What Fear Can Teach Us By Karen Thompson Walker Analysis
Fear is an involuntary response to a danger or threat in our surroundings. Whether it is an internal doubt or external fright, humans have been taught to view it as an obstacle to subdue. In "Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, Card plays with the concept that fear can influence a human’s reactions to conflict. Similar concepts are shared in “What Fear Can Teach Us” by Karen Thompson Walker; the author congregates points on how our anxieties can actually be used to an advantage, instead of it being a vexing thought. In both pieces, the authors establish the idea of how fear can be a decisive mechanism.
In her article, “What Fear Can Teach Us,” Karen Thompson Walker discusses how our anxieties can control our decisions. Walker states that
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Card introduces Ender by stating “...take my moniter away and I’m just like Peter” (Card 8). Ender’s fear of sharing characteristics with Peter motivates many significant decisions that he makes throughout the book, and causes him to view his weakness as something to conquer. Similarly, Walker shares the idea that it is in our human nature to fear our anxieties as we try to overcome them. Card, from the perspective of Valentine, states “And they won’t elect you… Especially because of the letter I’ve put in my secret file in the city library, which will be opened in the event of my death” (Card 13). Because of Valentine’s fear of Peter killing her and Ender, she thinks ahead and prepares for the worst, mirroring Walker’s point that our fears can drive us to prepare for the future. Card addresses the main idea of the book, stating that “Battle School is for training future starship captains and commodores of flotillas and admirals of the fleet.” (Card 20) Because Ender’s world lived in fear of the unknown, it prepares for war with the buggers in order to prevent the human race from extermination. Just as Ender’s world prepares for the worst out of their own fear, Walker explains how people’s most irrational decisions can be traced back to them being afraid of the worst case
Ender's Game Isolation Quotes
719 Words | 3 PagesEnder’s promotion to a “Toon Leader” of Phoenix army and the facilitator of trainings to Launchies, leaves him with little time for his friends. Over time his camaraderie with his friends deteriorates and he struggles to be sincere with anyone. This is exemplified when Ender thinks “But with his old friends there was no laughter, no remembering. Just work” (Card 139). At the same time, Ender misses his early years at the Battle School.
Possible Themes In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card
622 Words | 3 PagesEnder’s Game by Orson Scott Card is about a boy named Ender who goes to battle school to fight for the government. While he was there he got into some trouble such as getting into fights. Throughout the book two possible themes could be: you don’t always have to follow the rules to get ahead in life, and the real enemy might not be who you originally thought. The first theme is shown by how Ender did not follow orders given to him by the generals at the battle school. The other theme was shown by how the government made Ender and the others kill the bugger even though they didn’t actually do anything that they deserved to be killed for.
Violence In Ender's Game, By Orson Scott Card
1031 Words | 5 PagesAn Analysis of the Relation between Violence and Compassion Violence is the notorious cause of conflicts around the world. This theme arises many times within the novel “Ender’s Game,” written by Orson Scott Card. Ender Wiggin is just a young boy when he is expected to save all of mankind. Through constant fear of becoming like his abusive brother, Peter, Ender unknowingly executes an entire species, known as buggers. After enduring immense self-conflict, Ender is finally able to restore his compassion, and identity.
Inequality In Ender's Game
735 Words | 3 PagesEnder’s Game in my humble opinion, is the epitome of an amazing book. This book has sent me on a whirling rollercoaster of emotion with every flip of a page. If it isn’t Ender in danger, it’s his brother trying to take over the world. If not that, then it is dialogue between military corporals, feeding me nonsense that alter my belief in Ender’s ability to overcome the issue at hand “We want to teach him, not give him a nervous breakdown. ”(Card 210).
Cultural Circumstances In Ender's Game, By Orson Scott Card
999 Words | 4 PagesDuring Ender's conversation with Alai, right after he got past the giant in the mind game, Card states "Ender was so angry at the unfairness of the transfer that tears were coming to his eyes" (69). Card clearly displays a culture where if someone is ordered to do something they have to do it even if they don't like it. Just when Ender starts getting everything under control and making friends he is transferred to a new "life". He doesn't want to do it but he has to and it makes him angry and sad because he can't-do anything about it. After Ender's conversation with Mick about being the outcast in the group, the author states "He could feel his family...
