Fear In Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

Fear can lead to many different actions. It can lead to flight or fight, or it can lead to people responding negatively. And it all depends on the situation, and who it is. In Ender's Game, What, of this Goldfish, Would you Wish, and in the Wife’s Story they all explore the idea that the fear of the unknown often leads people to respond negatively. And that it can be very hard to control and is almost part of human nature.

In his book, “Ender’s Game” Orson Scott Card explores how even the smartest people can respond negatively when confronted with conflict. For example “ Look, you can say you won. I’ll say you taught me a lesson. No, coward, raise your fists.” (Card 264) This explains that he had tried everything he could do with his

words to not fight him. But because he was so scared and also Bonzo was scared they got in a fight. It was either fight or flight but in this case it had to be fight. Similarly “ I have to win this now, and for all time or I’ll fight it everyday and it will get worse and worse.” (Card 78) This illustrates that he was scared of what was to come, and that things were just going to get worse. And that he had to end it before it got out of hand. It was not an easy decision to do these, but because he was scared it lead to him doing somethings that he would usually not do.
Similarly in “What, of this Goldfish, Would you Wish” Etgar Keret describes that Sergei was scared that his only companion, a magic goldfish was going to be taken.

For example “ He seems to have taken the burner off the stove and hit the boy in the head.” ( Keret 99-100) This shows how Sergei was so scared that he might be alone without his goldfish that it leads him do things that he very likely would not have done if he was not talking about his goldfish. The fear of all the unknowns lead him to act different. Sergei is also scared of what might happen next “ I barely touched him. It’s only a burner. Only a little thing.” ( Keret 110-111) He could not believe that he was dead, and also very scared of all the things that would happen if people figured out what happened. He might have to lose his only companion to save this guy that he killed, and that's what he was scared about the entire time. Which is also the scene of this short story because this is where it starts to pick up, and things get more intense. If he would have thought about it a little more than he could have avoided the whole situation and kept his goldfish for a while longer. But the initial fear lead him to react

negatively.
In her short story “ The Wife’s Story” Ursula K.

Le Guin illustrates another aspect of this theme. In the beginning of the story it starts all happy, but as time goes on it gets a little darker. The author decided to use some interesting syntax in the beginning also by adding a bunch of short incomplete sentences that add to the suspense of what “ she did not believe”, and that “ she did not understand”. At the end of the story she finds out “ I saw him, I had to see him, my own dear love, turned into the hateful one.” At this point she is freaked out of what just happened to her husband, the “good husband”, and the “ good father”, all of the sudden he just changed. And with a “ Grief howl and a terror howl and a calling howl” all of the other wolves knew what was going on. And with the fear that he might kill her and her family she had her husband killed. And all because of not knowing what he might do it ended up in a very bad day for the whole

family.
Overall, all three of these texts show different ways that people respond to fear, although most ways are negatively. In “ Ender’s Game” he has to overcome his fear’s and fight both Bonzo and Stilson in order to protect himself. In “ What, of this Goldfish, Would you Wish” Sergei was scared that Yonatan was going to steal his magic goldfish and killed him because of it. And finally in “ The Wife’s Story” she was scared that he might hurt her or her family, and ended up killing him. These are important because it proves that it is part of human nature, and it can be controlled, but it is very hard. Each person have different ways to cope with fear, and these 3 stories show just three of the manys ways it can be coped with. Fear has the ability to do many thing, but it can be controlled.