding with birthdays. “It’s simply that in Canada the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns 10 on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn’t turn ten until the end of the year… an enormous difference in physical maturity” (Gladwell, 24). The players born closer to the beginning of the year have more time to mature and get practice than those born by the end of the year. Most of Malcolm Gladwell’s theory is determined by factors, such as age, that are