List the different coping mechanisms (ways of dealing with difficulties) Ender shows. For each one describe whether the overall result of each is helpful or harmful to Ender. Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Include page numbers.
Ender shows different coping mechanisms for the difficulties he faces such as not thinking of his family. If he thought of his family, he would cry which therefore he would get picked on and you weren’t supposed to miss or even think of your family. As the author states “It was a mistake to think of them” (Card 43). “The pain was gone. The tears were gone. He could not cry. Ender also coped with dealing with difficulties by thinking of Peter and what he would do. It helps Ender because what Peter used to do to him to make him feel is what he needs now. In the novel, it states “You taught me how to hide anything I felt. More than ever, I need that now” (Card 45).
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Troop 1
11/2/2014 10:51:25 pm
Ender counts in doubles sometimes in order to calm himself. “He began to count doubles. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty four” (Card 44). Ender is mostly silent when crying. “The sound didn’t travel farther than his own ears, and sometimes not that far…. his sobs were so gentle that they did not shake the bed, so quiet they could not be heard” (Card 44). Ender also is able to hide any emotion he feels. “Thank you for this, Peter...You taught me how to hide anything I felt” (Card 45).
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Troop 4
11/2/2014 10:53:55 pm
Ender uses the mechanism of his brain, to break into the system, and stay stuff to other people at battle school and signs it as Bernard for example in the text it says, “I love your butt. Let me kiss it. -Bernard” (Card 51). This shows that Ender’s using his brain and it is working in a positive way, because Bernard reacts angry because the author states, “ “I didn’t write that message! Bernard shouted” (Card 51). Another coping mechanism Ender uses is hiding his feelings and counting the numbers. In the text it says, “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four. And on, as high as he could hold the numbers in his head: 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144” (card 43-44). This piece of text evidence shows how Ender copes with himself, when someone is bothering him, by counting the numbers. This way of coping with himself also works in a positive way because when someone is tormenting him, he can just do this, and then he isn’t irritated or mad when someone is tormenting him.
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Troop 3
11/2/2014 10:55:37 pm
Ender doesn’t release his feelings when he is missing his family. For example the text states that “He felt a sob rise in his throat and swallowed it down...” (Card 43). Ender also counts doubles whenever he feels upset or is being plagued by some problem, as it makes him concentrate on something other than the problems he is facing. Card wrote, “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles” (Card 43).
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Troop 6
11/2/2014 10:56:04 pm
Chapter 5
Throughout the chapter, Ender displays many coping mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms include the game that is being played in the game room with the other boys, as the text states “Within an hour or so it began to pall. Ender understood the regularities by then. Understood the rules of the computer was following, so he could always, once he mastered the controls outmaneuver the enemy” (Card 46). This shows that he is able to analyze what's going on and break it down so he can easily master it just like he did with the older boys and the game. In the text it says “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles...It was gone. Start over again. All the doubling he could hold. The pain was gone. All the doubling that he could hold. The pain was gone. The tear wear gone. He would not cry,” (Card 43,44). From reading this text we can tell that Ender has learned many ways to deal with getting hurt and bullied. Another way that Ender copes with the bullying is by fighting back. In the book it says “He was able to set up a file for a nonexistent student, whom he whimsically named God...Like all the other boys, he was watching Bernard and his cronies laugh and joke, making fun of the math teacher,” (Card 49). Ender was tired of getting mocked and laughed at by Bernard and his friends so he decided to fight fire with fire by writing things about Bernard on his desk.
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L.L.
11/2/2014 10:58:10 pm
Ender realized that he was the target for bullying, so he decided not to show weakness to anyone. For example, at night, Dap was walking around their room trying to calm everyone who was crying, but Ender thought of Peter and could control his tears. “Thank you, Peter. For dry eyes and silent weeping. You taught me how to hide anything I felt. More than ever, I need that now” (Card 45). This was helpful to Ender, because this helps him work his way up from being a target and learn to live with the isolation.
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MU
11/2/2014 11:00:16 pm
One coping mechanism Ender shows is ignoring the other boys in battle school when they tease or make fun of him. “Ender said nothing to Shen--it would be too obvious, then, that he was starting his own competing gang” (Card 49). This coping mechanism could be a bad thing because Ender is just letting the other boys push him around and he doesn’t have any boundaries. Another coping mechanism Ender has is to count doubles, so he doesn’t cry and look weak. In the book it says, “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles” (Card 43). This is a helpful thing because if Ender cried he would be treated like the weakling by the other boys.
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Troop 5
11/2/2014 11:02:10 pm
When Ender thinks of his family at the dinner table, he immediately regrets thinking about them. The author wrote, “It was a mistake to think about them” (Card 43). This shows that Ender is trying to hide his pain like Peter does. Although this is helpful to Ender, he also keeps seeing himself like Peter which is harmful. The text states, “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles” (Card 43). This is also helpful to Ender, because it helps him take his mind off his stress.
