Review Of Malcolm Gladwell's Novel 'Kill Those Giants'

Kill Those Giants! Malcolm Gladwell, in his novel David and Goliath, introduces to his readers the idea of how peoples’ perspectives on events are so drastically different according to how they are affected. He brings to the table three types of groups one could be a part of according to the Canadian psychiatrist J.T. MacCurdy; “direct hits,” “near misses,” and “remote misses.” You can place anyone included in a catastrophic crisis in one of these groups. What comes to mind when I think of people being affected similarly to the Blitz between the Germans and the British is 9/11, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, slavery in America, Pearl Harbor, and many, many more. I have never experienced a similar situation to these to understand completely what Gladwell and MacCurdy are talking about, but it makes …show more content…
I would never expect someone to be excited that they were bombed, but this young woman was. The people who were in the “remote miss” area had been told constantly to watch out and pay attention because they were going to be bombed, and when they weren’t, they must have been ecstatic that they had another chance in life. It would be like having a near death experience multiple times in a row. The only experience of remote miss I have is from the Westgate terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya. My family had been across the street in movie theater a couple weeks before this occurred. Looking back now, it is even scarier that my whole family could have died if we were in the mall because we are American. According to foreignpolicy.com, the terrorists were saying we are only looking for Americans and Kenyans, and they said more than 67 of the people in the mall were killed. My mom went to school with one of the missionary kids who died. I have not experienced anything more than a very remote