David and Goliath Character Analysis

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is a writer and public intellectual, and the author of David and Goliath. Throughout the book, he attempts to untangle the misperceptions people have about power, arguing that the majority of society… read analysis of Malcolm Gladwell

David

David is a small shepherd boy from the well-known biblical story of David and Goliath. According to this story, David volunteers to fight a giant named Goliath on behalf of the Israelites. Goliath is… read analysis of David

Goliath

Goliath is the large, giant-like warrior from the biblical story of David and Goliath. In this tale, the warring Israelites and Philistines meet each other in the valley of Elah, where Goliath volunteers to challenge… read analysis of Goliath

T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

T. E. Lawrence was a British military leader best known for leading the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Better known as “Lawrence of Arabia,” he was put in charge of… read analysis of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

Vivek Ranadivé

Vivek Ranadivé is an Indian immigrant living in Silicon Valley in the United States. An employee at a software company, he decides to coach his daughter Anjali’s youth basketball team. Recognizing that neither he… read analysis of Vivek Ranadivé

Caroline Sacks

Caroline Sacks is a woman who has always believed she would become a scientist. From an early age, Sacks excels in her academic pursuits and takes a special interest in science. As she gets older… read analysis of Caroline Sacks

Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino is a college athlete on the basketball team of the University of Massachusetts. When his team plays the Fordham Rams, Pitino is astounded as he sits on the bench and watches the Rams—who… read analysis of Rick Pitino

The Hollywood Executive

Gladwell refers several times throughout David and Goliath to an unnamed Hollywood executive who grew up in a working-class family. As a boy, the Hollywood executive worked hard to earn money by assembling a group… read analysis of The Hollywood Executive

Teresa DeBrito

Teresa DeBrito is the principal of Shepaug Valley Middle School. Although most people in the United States believe that small class sizes are highly desirable, DeBrito worries that the classes at Shepaug Valley are shrinking… read analysis of Teresa DeBrito

David Boies

David Boies is one of the United States’ most successful litigators. As a child, Boies struggles to learn to read because he has dyslexia. After graduating high school, he works as a construction worker before… read analysis of David Boies

Ingvar Kamprad

Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of IKEA. Kamprad came up with the idea to sell disassembled furniture in the 1950s, long before anyone had thought of doing anything like this. Because of this innovative idea… read analysis of Ingvar Kamprad

Gary Cohn

Gary Cohn is the former president of Goldman Sachs. He struggled as a young boy in school because he has dyslexia, which made it difficult for him to learn to read. His academic troubles were… read analysis of Gary Cohn

J. T. MacCurdy

MacCurdy is a psychiatrist who wrote about morale. More specifically, MacCurdy studied London’s overall response to German bombings during World War II, wanting to know how Londoners managed to stay so calm during the eight-month… read analysis of J. T. MacCurdy

Emil “Jay” Freireich

Jay Freireich is a doctor who grew up in extreme poverty. The son of Hungarian immigrants, his father died when he was a very young boy, leaving him and his mother nearly destitute. Throughout his… read analysis of Emil “Jay” Freireich

Fred Shuttlesworth

Fred Shuttlesworth was a black preacher and activist in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights movement. A brave man, he was a strong opponent of segregation. When news went around that he was planning on… read analysis of Fred Shuttlesworth

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a well-known preacher and activist who came to prominence during the civil rights movement. Gladwell focuses on Dr. King’s effort to call attention to the Movement in Birmingham, Alabama, where… read analysis of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wyatt Walker

Wyatt Walker was a Baptist minister who came to Birmingham, Alabama in 1960 to work with Martin Luther King, Jr. An intelligent and cunning man, Walker enjoyed tricking racists like Bull Connor, the city’s… read analysis of Wyatt Walker

Rosemary Lawlor

Rosemary Lawlor is a Catholic woman from Northern Ireland. As a young woman, Lawlor is forced to flee her home with her husband and newborn baby because it’s no longer safe for them to stay… read analysis of Rosemary Lawlor

Nathan Leites

Nathan Leites was a researcher who studied the nature of authority after World War II. Together with his colleague Charles Wolf Jr., he penned Rebellion and Authority, in which the two men argue that… read analysis of Nathan Leites

Charles Wolf Jr.

Charles Wolf Jr. was a researcher who studied the nature of authority after World War II. Together with his colleague Nathan Leites, he penned Rebellion and Authority, in which the two men argue… read analysis of Charles Wolf Jr.

