Gladwell has spent the entire book talking about other people’s success stories and what elements had to be in place in order to give preference to the “outliers” in these circumstances. Now it’s time to share his own story. Or rather, his mother’s. Joyce Nation grew up in Jamaica. She and her twin sister won scholarships to attend a boarding school called Saint Hilda’s, then later went to college in London. There Joyce met Graham...
Gladwell has spent the entire book talking about other people’s success stories and what elements had to be in place in order to give preference to the “outliers” in these circumstances. Now it’s time to share his own story. Or rather, his mother’s. Joyce Nation grew up in Jamaica. She and her twin sister won scholarships to attend a boarding school called Saint Hilda’s, then later went to college in London. There Joyce met Graham Gladwell, a math professor whom she later married and moved with to Canada. But of course, the story is not quite this simple. A number of factors had to be just right for this meeting to happen and for our author Malcolm to be born. It’s a fascinating history that boils down to matters of race, skin color, and educational practices within the island culture. The main idea of the chapter turns out to be a brief history of 20th-century life in Jamaica.
Adding this chapter and putting it last is a terrific technique with which to conclude this book. Gladwell is putting himself into the text, showing that no one is immune to these kinds of “outlier” events, not even the journalist reporting on them. He also allows each one of us to think about our own backgrounds and our own cultural legacies. What were the special circumstances that had to happen in order for each one of us to be born? We are given much to think about here, even after closing the covers of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment