People’s Misconception of Underdogs in Gladwell’s David and Goliath

David and Goliath is a novel written by Malcolm Gladwell that discusses the mental and physical viewpoints of Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. His book highlights the likelihood of unlikely events occurring in certain situations where one outcome is greatly favored. The title, David and Goliath, serves a symbolic meaning - driving readers to acknowledge the roles that advantages and disadvantages hold in one’s mindset. Furthermore, readers realize that prevailing people and/or situations aren’t always as strong as they appear. Gladwell develops his proposals in the novel using personal stories, references, history and biblical texts to develop his theory. By the end of Gladwell’s novel, readers conclude that not only may advantages lead to a downfall, but disadvantages can turn out to be strength.

The short, yet intriguing stories in the novel David and Goliath validate Gladwell’s notion that people often misconcept underdogs by providing personal experiences of people realizing that advantages may be a disadvantage in certain situations. Ranadive, a girls’ basketball coach, coaching a sport he was clueless about, with a team consisting of girls who had no talent. Sadly, it was made obvious that people believed this team to be the underdog against all other opponents they would play. Gladwell highlights the fact that human nature may cause a person to believe that the more skilled team, or ‘Goliath’, would be the winner. Although, the underdogs’ disadvantage of not being as skilled or talented in the sport of basketball turned out to be their advantage. Because the team consisted of less skilled basketball players, their clueless coach thought outside the box, using strategies that even the best teams wouldn’t think to use. This won them the game and allowed them to defeat their ‘Goliath’, just as David did in the biblical story David and Goliath by appreciating that “power can come in other forms as well”. Gladwell effectively used these anecdotes more than once in the novel to prove his point.

Gladwell’s morale, his message to readers, is built around the bias of advantages and disadvantages. He is challenging the readers own views by offering many different circumstances and viewpoints. In his novel, Gladwell expresses his opinions on the belief that those with wealth are at an advantage of resources and aid. The disadvantage of that is having more money could be a disadvantage as well. Wealthy people are more likely to not work hard for what they want due to that wealth, compared to someone with low income who may use that to an advantage and work hard to accomplish great things in life. Gladwell’s anecdotes put someone in what readers to consider an advantageous situation against an unexpectedly negative outcome. Gladwell is successful in using this antithesis throughout his novel because it tests one’s view with another. Thus, allowing the reader to see both possible sides to an outcome and decide which mindset they have.

Along with Gladwell’s use of antithesis, his placement of allusions throughout each chapter is extremely symbolic. Gladwell knows his readers have a background knowledge of a diversity of things. He utilizes allusion to support his claims on how his readers views advantages and disadvantages and what that means about their perceptions of the world.

To conclude, in his novel David and Goliath, Gladwell disputes people’s misconceptions about when ordinary people confront giants, or powerful opponents. Gladwell challenges how we automatically are biased about underdogs and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it can mean to be a “David”. Gladwell persuades his audience by using the strategies of short stories, references, and biblical allusions that give the readers information on just how strong an underdog can be. Gladwell was successful in offering new insight of Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants and proving a point that advantages are disadvantages and disadvantages are advantages.