Not everyone is fortunate enough to be granted with opportunities-- a chance at success. Even then, not everyone is able to utilize them to the fullest -- if the person even takes advantage of it at all. Granted, if the opportunity was even realized in the first place. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, essentially defines an outlier as a person that takes advantage of a set of opportunities presented to them. These sets of opportunities are not available to everyone and Wes Moore, the author of The Other Wes Moore, happens to be one of the few were fortunate enough to have a set of opportunities prepare him for success. The opportunities began building from the moment Moore’s grandparents stepped foot in America, and Wes Moore began to fully reap their benefits when he enrolled in military school. All the fortunate incidents and chances presented to Moore throughout his life lead to his achievements and overall success in life, making him an outlier of his time.
What Wes Moore experiences can
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This motive drove her to work all day and ask for money to get Wes into Valley Forge. According to Gladwell’s novel, Wes Moore’s family’s child rearing style would be categorized into “‘concerted cultivation’” (Gladwell 104). His family overlooked what he did and took action based on what they seen, which is exactly what concerted cultivation is: “an attempt to actively ‘foster and assess a child's talents, opinions and skills.’” (Gladwell 104). In Moore’s novel, his mother is a huge part of him-- she makes sure that Wes knows what is right from wrong. She would scold Wes for hitting a girl and she would make sure Wes is in a proper educational environment to prevent him from making bad decisions. Wes’s grandparents set a curfew for him so he would not stay out late and get in trouble. All these things were done to keep Wes in check, something that the other kids he lived in his neighborhood in both Cherry Hill and the Bronx did not