“Ender’s Game”, by Orson Scott Card, is a military science fiction novel that narrates the story of a boy named Andrew “Ender” Wiggin and his predetermined life to save humanity. Set in the future, humans are at war with an alien insect race dubbed the “buggers.” The buggers have already invaded Earth two times previously and did not succeed because of Mazer Rackham, the general that won the second invasion. Expecting a third invasion of the buggers, the International Fleet (I.F.) has trained child geniuses at very young ages through games that gradually increase in difficulty including the zero gravity battle rooms in preparation for them to become commanders of the Third Invasion. Ender is selected to go to Battle School in space because of the actions he has displayed against a bully after a device known as a monitor, which allows the leaders of the I.F. to watch and hear everything Ender perceives. Although Ender’s conception was predetermined (in this time period, families are only allowed to have two children unless stated by the government which is why Ender is often called a “Third”), he had to display the correct characteristics to be selected. Ender’s siblings, Peter and Valentine also wore the monitor, but neither wore it as long nor was selected because Peter was too cruel and Valentine was too mild. Once Ender arrives, he makes a couple new friends from the other selected children, including a boy named Alai. When Ender is alone, he plays a mind game and progresses farther than anyone has before so out of the blue, Ender becomes promoted to a group called Salamander Army, where he befriends the only girl, Petra Arkanian, at Battle School. As Ender continues to display his brilliance, he is continuously being promot... ... middle of paper ... ...not allow him to leave. Lastly, Ender was lied to and forced through battle simulations which ended up killing an entire race without his knowledge. Ender did not wish to annihilate bugger species, as he did not like murder in general. He believed killing the buggers were also a crime as to killing people. He believes that there were more to the buggers than what everyone perceived them to be. And since he nearly killed the entire species, he feels like it is his obligation to help find a new location for the buggers to repopulate. Ultimately, the novel is only a little over 300 pages and overall is an easy read. The only issue I had with the novel was the amount of side characters, making it difficult to remember who was who. Finally, I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys fiction novels that pertain to space and defending Earth from a foreign threat.
Before Ender got picked to fight the buggers he was just a normal boy he went to school like every other kid, one day he got put in a test and if he passed he would go to battle school in space, Ender eventually passed the test and he had a military personnel come to his door and tell his parents that he passed the test and is going to battle school.
They wanted Ender to see that it was a game because this would insure that the humans would be victorious over the buggers. Because of this, Ender has suffered a great ordeal of losses in everything such as life, love, family, and friendship. At this point of my explanation, we can clearly see that Ender does suffice enough to be a Christ Figure because he began his journey with a full heart and now he is ending his journey with nothing left but a new world to live in with Valentine, while trying to find a safe place for the Queen Bugger to live. This is his last and most important mission of all. It looks like as if Ender is beginning a whole new journey. Truth be told, Ender is done, but he has that final step to go before he can call out to home and finally live the rest of days free of
In Orson Scott Cards Ender’s game, the main character Ender does not have a normal childhood compared to other children. He is destined for a hard life ahead of him from the moment he was born. Through Ender and the characters around him Card draws us a picture about the world around us. One’s past does not shape their future or the kind of person they will be. A different choice can be made at any time.
This Chapter begins with two mysterious characters having a conversation describing Ender and his two siblings. They decide that the Ender is the one they need to save the world from the buggers they say they have doubts about him just as they did about his brother and sister. The story begins with Ender a six year old boy having his monitor removed that device allows the authorities to see what he is thinking and his emotions his brother peter hates him because ender had the moni...
