Through Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath, he reaches out and connects on an emotional level when he addresses the inner struggles that we all deal with, for some it will be everyday and for others just a few times a year. One of the many struggles that Gladwell discusses is being the “underdog.” Malcolm Gladwell uses Vivek Ranadive and Ranadive’s basketball team to show the struggles of being an underdog. Ranadive, who had never played basketball before, was the coach of a girl’s basketball team with only two girls that really knew how to play basketball. The other girls were not tall, unable to shoot and not dribblers. Though they were not the best players, Ranadive recruited experts for help and instead of playing basketball the …show more content…
How could this be? Even Gladwell said, “Ranadive coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about. He was an underdog and a misfit, and that gave him the freedom to try things no one else even dreamt of.” Gladwell was trying to prove that even though Ranadive’s team was not as skilled as the rest they ended up on top and through this story he proved that “Goliath is not quite the giant he thinks he is.” Sometimes “David’s” end up on top because they are more qualified than they think they are. Now, how would this story appeal to our emotions? Well, how many of us have been the underdog? We all …show more content…
Prior to this time many things in America and around the world had changed, Obama was elected president becoming the first African American to be elected in the United States, the very famous Boston bombing, the Aurora shooting, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected Pope (who is the first non-European pope in 1,200 years), same-sex marriages are passed, Prince William marries Kate Middleton (who is not apart of the royal blood) and the list can go on (article)! With many things changing, it led people to even more questions about where people stand, for instance: the qualifications of becoming a president in the U.S.A., a pope or even a princess, and underestimating those who committed serious crimes. I believe these questions led to the publication of David and Goliath, because Malcolm Gladwell teaches the lessons that those who are underdogs are just as good, if not better, than those who are pros and that anything can be accomplished with the right mind set. Malcolm Gladwell waited for the publication of this piece to when a time when people needed and were willing to accept the message! Gladwell was motivated to write this piece because everything was moving and changing so fast that it led to people wondering if it was for the good and whether those people were/are really qualified for the role they played. Through David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell showed the world that even though
Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now he just “sells gas, checks oil, and changes flats” (19-20). The purpose of Updike’s poem is to convince the reader that athletes should also focus on getting a good education.
Lin is an important public figure of this decade, yet it is awful that it has taken years for an Asian American to be a part of the NBA. In the documentary, Lin demonstrated that even as an underdog he never gave up, and he had many reasons why he should have. Lin is also perceived as a someone with many financial difficulties, but in reality he had all the resources to be successful: parent’s support, financial support, education support, and athletic support. The documentary is biased because it makes him appear as a one in a million who was able to make it pro. Linsanity is powerful in sharing and inspiring minorities, but because the movie is biased about social status, and no other minority has struggled in the league.
African-American players are often negatively affected due to the prevalence of racism in the town. Ivory Christian, for instance, is a born-again Christian with aspirations to be a famous evangelist, but he is unable to pursue his dream due to his commitment to the football team. Because of this, the townspeople have unrealistic expectations of him and assume that he will put all his time and energy into football. Furthermore, there is a greater pressure on him to succeed...
Your dreams of being someone may not turn out the way you think they will. The documentary Hoop Dreams is a story about two boys from the ghetto that want to play in the NBA. Arthur ¨Man”Agee goes to Marshalls and William Gates goes to St. Joseph’s which are both situated in Illinois, where their dreams of becoming a pro basketball player vanished. Both of the boys face obstacles that are outside of themselves. Arthur´s family struggled with money, education, and pressure from others hurts him. Also, William struggled with balancing his family with basketball, the pressure from others, and education.
