When it comes to trying to define our own "character," usually we attempt to define it based upon our own experiences and thoughts. But just as we all carry with us different experiences and ways of thinking, we all can derive slightly or sometimes even vastly different understandings of what character is and is not. Malcolm Gladwell proposes that we can begin to understand character by looking at at three key sources of influence that help to form our character. In "The Power of Context," he notes that our environment, people on the outside, and in-the-moment decisions all play a role in developing our character.
             Environment is one of the largest influences on a person when it comes to character. Different environments will produce differing arrays of personalities, habits, and tendencies. Even those who seem destructive and troubled in our world, according to Gladwell, are mainly that way because of the environment around them. "Broken Windows" and "The Power of Context" both suggest that "the criminal is actually someone acutely sensitive to his environment who is prompted to commit crimes based on his perception of the world around him" (Gladwell 242). This idea is intriguing; a criminal only commits crimes because he is, in a way, pushed to do so by the environment around him. Although that theory may describe why a criminal commits felonies, it does not specifically define the character of a criminal. A person's character, according to Gladwell, does not stay the same at all times. He makes a point that, while it may seem like many of us have a really concrete character, in reality, no one does. "The reason that most of us seem to have a consistent character is that most of us are really good at controlling our environment"(246). This basically conveys that many of us are able to manipulate the environment around us, so it is much easier for us to appear to keep our character the same...