Petra and Dink are warning ender to always be accompanied by somebody and to never be alone. That night Ender’s only way of falling asleep is by thinking about how the teachers will protect him outside the battle room if he truly means something to them. The next day after winning two battles he falls asleep and wakes up just a little before lunch time. Carelessly he walked in to take a shower, until Bonzo and other seven boys come up on him. Bonzo is the boys in the room that truly wants to kill Ender. In order for Ender to face him one-on-one he uses Bonzo’s honor to get the other boys to back down. Before the fight Dink rushes in, but is held back by the other boys as he tries to prevent the fight from happening. Ender provokes Bonzo and when Bonzo charges at him ender quickly hits Bonzo’s head with his face. To prevent from Bonzo trying to attack again Ender hits him in the ribs and crotch, but Bonzo does not move. Dink later takes Ender away from the bathroom as the teachers that were supposed to protect him come rushing in. Ender’s later reminded of Bonzo’s face when he first hit him and Stilson’s face too and later begins to cry. Ender is given another battle with two armies at the same time, but he is completely done with battles even after winning. Ender is informed by Bean that his toon leaders had been promoted along with their assistants too. They are now commanders including Bean himself. Ender is also informed that he has graduated to Command school but before he goes to Command School he goes back to Earth. It turns out that Ender killed Bonzo and Stilson, but they never told him. Down in Earth military officers have found out who Demosthenes and Loc...
After years of being monitored by government officials, Ender Wiggins, the main character of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, finds himself completely alone. The loneliness set's in as he finds himself in a new school, away from the watchful eyes of the government and bared to the world. He is a Third. This feeling of being a third makes Ender feel even more isolated, "It was not his fault he was a Third. It was the government's idea, they were the ones who authorized it - how else could a Third like Ender have got into school?" (Card 5). There was no one there to keep the bullies away now. Although he never really liked the monitor, he now found himself alone and missing the advent ages of having it on and knowing that someone, somewhere was always with him and watching him. At battle school, Ender knows that he will be isolated from the other students. Colonel Graff tells the other students of Ender and how superior his talents and intelligence is compared to the rest of the group. The other students don't like Ender and don't trust him. Throughout battle school, Ender is kept from his family and isolated from other children.
This book is anti-war since it shows how war could advance someone’s life into a huge disaster, how anyone can break down from the stress that others impose on them, just to be able to produce someone who can save humanity, and how someone’s life was controlled by someone else since they were born and can not be able to change and let themselves hold on to their own life, fate, and future. War destroys everything but Ender’s Game shows how war had affected and destroyed Ender’s whole entire
Ender’s Game, winner of the1985 Nebula Award and the1986 Hugo Award for best novel, is a military science fiction novel written by American author Orson Scott Card. In this futuristic novel with spaceships, aliens, and war games, the world needs a saviour against an alien race called “buggers”. The military needs a brilliant mind, like the young Ender Wiggen’s, to command an army and save the world from destruction. After separation from his beloved sister, Valentine, and his terrifying brother, Peter, he is brought to a battle school that orbits around the Earth. He is then tested and honed into an empathetic killer, and begins to despise what he does as he learns to fight in hopes of saving the Earth and his family. Ender is more similar in personality to Valentine than Peter because he is compassionate, selfless, and remorseful, while Peter is not.
In the Ender’s Game, Ender Wiggin, the main protagonist of the novel, is selected by international military forces to join a battle school, so he can save the world from destruction by the evil Buggers, evil alien creatures. Ender's brother Peter and his sister Valentine were not selected to join the battle school, and Peter will never forgive Ender for this. Ender's schoolmates hate Ender for his intelligence, and he is forced into brutally beating the leader of a gang of bullies in order to protect himself. After leaving his family, Ender traveled to Battle School where his peers and the adults inhumanely tested him. As a brilliant young child, he rose up the rankings to become the number one student of the military academy. He graduated out of command school and was introduced to Mazer Rackham, the hero of the second Bugger invasion and the savior of mankind, at the International Fleet’s command school. He fought practice battles every day against his new instructor, Mazer Rackham. Ender won all of the battles, even when the odds were heavily against him. Following the con...
