Outliers Essay

Becoming successful is what most people aspire to be. Most people fantasize the dream house, car, and having the dream job. Even though success is viewed so highly, not everyone can be successful. Malcolm Gladwell explains that idea throughout his book Outliers. Gladwell’s chapters contain endless amounts of evidence that support his claims exceptionally well. But, Michiko Kakutani, a critic for New York Times, exposes Gladwell’s evidence as unreliable and unconvincing, and upon further research, Gladwell’s faults grew deeper. Even though Gladwell provides an extensive amount of evidence, that evidence is one-sided and relies on suggestion. Each chapter of Outliers provides an enormous amount of evidence to support the overall claim which helps the reader come to an agreement with Gladwell. During chapter four Gladwell examines two children, Alex and Katie. Both grew up in opposite household structures. Alex grew up with parents who both had successful jobs. Alex's parents taught him to question authority and stand up for himself which would ultimately make Alex more successful (Gladwell 108). Whereas Katie who lived with her mom, was uninvolved in Katie's life. Katie's mother felt threatened by Katie's teachers because the teacher's had authority over Katie’s mother. (Gladwell 104). The absence of challenging authority would decrease Katie's chances of becoming successful. This supports Gladwell's claim that cultural legacy affects one's chances of becoming successful. Later in the book Gladwell introduces Marita, a young girl who lived with her single mother in an apartment on a bad side of town. At that time, her cultural legacy would leave Marita to be unsuccessful. Marita took a chance at a KIPP school, which had extended hours and much more homework. This school gave Marita a chance to succeed (Gladwell 269). This anecdote provided strong evidence to support Gladwell's claim that cultural legacies can be changed. Both anecdotes support each claim Gladwell