Malcolm Gladwell, "The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime" and:

• Beth Loffreda, Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder
• Deborah Tannen, "The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope for Dialogue"
• Susan Faludi, "The Naked Citadel"
• Susan Faludi, "The Naked Citadel" and Beth Loffreda, Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder
• Jon Krakauer, Selections from Into the Wild

For more assignment ideas involving this essay, please visit the Gladwell link-o-mat.

Gladwell and Loffreda: Applying Social Theory to an Individual Case

For your fourth assignment I would like you to make an argument about the way that Loffreda's account complicates Gladwell's thinking on the subject of social change. In other words, the question assumes that the events surrounding the death of Matt Shepherd can be explained using the terms that Gladwell employs–stickiness, the Law of the Few, the Broken Windows Theory–and so on. But I do not want you simply to use Gladwell's essay as a way of interpreting Loffreda's. I also want you to consider the larger implications. What does Loffreda's essay show that Gladwell has failed to consider or to think through completely? Gladwell could be correct in many respects, but he still may have overlooked certain features of social life. What might Gladwell learn from a reading of Loffreda?

A "C" paper will apply Gladwell's terms to Loffreda's text in a clear, competent, and accurate way. A "B" paper will develop the discussion of "complications" more extensively. An "A" paper will explore original and thought-provoking complications while doing everything that the "C" and "B" papers do as well.

At this point in the semester your paper should include the following:

1. An introductory paragraph that (a) presents the problem, question, or context that your essay responds to; (b) identifies the authors under discussion and their works; (c) gives your readers a statement of the argument you will make or the question you will pose

2. A coherent, well-developed argument that draws on textual evidence to support its claims. Textual evidence should be selected carefully and interpreted in order to guide the reader toward your conclusions.

3. Wherever appropriate, textual evidence that makes connections between the authors

4. Well-organized paragraphs that present a unifying main idea through explanation and illustration. Ideally, the first or second sentence of each paragraph should identify the main idea.

5. Clear, grammatically correct prose.

Back to top

Gladwell and Tannen: Language and Social Change

How does Malcolm Gladwell's discussion of the dynamics of social change confirm, contradict, or complicate Tannen's argument? Does Gladwell's account suggest that social change is decided by the strongest argument? Does debate even play a significant role? If public debate and rational deliberation have a marginal influence, why does the university place so high a premium on them? Have professors depicted the social world in the ways that are flattering to themselves? In what ways is this depiction both accurate and inaccurate?

Gladwell and Tannen (Assignment 2)

Writing assignment:

Drawing closely on the work of Deborah Tannen and Malcolm Gladwell, please respond to the following assignment question: could "small changes in context" (Gladwell) influence a wider transformation of an adversarial culture into one of dialogue (Tannen)? If yes-how? If no-why not?

Food for thought:

Think about Gladwell's concepts of the Law of the Few, the Stickness Factor, the Tipping Point, and the Power of the Context. How can these be utilized in conjunction with Tannen's plea for a "dialogized" culture? Which of them belong to the realm of debate and which are representative of the dialogue? If the "context-changes" can indeed impact the overall transformation of culture, what is to be gained by this shift? Refer to the writers and to your independent opinion.

Sanja Bahun, Rutgers University, Spring 2005

Back to top

Malcolm Gladwell and Susan Faludi

In "The Power of Context," Gladwell suggests that: "behavior is a function of social context." Do you believe Faludi would agree or does her essay suggest other truths about our society? If so, what would they be? What is your understanding of the most significant determinants of human behavior?

Jack Jarmon, Rutgers University, Spring 2005

Tensions between the Public, the Private, and the Personal (Assignment 5)

In “the Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime,” Malcolm Gladwell proposes a new theory of behavior: that rather than fixed character traits or motivational stimuli, subtle shifts in the environment may determine behavior on individual and social levels. In “The Naked Citadel,” Susan Faludi provides an interesting situation in which to test Gladwell’s ideas. The culture of the Citadel promotes a certain set of values and notions about male identity that are encouraged and enforced by certain rules, norms and customs.

In your essay, use the world of the Citadel as Faludi describes it as a test case for Gladwell’s ideas about change. In formulating your project, decide whether or not a change is called for at The Citadel. If so, what concepts and examples from Gladwell would be effective in this military setting? Which would not? If you think change is not called for at The Citadel, explain why and show how Gladwell’s ideas explain the environment of the school.

Consider the following:

• Can Shannon Faulkner be considered a “tipping point?”
• How do conditions in the Citadel resemble the mock prison example?
• Can solutions for a subway system be applied to a military academy?
• Are gender and language significant aspects of context?

Laura Smith, Rutgers University, Fall 2005

From Tensions between the Public, the Private, and the Personal.

Back to top

Tensions between the Public, the Private, and the Personal (Assignment 6)

Both Susan Faludi and Beth Loffreda describe situations that could be considered tipping points: situations that challenged accepted stereotypes of male identity, that resulted in violence, that were taken up by the media, and that became the catalyst for greater public awareness of the issues of women’s equal opportunity, and gay rights, respectively.

In this essay, you are asked to examine the parallels between The Citadel and the world of Laramie, Wyoming, using Gladwell’s theory of social change. Note the key people, messages and situational cues at work. Consider the following:

• What are the parallels between Matt Shepard and Shannon Faulkner?
• How did the media act as a tipping point in each case?
• Which situational factors led to violence?
• How did female and gay identities go against accepted norms of “male” identity? How did stereotypes function to challenge and maintain identities?
• How are larger social tensions reflected in these episodes?

Laura Smith, Rutgers University, Fall 2005

Back to top

Malcolm Gladwell and Jon Krakauer

In your last paper you were asked to consider the possible motivation behind Chris McCandless's decision to abandon conventional knowledge. For this paper we are going to examine the excerpt from Krakauer's book in a new light-in relation to Malcolm Gladwell's ideas. In his chapter, "The Power of Context," Malcolm Gladwell argues for another way to understand one's relation to "meaning" and knowledge. While Gladwell looks at the epidemic of crime in New York City in the mid 1980s and the dramatic drop in crime rates a decade later and Jon Krakauer ruminates on a young man's "strange spiritual quest" (Krakauer 420) into the Alaskan wilderness, both authors contemplate the nature of "character".  One seemingly incidental connection between both essays is the description of graffiti in the context of this contemplation of "character." For this paper, I would like you all to engage in some contemplation of your own on this particular connection. Why do you think each author chooses a visual representation such as graffiti to embody his ideas about character?

Stephanie André, Rutgers University, Spring 2005

Back to top