Joanne Jaffe

Joanne Jaffe is a police officer who, when put in charge of New York City’s Housing Bureau, institutes a new way of addressing juvenile crime in the neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Brownsville is notorious for… read analysis of Joanne Jaffe

Mike Reynolds

Mike Reynolds is Kimber Reynolds’s father. In the aftermath of Kimber’s shooting and subsequent death, Mike Reynolds gathers all the influential people he knows and brainstorms ways of addressing California’s high crime rate. He’s… read analysis of Mike Reynolds

Wilma Derksen

Wilma Derksen is a Canadian woman whose daughter was murdered in the 1980s. When her daughter, Candace, doesn’t come home one evening, Wilma and her husband go looking for her but are unsuccessful. It… read analysis of Wilma Derksen

André Trocmé

André Trocmé was a pastor of the Huguenot faith, a sect of French Protestants. During World War II, Trocmé lived with his family in the small mountain town of Le Chambon-sur-Ligne, where he and the… read analysis of André Trocmé

King Saul

King Saul is the leader of the Israelites in the biblical story of David and Goliath. When David volunteers to fight Goliath, Saul tries to dissuade him, pointing out that David is not only… read analysis of King Saul

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Édouard Manet

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Edgar Degas

Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Paul Cézanne

Claude Monet

Claude Monet is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Claude Monet

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro is a famous painter who was part of the Impressionist movement in 19th-century France. Gladwell turns to this movement to illustrate the benefits of breaking away from convention, since the Impressionists decided to… read analysis of Camille Pissarro

Eugene “Bull” Connor

Bull Connor was the racist public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama in 1960. Wyatt Walker and Dr. King end up tricking Connor into ordering firemen to spray crowds of black children with water. Connor also… read analysis of Eugene “Bull” Connor

Harriet Carson

Harriet Carson is an Irish Catholic woman who rallies support for the people of Lower Falls who have been forced into their homes by the British military. Because these people are beginning to starve as… read analysis of Harriet Carson

Ian Freeland

Ian Freeland is the general of the British forces assigned to bring order to Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Clearly subscribing to Leites and Wolf’s belief that it doesn’t matter what people think of… read analysis of Ian Freeland

Marshal Philippe Pétain

Marshal Philippe Pétain was a French war hero during World War I. When the Nazis overtook France during World War II, they appointed Pétain as the leader of a small fascist government, and he took… read analysis of Marshal Philippe Pétain

Minor Characters

Anjali Ranadivé

Anjali Ranadivé is Vivek Randivé’s daughter. Anjali plays on the basketball team that Vivek coaches and is surprised that her father—who, like her, has very little basketball experience—manages to cultivate such a successful team using the full-court press strategy.

Gordon Zubrod

Gordon Zubrod was Jay Freireich’s boss at the National Cancer Institute. Although Zubrod objected to many of Freireich’s techniques, he ultimately let him do what he needed to in order to find a cure for childhood leukemia.

Tom Frei

Tom Frei was Freireich’s colleague at the National Cancer Institute, and one of the only people who actively helped him find a cure for childhood leukemia.

Kimber Reynolds

Kimber Reynolds was a young college student who was mercilessly shot and killed while visiting her hometown of Fresno, California in 1992. Kimber’s death led her father, Mike, to work with influential people to institute the Three Strikes Law in California.

Joe Davis

Joe Davis is the criminal who shot and killed Kimberly Reynolds. Like his accomplice, Douglas Walker, he had a long criminal record, though this didn’t stop him from riding around that night on a stolen motorcycle and trying to rob Kimberly.

Douglas Walker

Douglas Walker is the criminal who shot and killed Kimberly Reynolds. Like his accomplice, Joe Davis, he had a long criminal record, though this didn’t stop him from riding around that night on a stolen motorcycle and trying to rob Kimberly.

Candace Derksen

Candace Derksen was the 13-year-old daughter of Wilma Derksen. Candace was murdered while making her way home one night, and though her parents were distraught, they decided to move on with their lives instead of getting hung up on finding and persecuting her killer.

Édouard Theis

Édouard Theis was André Trocmé’s close friend in Le Chambon-sur-Ligne during World War II. Like Trocmé, he was fiercely committed to upholding his morals, which is why he worked to protect Jewish people from persecution, even when doing so put him in danger.

David and Goliath Characters