School Shooting Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

In his article, Gladwell repeatedly elaborates his claim on the aspects of previous school shootings, by providing quoted interviews. Thus supporting his credibility and creating trust between the author and audience. Gladwell appears to have acquired the knowledge of such events therefore, exemplifying to the reader his credibility, adding onto and advancing his argument. Along with his credibility, Malcolm Gladwell uses several logical statements such as “But, beyond those facts, the great puzzle is how little school shooters fit any kind of pattern.” (Page 3) Following the above statement, the author goes on to explain just how the shooters do not, in fact, fall into a concrete pattern. To support this hypothesis he then enlightens the reader on Granovetter’s theory claiming that “...the riot has now engulfed the boys.” (Page 13) later elaborating more on this in his conclusion he states, “The problem is not that there is not an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.” (Page 13) Comparing the series of events leading up to a school shooting to “..a slow-motion, ever revolving riot,” (Page 7) Meaning that even though we might be able to explain the phenomenon that

Gladwell instills the technique of repetition to spark feelings from the reader to persuade his audience. Making use of pathos. He also appeals to the reader’s emotions in his last and final thoughts stating, “..we could try to console ourselves with the thought that there was nothing we could do, that no law or intervention or restrictions on guns could make a difference…..But the riot has now engulfed the boys who were once content to play with chemistry sets in the basement.” (page 13) to force the reader to ponder on this