Ender's Game Questions Chapters 1-5

Chapter 1
1. The adults lie to Ender because they are cautious around him. They are not sure what he is capable of, so they are careful and make sure to tell him that things will not hurt so he will not freak out thinking that they will. They are correct to be cautious though, because he knows they are lying. He puts up with the pain, but I could imagine that if he did not want to he could control the adults fairly easily.

2. I think Ender being a "Third" means that he is a third-born child. I am guessing that maybe third-borns are typically illegal, but for some reason they are special so had an experiment going with one that they allowed to be born. To his parents, this is positive. They got to have a third child even though it is not usually allowed, so it was good for them. For his brother, it is negative. Everyone thinks that Ender is so special, so Peter never gets to have the spotlight and doesn't seem to be valued as much as Ender is. For his sister Valentine, it is also negative. She would not be compared to Ender as much as Peter would be, but she would still be in the shadow of Ender. That could possibly be a good thing if either of them did not want to be in the spotlight at a certain time. For his classmates, it would be positive. They could get away with things because everyone is watching Ender. They could pass normal assignments off as too hard saying that it was more aimed at Ender's abilities. They would have an immediate target, so the kids that would normally get bullied would be off the hook.

Chapter 2
1. I think Peter was joking when he threatened Ender. I think this because he had the opportunity to hurt them, and he didn't. He is afraid of the consequences. If he does want to be an elected official like Valentine said, then he can't do anything to kill them. Also, at the end of the chapter, he said "Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels, i'm sorry, I'm your brother, I love you" (15) when he thought no one could here. He is just bad on the surface; his heart is fine.

2. I think Peter's behavior at the end of the chapter is different from the rest of the chapter because he is not being watched. He is accustomed to having eyes on him all the time, so he has built up a hard, mean shell that only comes off when he thinks he is the only one awake. He probably would have strangled Ender if he did not think he was sleeping.

3. Ender: I think Ender is a good person who was put in a hard situation. The author made me feel like this by describing him being hurt by someone but then having him come home to be hurt himself. It showed me that he is vulnerable yet still capable of using his power to stand up for himself. I also think that he is very smart because of the way he disconnected in class yet was still following what was going on.
Valentine: I think Valentine is the peacemaker. She seems to know that Peter is capable of hurting her yet she does not appear to be afraid. She can see that Peter is not a real threat yet she still knows that Ender needs protection. I saw this because the author first said she had a soft voice, which portrays being gentle. Also, she stood up to him saying "And do you know why you don't mean it?... Because you want to be in government someday" (13). She knows how to control Peter.
Peter: At first I was afraid of what Peter would do to Ender and Valentine, but after his outburst where he said how he loved Ender, I think that he just acts mean, he isn't deeply mean. He seems like he has a lot of issues that he needs to work out, such as his violence toward Ender "I could kill you like this" (12). He seems violent, but because of how vulnerable he was when people were sleeping, I just can't believe that.

Chapter 3
1. What Graff meant about evolution working against girls is that time has not made them to be fighters. Girls grow into mothers, into gentle caretakers. Over the years that is what they have become accustomed to. In this story especially, it seems as if they were really meant to have kids and take care of things. Graff is pointing this out because it does not make good fighters. They are to gentle, to kind, and they care to much for other people to be good in battle.

2. OSC included the act of Ender taking Graff's hand because it showed more of what he was. He was a six year old little kid who was being taken away from his parents and his home, and him holding Graff's hand on the way out helped portray that. The way the story is told he could be 15, and that action helped show that he isn't.

Chapter 4
1. When Graff said that "Individual human beings are tools that the others use to help us all survive" he means that each person is just a tiny dot in the big picture, and that our purpose is to help the whole picture. If we only focus on our tiny dot, then humanity will end. He thinks that people are just the vessels for a greater power to be shown through. That greater power will eventually perform something for the greater good.

2. The quote "Isolate him enough that he remains creative - otherwise he'll adopt the system and we'll lose him" means that the people at Battle School want to keep Ender in isolation from the other kids in that they don't want him to make friends. They think if they let him become a part of the normal system and adopt the ways of everyone else he will not come up with battle strategies and solutions that are creative enough to have success. They think he will lose his potential if he integrates with everyone else.

3. Yes, Ender did mean to break the other boy's arm. He did not think he did, but then he realized "No, he had meant to hurt him, and had pulled with all his strength" (33). Deep down, he did want to hurt the boy. This incident shows us that Ender is not in control of his emotions. He knew that he should not do something that violent in public, yet he lost control of his power and ended up hurting the other boy. I think it is acceptable to do despicable things for survival, because sometimes life comes down to survival of the fittest. If you want to make it out on top, you have to do what is necessary to get there. However, Ender was not strictly in a survival situation, so I don't think he should have broken the other boy's arm.

Chapter 5
1. I think it is healthy that Ender does not show feelings in battle school. Some positive things if he did show feelings are that he would not build up a lot of sadness inside of him, and he learn better how to cope with different emotions without pushing them down or letting them run wild. Some negative things are that he would be made fun of by the other boys and that the adults would not take him seriously as a fighter. Positive things about not showing feelings are that he learns how to cope with emotions by himself, and he gets more respect from the people around him by being strong. Negative things about not showing feelings are that he may become emotionless and ruthless as a soldier, and he may forget about his family and his relationship with them if he tries to hide his feelings for them. I think in the long run it is good for him to not show feelings at Battle School.

2.  Ender beat Bernard by taking away the respect everyone had for him. He made anonymous jokes about Bernard so that everyone else would not take him very seriously, so Bernard would not have a group supporting him. Now Bernard is just the jester who everyone makes fun of. This is an unusual solution to his problem because usually he fixes his problems with physical violence, but this time he learned a better method. I think that Ender is starting to see that he gets better results if he wins with his mind rather than his body.

3. Coping Mechanisms Ender Uses:
Violence: He will fight to solve his problems. In the end violence is harmful for Ender because it makes his victims want to retaliate and get revenge against him.
Hiding: He will hide his feelings and try to deal with his problems on his own. In the end hiding is good for Ender because it means that he does not face the problems that come from showing what he is really feeling. For example, hiding his homesickness prevented the other boys from making fun of him for it.
Outsmarting: He will solve problems by outsmarting his opponents and doing things that hurt them without literally hurting them. Overall, this is a good method because he does not get the backlash and remorse of physical violence but he still gets the satisfaction of success that does not come with hiding.