Fairlie Fear Of Living Analysis
107 Words | 1 PagesFairlie 's Fear of Living - She says that one pernicious moral effect of America 's growing fear of risk: a commensurate diminution of the notion of individual responsibility for one 's actions. 1. Fairlie criticizes the American population for failing to acknowledge the role of risks in their day to day activity 2. She says that the tolerable risk has be set so low that the nation is refusing to pay the inevitable cost of human endeavor.
Ender Character Analysis
515 Words | 3 PagesMost people will take one specific manner towards certain situations. And different approaches work for different situations. In the book Ender’s Game, Ender’s siblings, Peter and Valentine, have two totally different styles of handling certain situations. Orson Scott Card develops these games to show that Ender has a combination of an aggressive style like Peter, but also can have a more sensible approach like Valentine. These traits are revealed when he plays the games
Literary Criticism Of Ender's Game
1106 Words | 5 PagesHe was aware that his whole purpose of battle school was to prepare to kill the buggers. He may not have chosen to genocide the buggers at that moment, but make no mistake Ender was planning for the buggers to die by his hands. John Kessel took this position as well: “the ultimate purpose of any practice was to enact such destruction in reality.” (Kessel, 4) He worked to understand their tactics, pieced together videos, trained extra hours, all so he could be more effective in killing the
Symbolism In Ender's Game
1166 Words | 5 PagesWith the advancement of technology new complex jobs have been created. Who else is there to take the jobs, other than humanity’s own youth? The pressure for humanity’s youth to succeed is greater than ever before. In Ender’s Game, Ender is always under pressure to win and to learn, and it takes its toll. Orson Scott Card uses the character of Ender to help demonstrate the pressure that human society puts on its youth to succeed today, through Symbolism, Imagery and Catharsis.
The Enlightenment And The Age Of Absolutism
910 Words | 4 Pagesbut fear is accompanied by the dread of punishment, which never
Connection Between Fear And Morality
386 Words | 2 PagesWhat is the connection between fear and morality? Do you think people are ever afraid to be morally responsible for their actions? The connection between fear and morality is creating individual perspectives in life and help choose the correct actions. Our moral compass should lead us to develop a sense of righteous morality and allow us to see the world through different experiences. Everyone goes through different experiences and learn differently from the actions that occur.
The Importance Of Violence In Ender's Game
776 Words | 4 PagesImportance of Violence Violence is more effective and necessary than other actions such as words during a fight against someone. In Ender’s Game, a boy named Ender Wiggin trains for a war in the Battle and Command School and encounters fights where his best option is violence. Violence is necessary because people need violence in order to win, to protect them, and because the lack of violence leads to loss. Violence is useful for winning a fight for example during the fight against Stilson, “Ender knew the unspoken rules of manly warfare even though he was only six. It was forbidden to strike an opponent who lay helpless on the ground; only an animal would do that,”(Card pg.7).
Human Nature In Ender's Game
767 Words | 4 PagesThe book ender's game has a lot of possible themes but the one that is the most truthful is “human nature is to destroy what we don’t know”. As humans when our instinct is to destroy anything that is different from us, we are so scared of anyone else having more power than we will kill anything in our path. The theme in ender's game is human nature is to destroy that which we do not understand and we know that because of what the bible says, the need to kill the buggers and the whole training the launchies go through. The bible has a lot of verses that support the theme “human nature is to destroy what we don’t know.
Fear Research Paper
634 Words | 3 PagesFear is the best way to influence others. Fear: we all feel it and all react differently to it. Fear can make you feel irrational and make you think differently than you usually would. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines fear as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
Fear And Loss Aversion Experiments
828 Words | 4 PagesEvolutionary psychology believes that fear comes from the person's self-protection instincts, and the risk comes from the person's courtship instinct. Let people imagine a fear scenario before doing a loss aversion experiment, and he will become even more disgusted with the loss. Let people first imagine a romantic plot, he will become less loathing loss. Fear makes people afraid of loss, romance makes people love adventure. But the importance of these two emotions is not the same.
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