Petra tells Ender, "They never tell you any more truth than they have to." Who are "they"? Who does Ender perceive as his enemy at this point in the story?
Use evidence from the text to support your answer. Include page numbers.
Petra tells Ender “‘They never tell you any more truth than they have to’” (Card 82). By “they”, Petra means the teachers and leaders of the Battle School. At this point in the story, Ender perceives the enemy as the adults who run the school because they lie to the students. In the text it stated, “‘The adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth”’ (Card 82).
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Troop 9
11/3/2014 10:57:31 pm
When Petra tells Ender, "They never tell you any more truth than they have to," We think she means that the adults or supervising officers are the “they” because they do not tell them the whole truth. They never tell them about the advances in weapons or new battle fleets. It is like they want them to know the minimum information about the fleet that some of them will be commanding. “... the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth” (Card 82). Petra wants him to know that there is something suspicious going on with the battle schools. In the text it says, “Do not pry into them. Terrible things happened to the last soldier who tried” (Card 82). Petra is warning Ender not to look into the secrets or classified information or question the Battle School. Overall Petra is telling Ender to make sure you know the real enemy.
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Troop 4
11/3/2014 10:58:10 pm
The “they” that Peter is referring to in the quote: "They never tell you any more truth than they have to," is the people that are controlling the battle school that Ender goes to. Ender perceives that his enemy is the people that are running the school and the battles because in the text it says, “Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemies, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth” (Card 82). This quote means that Ender does not trust the adults that work in or run the school and what they tell Ender and all of the other kids in the school.
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Troop 6
11/3/2014 11:00:40 pm
Chapter 7
When Petra says "They never tell you any more truth than they have to,” she is referring to Graff and the other commanders of the school. In chapter 3 Graff says to the other commanders, “Persuade him that he wants to come with us more than he wants to stay with her.’ ‘How will you do that?’ ‘I’ll lie to him.’ ‘And if that doesn’t work?’ ‘Then I’ll tell the truth. We are allowed to do that in emergencies. We can’t plan for everything” (Card 16). This shows that Graff doesn’t have to tell the truth more than he has too, which fits the description of who Petra was talking about, because Graff will lie to get people to come with him and only tell the truth if he has to do it to save the world. Graff only wants to tell Ender the truth if he absolutely has to.
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Troop 1
11/3/2014 11:01:36 pm
“They” are the adults and superior members of the school like Graff and Bonzo. Ender perceives the adults as the enemies. “...deception by the officers was another, but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth” (Card 82). This shows us clearly that the enemy really is the adults. The other armies are not the enemy, only the adults are.
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Troop 7
11/3/2014 11:04:09 pm
When Petra tells Ender this, she means the commanders. She is trying to say that the I.F. men who run the base are controlling them, and they don’t really have a lot of choices anymore. Ender realizes that the I.F commanders are really the bad guys, not the good guys. As he listens to Petra, he connects the dots and finally notices that it is not the other armies he should be against it’s the I.F commanders he should be worried about. The text states, “ The most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth,” (Card 82). This shows that she was trying to explain to him that the bad guys are the adults who are always trying to trick them.
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Troop 6 part 2
11/3/2014 11:05:15 pm
The enemy that we think Ender perceives in the story is Bonzo. This is because in the text it states “‘You will stay out of the way when we’re training in the battle room. You have to be there, of course, but you will not belong to any toon and you will not take part in any maneuvers. When we’re called to battle, you will dress quickly and present yourself at the gate with everyone else. But you will not pass through the gate until four full minutes after the beginning of the game, and then you will remain at the gate, with your weapons undrawn and unfired, until such time as the game ends,” (Card 78). At this point of the story, Bonzo doesn’t want to have Ender around and therefore won’t respect Ender or let him practice. This makes Ender angry and frustrated at Bonzo, but he keeps it to himself and curses him out in his mind. Bonzo has no respect for Ender at all, and is trying as hard as he can to get Ender off of his team.
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troop 8
11/3/2014 11:05:35 pm
By saying,“they,” we can infer that Petra means the leaders. Ender perceives the leaders as the enemy, because he feels like they’re against him. Ender also feels like this, because they moved him into the Salamander Army to early and he feels isolated by being the youngest and weakest one there. Ender feels as if everyone in the army is ashamed of having him with them, because of his age and size. In the story it states, “Bonzo hated him for it , for the kindness. Ender tried to understand why” (Card 87).
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Troop 5
11/3/2014 11:06:59 pm
The leaders of the Battle School are “they”. Ender perceives the leaders of battle school as his enemy because they move him from troop to troop without warning or telling him why. They also isolate him from others and try to make it harder for him to make friends. When he does make a friend they split them up and then he has to find a new friend. The text states “Nobody got promoted before they were eight years old. Ender wasn’t even seven yet. And launches usually moved into armies together” (Card 69).
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Troop 3
11/3/2014 11:12:34 pm
When Petra is referring to “they” she means the teachers. In the text it states, “...the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth” (Card 82). Based on the text evidence, at this point in the story Ender believes that the teachers are his worst enemies, not the other armies that are put against him. He believes that the teachers are his enemies, as they always feed him lies and move him without telling him why.
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N.K.
11/14/2014 02:38:04 am
When Petra tells Ender, “‘They never tell you any more truth than they have to...’” (Card 82) “they” are the teachers and adults who run the Battle School. They do not tell the entire truth about everything to those who attend Battle School. Towards the end of this chapter, Ender comes to perceive those who run the Battle School as liars and his true enemy. “Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemies, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.” (Card 82) This proves Ender’s true perception of who his enemies really are: the adults.