In David Foster Wallace’s essay, “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart,” he argues that the true talent of star athletes is to completely engross themselves in playing the game. While worshipping the “abstractions like power and grace and control” of Tracy Austin, he notes the contradicting quality, her inability to articulate such abstracts (143). He continues by writing, as people’s expectation while reading the autobiography of a successful athlete is to take a peek at the secrets of their god given gifts, whereas the expectations are rarely met, making spectators, such as himself, disappointed. As a matter of fact, Wallace suspects that the exceptional talent of athletes may be brought out by their apathetic and ignorant nature when it
The Struggle for Power in 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Invisible Man, Julius Caesar, and Lord Of The Flies. & nbsp; If you delve into the content of almost any novel, there is almost always some kind of struggle for power. It could be for rightful integration into society; power over an island; power over a country; or in some cases, even power over the minds of others. These not at all uncommon struggles for power are what keep us interested in the plot of a book. The ongoing battle between a character and his cause makes it impossible to put down a good book. For instance, the a woman to somehow find a way to get out of the constant barrage of cameras and mind control conducted by their government. Although the two of them eventually lost the battle, there was still a victor in the struggle for power: their government. & nbsp; & nbsp; they believed, that it would be impossible to say that some kind of struggle for power did not exist. They were struggling for the power of freedom. There is not only one kind of freedom you can have. Some peoples struggle for the power of freedom might just be allowed to exist at all. & nbsp; When you read the Invisible Man, a novel by Ralph Ellison, in lies one of the most incredible and wonderful struggles for power that very possibly this world has ever seen.&nbs in very different ways. Some of the different characters mentioned above had to be handled in different ways. Mr. Norton and the superintendent had to be treated always with respect. The protagonist's ability to recognize these different forms of society and how to deal with each one of them eventually helped him adapt in a more appropriate way to different places in society. The protagonist, however, was not the only person whose deme around on egg shells when dealing with the protagonist. I believe that the protagonist sensed this. It was because of the struggles for power made by people like the protagonist that eventually turned the tide for black Americans in the 19th and 20th century. However, these struggles had been going on for several centuries before his own. & nbsp; & nbsp; The first major struggle for power in Julius Caesar comes from the conspirators. This group of "rebels" has the intention to free Rome and its people from the shackles of Julius Caesar. struggle for power in the play: winning the war that Antony will put up against Brutus and his followers. & nbsp; & nbsp; On one side of the battlefield there is Ralph, and on the other side is Jack. Just opposite of him is Jack who has an almost totalitarian kind of outlook on how to get tasks done. Of the two of them, Jack is the one who seems most likely to abuse the power that he is given. Ralph simply wants to have fun, while at the same time maintaining order on the island. This back and forth battle between the two of them continues all the way through the book until all of the boys who are still alive are rescued. & nbsp; Struggles like the ones I have mentioned are extremely common in almost all forms of literature. However, as I have pointed out, these kinds of struggles have been going on since the beginning of man.
Most student-athletes grow up as very innocent lads bedecked with tremendous talents and become very promising in sports. Thus, they become rays of hope for their families, neighborhoods, and schools yet to be determined. Like the lamb in William Blake’s poem The Lamb, they are fed “by the stream & o’er the mead; gave…clothing of delight, softest clothing, wooly, bright…making all the vales rejoice.” (Smith 24) Then they are exposed to the life of hard work in which only the fittest survives. This makes them ready for the different challenges in the sports scene.
Basketball is a chart-topping sport that is loved by many fans. It’s been a hit since 1891 when it began, starting in Springfield, Massachusetts. It grew rapidly in popularity and spread around the world. Many people found it comforting to play, such as Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy was an outstanding basketball player, who was committed in going far with his teammates. Although he seemed superb, he had a troubled life growing up at his family home. His parents were abusive and uncaring towards him, therefore he used basketball as an alternative. In My Losing Season, Pat was able to obliterate the thought of his abusive parents. His comfort was playing basketball with a team he will never fail to remember. The outcomes Pat acquired were admirable,
The issue of race in sport is somewhat baffling in that many people would rather not address at all even though sport has been intricately intertwined with racial issues throughout the Twentieth century. Those who would have us omit the topic altogether argue that analyses typically single out the black athlete, and then attempt to explain his/her inordinate success in ways different than we do with other groups. Critics contend that this is racist, since it perpetuates the idea that blacks are different, and often inferior. Edwards (1972) asserts that a typical theme resulting from such analysis is that blacks are physically superior, but intellectually inferior, to whites. Hoberman (1997) has further made the case that physical prowess, especially in such sports as basketball, has become a defining characteristic of the African-American community, and that beliefs about physical superiority are closely related to an anti-intellectualism that permeates black male culture. Essentially, Hoberman’s argument is that inordinate attention and idolization of prominent black athletes such as Michael Jordan has focused attention away from more realistic and important role models, and this, in turn has stunted intellectual, and social economic development in black communities.
