Why Is David And Goliath The True Underdog

David and Goliath the True Underdog It is almost inevitable for most people to support the underdog in life, whether it is a sporting team or the story of someone going from no one to someone. The distinction between the underdog and the super dog is usually very easy to recognize; but Malcolm Gladwell points out several facts that take away from the archetypical underdog story of David and Goliath. Through close analysis of the text from the biblical story of David and Goliath, Gladwell shows several aspects that point to a new perspective of the story. In the introduction Gladwell lists several main ways that Goliath actually seems to be the underdog. These aspects include the advantage and superiority of David’s sling to Goliath’s sword,
Gladwell however, shows the advantages to the choice that David made and how it is actually superior to Goliath’s combat weapons. First Gladwell brings into account the description of slingers from the Old Testament Book of Judges being “accurate within a hair’s breadth” (9). Also he says, “an experienced slinger could kill or seriously injure a target at a distance of up to two hundred yards” (9). With David being much closer to Goliath this makes his choice even more deadly; while staying out of range of Goliath’s weapons. Eitan Hirsch backs up this aspect of the battle by conducting calculations with the Israeli defense forces by calculating David would have hit Goliath at 35 meters per second the same power as a modern hand gun (11). Robert Dohrenward supports this by saying “ Goliath had as much of a chance against David as any Bronze Age warrior with a sword would have had against a .45 automatic pistol” (12). The accuracy and the power behind David’s sling did not give Goliath a chance to be victorious. This aspect shows that Goliath is a supreme underdog even if it doesn’t seem that way to the naked eye. By using these aspects of the battle Gladwell shows he thinks that David is the real super dog in this