Parenting Style In J. K. Rowling's 'Outliers'

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The screams and cries for affection bolt her up and out of the bed. The same feeling of nausea washes through her body, as she stumbles dizzily towards the wailing sounds that fill her pounding head. She hushes her infant daughter as the baby leeches whatever warmth and radiance the woman has left. She shivers as the cold drops of shower water envelop her skin and drown her in a few seconds of ignorance from this misery she calls a life. Every second of blissful water brings her back to reality and poverty; she is forced to exchange whatever daydreams she thought possible for the harsh truth that she cannot afford to waste a mere second. The nanny arrives, announcing her presence with a quick sequence of knocks necessary, lest an intruder waiting …show more content…
Rowling was the child of two successful and educated individuals, she possessed the advantage of concerted cultivation, which allowed her to get her books published for the world to read. In the book Outliers, Gladwell describes concerted cultivation as a middle class “parenting style” that attempts to “actively ‘foster and assess a child’s talents, opinions and skills.’” (104). This parenting style teaches kids the importance of their own ideas and talents and not to remain quiet if they feel the need to do or say something important, something JK Rowling also had the advantage of. During her childhood, Rowling’s father was an engineer at the Rolyce Royce Aircraft Center while her mother worked as a science technician and science teacher (“Celebrity Family”). Rowling gained many advantages from the simple fact of being born into a middle class family; she was taught to express her opinions freely and saw from a firsthand experience what the value of a proper education meant. Her passion for writing was supported and encouraged by a close friend named Sean and her grandmother, Kathleen, who exposed Rowling to books like the biography of Jessica Mitford to whom J.K. Rowling later admired (“Grade Saver”). Rowling’s experience of being surrounded by a family and community that encouraged and supported her hobbies pushed her to further develop her imagination and writing skills as a child. During Rowling’s search with the Christopher Little agency, she is rejected …show more content…
Rowling also owes her success to appropriately using the numerous disadvantages like her mother’s multiple sclerosis and her own penury to her advantage by turning these obstacles into imaginative and successful ideas for her path to success. When Rowling was young, her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Rowling struggled with this fact, even after her mother 's death (Biography Online). Due to the fact that Rowling faced many difficulties and challenges because of her mother’s rare condition and death, her imagination began to be fueled by a darker force, as can be seen through the last couple of books of the Harry Potter series which focus on a darker world of wizardry. When Rowling divorced her husband and gained custody of her infant daughter, her sudden state of penury and having to live with her sister pushed Rowling up against a wall (IMDb). When Rowling faced another challenge, one of imminent poverty, she did not despair and let the wall crush her, but instead she used the pressure as motivation to finish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In her twenties, Rowling struggled with depression due to her state of penury and her mother’s sudden death; she based the Dementors of Harry Potter off of the “cold absence of feeling - that really hollowed-out feeling” she had felt years ago (Bibel). Instead of letting her life become a hefty disadvantage and handicap, she used that darkness she felt for a long time to drive the final narrative of the

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