TOW #3

The Art of Failure is an essay written by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is a well known journalist and non-fiction author, who has worked as a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1996. Throughout the essay, Gladwell furthers his credibility through the mentioning of famous psychologists as well as including information from their studies. The Art of Failure is an essay written about how when people are under stress, they tend to either panic or choke. Through a series of examples and studies, he is able to show that these types of 'failures' are enduced by stress, an occur because that is how the brain reacts to stress. His main purpose is to show that different types of failures happen to everyone, and that they are not necessarily a failure, but a result of their brain's reaction. Gladwell demonstrates this throught the use of famous events in history including famous figures. Along with this, he includes intense imagry and suspense in order to recreate the feelings of stress during each situation. One of the main examples he uses is the 1993 Wimbledon finals. Jana Novotna was winning the match 4-1 and was on her winning point when she choked. For the rest of the game, she could not get a point and her opponent Steffi Graf deafeted her. In order to transfer this sort of pressure to the audience Gladwell writes, "On the sidelines, Novotna wiped her raquet and her face with a towel, and then each finger individually. It was her turn to serve. She missed a routine volley wide, shook her head, talked to herself" (Gladwell para. 1).  By including the example from Wimbledon, with Jana Novotna, Gladwell was able to express to his audience that even pro tennis players can mess up. He explained how the type of failure Novotna was experiencing was a choke, because she resorted back to her primary tennis skills, as if she was a beginner rather than a professional. Along with this, the imagry demonstrated to the audience the extreme pressure Novotna was under. This way, Gladwell's audience was able to understand why she choked without Gladwell having to say, "she was under a lot of pressure." Overall, Gladwell's essay was extremely informative as well as effective. His essay had the ability to appeal to anyone who was able to understand the vocabulary. He was able to explain to the world that failure is inevitable, and it's not always our fault.

Jana Novotna Wimbledon 1993