The story explains that this particular team was a group of underdogs who were able to use an exhausting strategy against teams that were far more talented than them. Using this story as a reference, Malcolm was able to explain that in this situation, being an underdog can give an edge because the team was able to “try things no one else even dreamt of.” (37) The strategy used by this team was then contrasted with the fact that if a talented team were to have tried the full-court press strategy, they would not have the motivation to successfully execute the strategy. Furthermore, Gladwell contrasted ideas was by using the Big Fish - Little Pond Theory, which he used to look into the advantages and disadvantages of students attending very good colleges versus mediocre colleges. After looking closely into this theory, Gladwell was able to find that the “best students from mediocre schools” (87) happened to almost always be a “better bet than students from the very best schools.” (87) Simply, what this means is that while it might seem to be a good
The movie “Basketball Diaries” is based on a series of journal entries written by Jim Carroll during the early years of his life, these entries would later on be published as a novel. Growing up in the slums of New York City, Carroll was exposed to many instances of drugs abuse and as a result of his life being filled with stress such as him living in an unstable household without a father, and losing his best friend he began to engage in substance abuse. As a teenager, Carroll was willing to go to extreme lengths just to fit in with his peers. He was an avid basketball player who seemed to be devoted to the sport and was knowledgeable when it came to teaching others what he knew about the sport. Based on the opening scenes of the movie, one can tell that Carroll was a very impressionable teenager. Like many teenagers, Carroll was left open to the influences of his environment and so he was misguided because instead of trying to steer him on the right path, the older folks led him to what would inevitably become his destruction. This paper will provide background information of the ...
In sports, there is no shortage of black success stories. Meanwhile, two black men of prominence in Odessa (who are not athletes) fell from grace. Willie Hammond Jr. (the first black city councilor and county commissioner) and Laurence Hurd (a minister and desegregation supporter) were glimmers of hope for the black community that were both snuffed out. Hammond was arrested on charges of arson conspiracy and perjury and Hurd is in prison for burglary and robbery, leaving a hole in the morale of the black community that was not repaired. These losses, combined the with negative news of black people circulated via media, made the possibility of succeeding in a white man’s world inconceivable. Yet, there is no shortage of black success stories in sports, like Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson; in every area that is not a “rich man’s sport”, black athletes dominate. To the poor children on the Southside, there is something very alluring about the “Cinderella stories” of men from poor black neighborhoods rising to prominence through sports. Based on these examples, there seem to only be two paths for a black teen to take: criminal or athlete. Many of these teens aspire to be sports stars and depend on nothing else because there is nothing else. Some may become the superstars they hope to be or they fall into ruin as Boobie Miles, Derric Evans, and Gary Edwards
Growing up, Krzyzewski belonged to a group of neighborhood sidekicks tagged The Columbos, in which they could always be found taking part in playground basketball. ‘Mickey’, as he was known in this fraternity, had long been interested in sports but street ball with The Columbos is where he first learned to love the game. (Hines-Brigger, n.d.) While children usually had more than their parents in the Polish neighborhood in Chicago, young Krzyzewski was a successful point guard at Weber High School, an all-boy Catholic prep school. He was afforded the opportunity due to his parents paying extra to send him, despite his father being an elevator operator in Willoughby Tower and his mother, a woman who scrubbed floors at the Chicago Athletic Club.
Wiggins, David Kenneth, and Patrick B. Miller. 2003. The unlevel playing field: a documentary history of the African American experience in sport. Urbana: University of Illinois Press
The writing style of an author plays a giant role in expressing certain details and letting the reader become more drawn into the piece of literature. In the story summary David and Goliath, which we get from the first book of Samuel chapter seventeen verses one through fifty eight. This popular bible story expresses how a young and weak teenage boy named David can take down a giant with name of Goliath with faith in God. The use of different elements used throughout the summary such as diction, imagery, and language gives off hopeful feel because the main point of the story is for the reader to understand that anything is possible with God.