Bernie Goetz The Power Of Context Chapter 4

A young person’s Home Life is the third and probably most important factor in their success. External things such as parents, structure, health, housing, clothes, peers, transportation, siblings, and environment or lack of these play a deciding determinant in their success in school. These possessions or lack of can greatly influence them. The value placed on education is extremely vital too. I will expound on 2-3 of these elements of home life. The prisoner Wes Moore’s mother left for work early and returned late. He had to fend for himself. He lacked parental guidance. He wasn’t good in school and usually skipped. One time after deciding to skip, he found his mother’s weed stash. He, his friend Woody, and some older boys got high and drunk. Soon he was a lookout for drug dealers in his neighborhood. The Rhodes Scholar Wes’s mother left for work early too, but his grandparents made sure he made it to

All in all, Gladwell helps paint a picture of what’s said to be behind the locked door of the subconscious. He uses repetition and rhetorical questions to stress how thin-slicing plays a crucial part in our world. The power of our minds are limitless but Gladwell is still searching for the key to unlocking the truth of our unconscious

To start with, Gladwell uses ethos, an appeal to ethics, as a device to effectively explain how

Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have allowed their users to stay connected with others more than ever before. Although, when it comes to social and political activism, these sites are the least effective method for change. The creation of these social media sites has made many people believe that, by spreading their “knowledge” and information to their followers and fellow networkers, they can easily solve an issue that has risen in society; however, Malcolm Gladwell, staff member of The New Yorker magazine, disagrees. In his essay, Gladwell opens with a description of the Greensboro sit-ins. He emphasizes how effectively members participating

In the 1980s, the City of New York was a City polluted with waste and graffiti, where people would always get away with committing a crime. In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime” gives us a probable explanation of how a change like this can happen. The essay is an environmental argument, with varying kinds of a seemingly endless amount of verification, which suggests that crimes can be prohibited depending on what the environment is like. Malcolm Gladwell, provides evidence throughout his entire essay that explains The Power of Context. The Power of Context indicates that the situation people are in has an effect on how they act wherever they are at.

“In the case of East Harlem, rising crime fears are accompanied by an obvious statistical explanation: Countering trends in most of the city, crime there has increased drastically. Over the past year, it has gone up by 17 percent, according to Police Department figures, with increases in rape, robbery and felony assault, among other transgressions.” (Bellafante)

Personal behaviors are largely shaped by social pressures—this statement holds more as fact than as theory. Evidently, communities pose as a positive. Why else would they exist if they were not believed to be advantageous? Communities stand as collective forces much stronger than individual forces and additionally, communities exist as oases of social comfort helping one another express emotions and gain acceptance. These positive aspects are blatantly obvious, and there really is no need to further investigate these pros within communities. Instead, there should lie more concern around the proponents of communities that are not obvious: their deleterious effects on the individual. As great as they are, communities also strip away individuality

During the early 1980’s, crime rate in New York was at its peak. To prove this point, Gladwell gives an example of the Bernard Goetz shooting. Gladwell also highlights that Goetz was viewed as a hero and people celebrated when he was easily acquitted on charges of assault and attempted murder. Gladwell mentions this to give us an example of the incidents that used to take place on the subways

He uses a vigorous choice of wording and way to structure his sentences and paragraphs. Throughout his essay, he structures his paragraphs similar to keep a consistent and organized argument. He starts his first several paragraphs with an emphasis on one of his main points: content, intention, and conviction. He then goes on to explain how that point is important and provides examples. In his fourth paragraph, intention, he starts his paragraph by explaining intention with an unique style, the form of a question. Gladwell asks, “Was the remark intended to wound, or intended to perpetuate some social wrong?”. By using this style, it not only explains what intention means, but also implies it in the form of questions and examples. This leaves the reader wanting to know more and how Gladwell responds to his own questions. For example, after Gladwell asks the questions at the beginning of paragraph four followed by “I remember sitting in church, as a child, while our Presbyterian minister made jokes about how “cheap” Presbyterians were. If non-Presbyterians make that joke, it might be offensive”. Ending like this keeps the reader interested in what he has been through and how he is applying it to his argument. Overall, Gladwell’s use of style is necessary and a key within his essay. His style keeps his audience interested and wanting to know

In the nonfiction novel The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell takes his readers on a journey through an array of social epidemics to observe what causes them to spread globally, or what he calls their tipping points. His style, along with an unambiguous tone and diction, captivates the interest of his intended young adults audience. He argues that tipping points have three different causes: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Gladwell successfully connects with his reader and presents much evidence to defend his viewpoint before turning it over to the reader for he or she to try to cause an epidemic on his or her own. With situations so massive as social epidemics, the complexity of the topics he proposes could be very arduous to understand, but, through his style, tone, and diction, Gladwell makes his points clear.

The first big incident that Gladwell states comes from Granovetter’s theory. In the article, “Thresholds of Violence”, Granovetter’s view on riots is that, “A riot was a social process in which people did things

In the area of weakness – There is a Lack of parental support at home. Many parents are on section 8 and they stay home, however, students do not get their academic activities completed, such as homework. So there is a lack of accountability for parents.

In this paper I will discuss and explain anatomy of a crime decline in New York City as well as if in these days can we say that the city is safe. Purpose of this book " The City That Become Safe " written by Franklin E. Zimring is to show us how crime rate changed during 1990 to 2009. According to author this book presents a detailed profile of New York City crime over 20 years period. Book provides the vital statistics of the crime drop by type of crime, by borough, and by year. There are two reasons that such exhaustive detail is required as a beginning to the study. First, the size and the length of the drop are without precedent in the recorded history of American urban crime. The second reason that the details of the crime decline are needed is as a road map for explaining what changes in the city and its government might have caused this epic decline. The more we know about the specific character of the decline- when it happened, where it happened, which offenses- the better our capacity for sorting through different theories of what caused the drop. In addition, shifts the focus from the two decades of the decline to an assessment of current conditions in the city. How safe is New York City?.

When children are put into educational facilities, they get a chance to connect and surround themselves with others of the same age group. Schools can also have significant influence on a person’s individuality as well as peer groups, which influence a student’s academic integrity greatly. A student will not perform well no matter what the case is, if there is negative influence from his peers and their school environment. They affect a person’s attitude, personality in a positive or negative manner.

In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, Gladwell defines success as hidden advantages and “social predestination” as stated by critic Michiko Kakutani. Kakutani argues that Gladwell’s hypotheses are not cohesive and are selective to support his idea. I concur with Kakutani. Gladwell does not provide adequate examples and counterarguments to give his theory a concrete foundation. This creates a very unconvincing argument. Gladwell asserts that success comes from factors and advantages that are mostly overlooked such as birth dates and cultural backgrounds; however, his ideas are loosely based, overly generalized, and unreliable.