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Troop 7
11/2/2014 11:06:03 pm
Ender shows a lot of different coping methods with each different difficulty. When Ender got the bunk nearest the door, in the book he said, “ ‘Hey, thanks!’ not sarcastically at all” (Card 38). This text shows that Ender deals with this situation not stubbornly but open-minded. If Ender were to shout and pout about being there, the other kids would’ve laughed at him. So overall this was helpful to him. When Ender gets stressed, he doubles numbers, meaning he counts 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Ender does this to take his mind off things, too. “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles, (Card 43). “Surely they knew there was no justice in Bernard’s revenge. Surely they knew that he had struck first at Ender in the shuttle, that Ender had only been responding in violence” (Card 48). This text states how Ender will respond in violence if someone has attacked him first physically. This is a helpful coping method to him because if the other kids were smart enough they could see that Ender didn’t mean to do it with anger but just protection.
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troop 9
11/2/2014 11:08:47 pm
Enders has many different coping mechanisms when he deals with different problems in his life. He is either very violent or quiet and submissive. Ender also tends to avoid pain and hurt by distracting himself. One example is, “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles” (Card 43). This shows that Ender does not want to feel pain or hurt. He distracts himself by counting doubles, and that results in Ender never lets his feelings out. Another example is “You have my admiration. Breaking an arm-that was a master stroke” (Card 37). When one of the boys, Bernard, was hurting him, Ender lashed out physically and broke his arm. This shows that when Ender is faced with bullying and torment from the the other boys he lashes out in a negative way. This resulted in the boy who was hurting him breaking his arm. Overall Ender has many different ways to cope with pain, and they range from hurting people to being quiet and avoiding pain.
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Troop 2
11/2/2014 11:18:15 pm
Some coping strategies that Ender shows are trying hide his emotions, counting by doubles, and ignoring the people who are mean to him. In the text, it states “He could not cry. There was no chance that he could be treated with compassion...Any sign of weakness would tell the Stilsons and Peters that this boy could be broken” (Card 43). Hiding his emotions is positive for Ender because he is not drawing attention to himself when the other boys might tease him and make him feel worse. Also, the text says “He began to count doubles. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four. And on, as high as he could hold the numbers in his head” (Card 43, 44). Counting doubles is also a positive thing for Ender because it helps him calm down and forget the bad things that have been happening. Finally, “One of Bernard’s boys pretended to trip over him, and managed to plant a knee in his belly. Ender took it in silence” (Card 51). Ignoring the people who are mean to him is positive for Ender because he does not give them motivation to continue hurting him.
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MP
11/3/2014 11:20:26 am
One of the three ways Ender dealt with trying to cope was keeping his focus on something else. For example, “He began to count doubles. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty four” (Card 44). Ender counted until he didn’t know what number came next. In that time, he had forgotten the problem; he had realized that it was no big deal and was more at ease. Ender also thought about Peter and how he rarely showed his feelings. “Thank you, Peter. For dry eyes and silent weeping. You taught me how to hide anything I felt. More than ever, I need that now” (Card 45). Ender desperately wanted to fit in, or, more appropriately, not show that he was hurting. Thinking of Peter gave him the aspiration on how not to give up his emotions. Lastly, Ender learned to cope by simply ignoring the problem. From previous experience, he realized that engaging the situation in a negative manner ended up getting people hurt and himself in trouble. “Ender said nothing to Shen--it would be too obvious, then, that he was starting his own competing gang” (Card 49). Ender didn't want it to be too obvious that he was behind something more than a simple fight, but Ender was trying to win. Like he did with the boy at the bus stop, he wanted to prove a point. But at that time, when he was ignoring Shen, he was doing it to avoid the current problem and save up for when Ender would win.
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N.K.
11/12/2014 11:24:13 pm
Ender has established coping mechanisms to divert his mind away from his difficulties. For example, when Peter used to abuse him, he would count in doubles as high as he could go. “Ender did what he always did when Peter tormented him. He began to count doubles. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty - two, sixty - four. And on, as high as he could hold the numbers in his head…” (Card 43 - 44) This resulted in him forgetting about the pain, which was helpful so that he would not be suffering all of the time. “The pain was gone. The tears were gone. He would not cry.” (Card 44) It would also distract him from crying. Also, Peter had formed him a “lying face” when he was in front of his parents. When Peter hurt him, he did not want to let it show to his parents. “Thank you for this, Peter. For dry eyes and silent weeping. You taught me how to hide anything I felt. More than ever, I need that now.” (Card 45) One can conclude that his coping mechanism can cause harm to Ender because if he does not allow his pain to show, especially to his parents, he is just allowing Peter to continue tormenting him with no punishment. But in the case of Battle School, it is helpful because Ender is not supposed to show his feelings, whether they are pain or pleasure.