Chapter 3
Graff tells Ender that not a lot of girls get into Battle School because centuries of evolution are working against them. When he says this, he means that generation after generation, the girls role in life was to get an education in house working and other such things. The problem was they weren’t allowed to fight because the men usually did that. What he means is the male gender has had a very long head start on the girls, which is most likely the reason that more males go to battle school than females.
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Juan Contreras
5/6/2015 03:28:52 am
kill yourself
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unknown kindness
12/31/2019 06:28:08 pm
Hey! Chill. No need to go to the extent of telling someone to commit suicide! Besides, Troop 6 just expressed his opinion on what he think Graff meant. You didn't need to attack him. No one asked you to reply, or even read this comment! Please don't tell anyone else to go commit suicide anymore, it could really hurt.
Troop666
12/31/2019 06:54:43 pm
Juan Contreras, how do u feel if I told you to kill yourself? Think about it...
Jediael
5/4/2021 05:33:08 pm
thats pretty mean
hmm
1/5/2022 11:39:56 am
you should kill YOURSELF
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Troop 8
10/29/2014 11:54:38 pm
Graff could mean that girls aren’t as strong or brave or have the skills to ever become a commander through Battle School. “They don’t often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution are working against them” (Card 24). Graff could also mean that over the centuries, women have been taught to be more like mothers, not warriors like men have been brought up to be. So now, it’s hard for the young women to adapt to the tests needed to get into Battle School.
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Troop 5
10/30/2014 12:02:01 am
Graff means that not many girls get into to battle school, because they don’t often pass many of the tests to get in (Card 24). They think that the girls wouldn’t be able to fight in the battle because they might be too weak. At the same time, everyone has been working so hard to get the technology better than last time, so they think that the girls won’t be able to pull it off. Graff also says, “They often don’t pass the tests to get in” (Card 24), which proves that the girls aren’t strong enough or smart enough to even be in battle school.
That does not prove that girls should not be in Battle School what about petra she is the best sharpshooter in her army she even makes it to Ender's final group when he is a comander. when they are fighting the simulators that are really the buggers. ARE U SAYING THAT GIRLS ARE THE MINOR GENDER. THAT IS DISGUSTING GIRLS ARE PERFECTLY CABLE OF WHAT MEN CAN DO IF NOT MORE. Have you never met a strong smart girl
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Yo, chill :T
12/31/2019 06:32:19 pm
THEY'RE JUST SAYING WHAT GRAFF IS MEANING. NOT HOW THEY THINK ABOUT IT. PLUS, DO YOU SEE A LOT OF OTHER GIRLS MENSIONED IN THE BOOK BESIDES PETRA, AND VALENTINE THAT WERE ACCEPTABLE? THIS IS JUST HOW THE AUTHOR WANTED IT TO BE. PLEASE RESPECT OTHER'S COMMENTS. Thank you. :>
Troop 7
10/30/2014 12:02:59 am
Graff meant the evolution worked against girls because he was saying how they’re to kind and not mean enough. The text states, “None of them will be like Valentine, anyway” (Card 24). Valentine was a very caring, nice sister. He is saying how some of the girls there are not going to be as caring as Valentine. They’re probably going to be more strict and mean, being trained to be soldiers.
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Troop 1
10/30/2014 12:06:25 am
“‘A few girls. They don’t often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution working against them’” (Card 24). What Graff means by this is that there were too many years in which girls evolved. They weren’t built to fight and they weren’t the dominant gender for a long time.
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Troop 3
10/30/2014 12:09:44 am
Graff is saying that women and younger girls weren’t considered to be the smarter ones or the stronger ones for many years, but they were considered to be more housewives than soldiers. “They don’t often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution are working against them” (Card 24). Men were the ones who went to fight, and as so, they became stronger and more intelligent with war, while women learned basic education.
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Troop 4
10/30/2014 12:11:12 am
What Graff means by evolution is working against girls is that the way that the world keeps evolving and more and more people are being born, they are turning against girls and thinking that the girls should just work and go to school, and that they have nothing else to do in the world. Also, he means that males already have a physical advantage over girls because everyone thinks the girls are fragile, so boys are more likely to get into fight school than girls. In the text it says, “ ‘A few girls. They don’t often pass the tests to get in. Too many centuries of evolution are working against them” (Card 24).
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Troop 9
10/30/2014 12:17:26 am
When Graff said evolution working against girls he means that they are not physically capable of passing the tests at battle school (Card 24). They are not strong enough or mean enough to pass through the test and then be able to fight the buggers. “None of them will be like Valentine…”(Card 24). What Graff is trying to say is that none of them will be like his loving sister. She is smart, but does not have the physical aspect of the test. The girls maybe smart, but centuries say that they are not suppose to fight in a war. Most of the girls are considered far too delicate to fight the buggers.
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Troop 2
10/30/2014 12:26:45 am
By saying that evolution was working against girls, Graff meant that in the past girls were not usually involved in the wars. In the book it says they were “‘Hoping that Valentine would be Peter, but milder. She was too mild’” (Card 24). This means that girls are usually are not mean or tough enough to hurt other people in the war.
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N.K.
11/11/2014 11:25:21 pm
When Graff remarks, “‘Too many centuries of evolution are working against them [girls].’” (Card 24) he means that girls are much too delicate and not strong and brave enough to attend Battle School. Evolution is a “[biology] change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.” (dictionary.reference.com/browse/evoution?s=t) Over the centuries, humans have developed into more fragile creatures. It is believed that the female gender has evolved more quickly than the male gender. Connecting this to the text, what Graff is trying to say is that females are not as assiduous and firm as males are. Males have more so - called “manliness” that most females do not acquire. Evolution is working more rapidly on women than men, making women weaker. Also, females are referred to as sympathetic, caring and loving creatures while men are more ferocious. Graff is making this comment to emphasize that they need merciless soldiers to join in Battle School.
Over the course of human history, testosterone levels have dropped in both males and females. This was vital to the continuation of the species bc testosterone tends to promote aggression over cooperation. Humans began to dominate their environment when they worked together to solve problems case in point cooperative hunting.
Therefore when Graff speaks about evolution, I believe he's talking about females' predominant inclination towards cooperation. As society has progressed, women have taken on more of the community building and cultural promotive roles. In part, this may have been due to women's inclinations, in part due to the nature of "hard work" like logging, mining, fishing, hunting, etc. all of which pulled men away from the community and into smaller more isolated groups of men.
Naturally, women, who spent time dealing with men, women, older people, and children, would develop better skills in communication, cooperation, and empathizing. They would then promote those skills as virtues in their female children leaving the men to encourage virtues better suited to male work in the male children, like independence, initiative, and big picture decision-making (men tended to be heads of households regardless of how suited they, individually, were for it.)
By the time of Ender's Game, men and women weren't hemmed in by stereotypical roles anymore but the war had reframed aggression and dominance as virtuous and had found perfect soldiers in testosterone-riddled teen boys.
*Spoilers* There's a certain irony as, if the military had employed more women to fight this war, women, with their higher capacity for empathy, may have realized that humanity wasn't fighting a war against the Buggers at all.