“When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him.” A. E. Wiggin. This is the question at the heart of the novel by Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game. The author of this quote is a young boy named Andrew Wiggins, who goes by the nickname Ender. Ender is genius and also, to his shame, a third child or a third, meaning his parents had to seek permission to have him since two children are standard. Ender wears a unique monitor so his thoughts can be monitored by the international military. They see potential in Ender and send Colonel Graff to his home to recruit him to attend battle school. Not that Ender or his parents have any choice. As a third, Ender is technically their property and cannot refuse. But can this child
In some points of this book, the children are naive and do not completely know what is going on around them. This allows the government to be able to manipulate them very easily. But, as the book goes on the readers realise the children are more aware and in fact smarter than the adults in many ways, in both the war and just in general. The government is still able to have some control over the children because they can manipulate them into doing what they want without them knowing. This causes Ender to experience a lot of manipulation from the very beginning of this book. Ender, as well as the other children in this book, continue to suffer from manipulation throughout the whole book. In the beginning of chapter 11 we assume that Graff and Anderson are talking, but we do not know who is saying what. We can infer that Anderson says to Graff, ‘“This is best for Ender, too. We’re bringing him to his full potential.”’ (Card 173). Anderson and Graff always talk about what is ‘best for Ender’, but they are really only thinking about themselves because all they do is push Ender to his breaking point. So is it really what is ‘best for Ender’ or is it what is best for the government? The government manipulates Ender into becoming a soldier and then a commander so that he can eventually win the war, but is that what Ender really wants? Could he be better at doing something
Do you just love science fiction books? What if they are filled with violence? What about tons of action? Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card might just be a perfect fit for you. This book would be a good fit for you if you’re a teenager or a young adult.
Ender is also faced with another conflict of not going to Command School to be trained as the commander leading the Third Invasion, and will probably have no home to return to at all because no one is able to save the Earth. Ender is humanity’s last chance to save Earth from the buggers. Ender returns to Earth after he graduated from Battle School and moved up to Command School. On Earth, Ender meets his sister he still loves, Valentine, at a private lake, and they chat about what is going on. Later on, they start to discuss about Ender going back to Command School, but Ender shows that he doesn’t want to return to space; he has hurt too many people. Finally, Valentine urges Ender that he has to go to space to fight the buggers by telling him who will take Ender’s spot as commander; Ender gives no answer. Before they go, Valentine shows how much she loves him, “I love you, Ender. More than ever. No matter what you decided” (242). Ender also thinks about the beauty of the Earth, he says that Earth is not a globe thousands of miles across; it is a forest with a shining lake, and goes into detail about the beauty of life on Earth. He begins to think about Valentine, a sister who protected him from hurt and terror, and someone who Ender would fight the buggers for; she is the one thing that matters to Ender. This quote summarizes
“I didn’t want to kill them all! I didn’t want to kill anybody! I’m not a killer! You didn’t want me, you bastards, you wanted Peter, but you made me do it, you tricked me into it!(page 297-298)” Ender’s fury underlines his own personal detriments, but when this is weighed against the countless lives that have been saved through these actions, it is clear that this was the most utilitarian choice. Furthermore, Mazer Rackham shows how he was the only one who could eliminate the threat, exclaiming “Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn’t know. We made sure you didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It’s what you were born for.(page 298)” Even at the beginning, it is apparent that Ender’s goal is to save his sister from certain death by the buggers. By eliminating the threat, he has kept what is most important to him safe as well as the rest of
The Speaker for the Dead is centered around the idea that once a person dies, they will not be celebrated for all their glory they may of assumed over a lifetime, but for the person they truly were. Toward the end of the novel, Ender just wants to leave, and travel from world to world, spreading the word of the Speaker for the Dead. He even starts signing not his name, but instead signing Speaker for the Dead. It is said through the narration of the novel, “The book Ender wrote. . . it was all the good and all the evil the hive-queen knew. . .” (Card 322). In this narration of the story, Card is stating that the reason Ender decided to create, and become the Speaker for the Dead as a way of showing his remorse for killing off the entire bugger species. Ender knew that the queen bugger had somehow known all the terrible things that had happened to Ender throughout his lifetime, through his constant battle surrounding the lying and manipulation that forced him to do wrong. He was able to figure that out earlier in the novel when it is discovered that the buggers recreated The Giant’s Drink mind game, to taunt Ender once he arrived at the world they once called home. By doing this the buggers basically told Ender that they knew what was going on, and they were more intelligent then the humans had known. This means that the humans could have possibly figured out a way to communicate with the buggers. If only they had figured out a way, the war would of probably ended. By the buggers recreating The Giant’s Drink game, Ender knows that he must travel to the end, and that is where he finds the white cocoon containing the new queen bugger. Card includes this imagery, and scene in the novel to display the remorse, and pain Ender feels for what not only his commanders, and generals made him do, but also the rest of