I need help with my summer homework, The Tipping Point and Meme??

Question

I read the book the tipping point for my ap language class this summer, I have to write a 350 word essay about:

"How does he [Malcolm Gladwell, the author]use the writing modes of exposition, description, and narration throughout his book to underscore and expand the concept of "meme?""

But I have no clue what to write, like at all... Can anybody please help me? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

The idea of meme was originally created by the biologist Richard Dawkins to describe ideas, fashions, and so on, that are passed from person to person. I haven't read MG's book, although the expression "tipping point" has enterred the language and I'm familiar with it.

When Britney Spears bares her navel, and soon others do so too, that's a meme. Certainly the book must contain examples of similar things. The challenge will be to show how a meme and a tipping point are related. For instance, YouTube as a destination is a meme, and became so when it passed a tipping point and went from being an obscure site to a hugely popular one.

In looking for memes, you want to look for whatever lines of communication there are between people, and when looking for tipping points, you want to look for times when those memes become dominant and even overwhelming.