44 pages • 1 hour read
Malcolm GladwellDavid and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Shepherd
When David refuses to use Saul’s armor in the fight, he says that he knows enough from his work as a shepherd. As a shepherd, his job was to feed the king’s flocks and keep them safe from predators. At first, it is unclear as to how this would prepare him for lethal combat against an armed adversary. But David was accustomed to moving and adapting quickly as he used projectiles to attack packs of wolves that would menace the sheep. He was used to being overmatched numerically and to using his size and speed to his advantage. His experiences as a shepherd had also forced him to think unconventionally, which gave him the victory against Goliath. Many of the figures in David and Goliath come to their breakthroughs as a result of trying to protect and nurture those in their care, such as the police officer Joanne Joffe when she arrives in Brownsville and starts the J-RIP program.
The Big Fish in the Small Pond
When Caroline Sacks chooses to attend Brown University instead of the University of Maryland, she takes the step that will eventually lead her to leave science altogether. Sacks had always been the top student in her classes, but this was not the case at Brown. Even though her scores at Brown would have put her in the top 99% of students worldwide, she was only average when compared to other elite Brown students. This allows Gladwell to introduce the idea of the “Big fish in the Small Pond.” At the University of Maryland, Sacks would have been the Big Fish, and the school would have been the Small Pond. But she would have been able to thrive, study, and remain in the sciences with total confidence, even though the Small Pond might have lacked the prestige of an Ivy League institution. Gladwell returns to this dichotomy continually after Sacks’s chapter, cautioning that the appearance of quality and prestige are not always what they seem.
The Trickster
In Chapter 6, Gladwell introduces Wyatt Walker, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham. Walker is compared to the trickster figures and gods of folklore, from Anansi the spider god to Brer Rabbit from the Uncle Remus tales. Trickster figures were wily and mischievous. They were often in situations that seemed inescapable, such as Brer Rabbit being trapped by the tar baby. But they were able to survive by their wits, often with an element of mischief. The hallmark of the trickster is that he enjoys “the unexpected freedom that comes from having nothing to lose. The trickster gets to break the rules” (172). Operating outside of the rules is something that allows David to outmaneuver Goliaths, who cannot see the strategies being used against them. While Gladwell does not necessarily celebrate these “tricks,” he does propose how the underdog may resort to unethical stratagems in order to “win” against a more powerful adversary.
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By Malcolm Gladwell
