Ender's Character Analysis

Ender is being worked hard every day, battle after battle with almost no rest. However he refuses to give up even if it's the easy way out. “'You can’t grind me down, Mazer.' 'Oh, can’t I?' 'Because I’m stronger than you'” (Card, ch. 14). By working hard not only does he improve, he improves all his subordinates as well. Ender could easily just give up and go home, but this matters to him so he never gives up and never slowed down even when it was starting to hurt him. He pushes himself and his subordinates to the max to make himself and them their very best. If people are persistent they will be able to reach their goals whether or not they are especially talented, persistence is a very important attribute if someone wants to reach their

Ender’s experience as commander in Battle School teaches him that being strict will help his army win games. When first being assigned commander, Ender knows that he needs to treat the Launchies just like how he was treated. This means that he needs to incorporate discipline on his new Launchies. While they are dressing, Ender orders them to run to the practice room, and when some of them don’t dress quickly enough, he yells, “Dress faster next time… next week the rule is two minutes” (158). Right from the start, Ender takes a gamble and utilizes strong disciplinary tactics on his rookies. Ender knows that his true potential was only reached after being pushed to his limits. Therefore, he attempts to exploit this same objective with the Launchies. The tactics can only be considered effective if demonstrated in the game scores, however. Ender and his Dragon Army experience many victories following their many grueling practice sessions. Following the games, “Dragon Army had fought seven battles in seven days. The score stood 7 wins and 0 losses” (186). Ender finds out that his rigorous training sessions produced a perfect army who wins every game. Ender pushes his Launchies to their absolute limit and later is able to face an expert army. Through his skillful leadership, Ender teaches his rookies how to meet the challenges of the

In chapter twelve we see once again Ender’s instinct to win for all time during a battle. Even with the odds stacked against him, Ender defeated Bonzo’s army. Ender realizes that Bonzo, if he didn’t already, hates Ender to his core, “this would surely turn his rage murderous […] Bonzo will be thirsting for blood now” (195). Petra attempts to warn Ender that he is in danger but, he already knows this. All five of his platoon leaders escort him to his room that night. When he arrives, he finds that Dink has left him a message of warning, “Don’t ever be alone. –Dink” (205). Ender can only sleep because he thinks that surely the teachers will keep him safe outside of the battle room. However, Graff insists that Ender must handle things on his own, that there will be

Ender short signs of leadership even though he got smacked by the leader of the green snakes. Ender then unfairly gets to become the leader of a group that was cruse to never win a battle. It is called the Dragon army and the members that he gets are new (launches) at the school and we get six were veterans. Ender had to trained his soldiers to think for themselves, to really think outside of the box, and once his to come up with ideas they can share them to the commander. With the strategy they could win constantly in the battles because, they get to have more brain

Ender is abruptly promoted to Salamander Army. There Ender is befriended by Petra Arkanian, the only girl in the army. The army commander, Bonzo Madrid, does not like Ender and does not want him around. Ender practices with Petra and begins to teach his launch group what he knows. Ender helps the army by disobeying Bonzo, who hates Ender, but fortunately Ender is traded to Rat Army. Ender is put in Dink Meeker's platoon. Dink is an excellent toon leader, and Ender does well in battles. He continues teaching his Launchies, even though this causes resentment among other soldiers. Ender gets into a fight and he hurts four older boys who attack him. It is clear to Ender that the teachers are leaving him to fend for himself.

Due to the urgency that was taken to defeat the Formics, once and for all, the International Fleet, a new governing body that was like United Nations on steroids, orders that children would be raised to be the smartest the world had ever seen. Ender was one of those children. He was chosen at the age of 6 to go to Battle School, an orbiting school that taught the children how to be good military tacticians in the heat of battle. This was accomplished in the battle room, a large cube room with no gravity. Cadets are given a gun that, when shot at another cadet wearing a ‘flash suit,’ causes the particular body part that was shot to freeze and become immobile. If a cadet was hit in the stomach, their entire body would become immobile. When Ender first arrived to Battle School, he was in a group known as the ‘launchies,’ because they had just arrived to the school. After about a year, these launchies progressed into an Army, or a group of 40 ‘soldiers’ aged anywhere from 8-12. Because Ender was so smart, he was progressed into an army after only 2 months in the launch group, unheard of in the history of the school. The commander of

Since they don’t have much time to get a new commander, they rush Ender during battle school. This didn’t affect him, it instead impacted the other students thoughts about him. The older kids despised him for being a launchie and launchies despised him for being better. He realizes the adults won’t do anything about his problems with the others. They control his isolation and manipulate him into thinking no one is there

Character development occurs to further along the plot after a certain character has discover and/or overcome a conflict. In Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game, the character Ender Wiggin develops from a gifted child to a tenacious leader. In Ender’s Games, a six year old intellect by the name of Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin is believed to lead the human race to victory against an alien species, the buggers, before a third invasion. Ender is taken to attend Battle School where adolescence will be educated on the buggers, tactics and strategies. Ender Wiggin’s development of a strong leader is due to his isolation from others, his close relationship with his sister, Valentine, and the assistance of his friends and allies.

“It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone” (Hans F. Hansen). The book Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, describes the journey Ender took to stand alone and become a leader. At the age of six, Ender qualified to go to battle school, and he made the decision to go. This choice affected the rest of his life. Battle school is a school in space where children have education, but also learned to fight buggers. They played games which they fought each other in anti-gravity battle room. Ender exceeded everyone else and one day the world was going to depend on him. Ender is a marvelous leader because of his unbelievable intelligence, his compassion to see others succeed, and his ruthlessness to protect.

Throughout the novel Ender’s Game, Ender Wiggin is constantly having to make decisions that no child should have to face. Even though Ender is a genius, he still makes mistakes. What shows us that he is a “good” character is the way he handles those moments in which he did not make the right decision. Some examples of these moments are when Ender gets in a fight with Stilson, when he commands his ships to basically commit suicide in order to destroy the Bugger planet, and at the end of the novel when Ender chooses to save the Bugger queen. Although there are lots of moments where it seems as though Ender is not making the morally good choice, he always does things for the right reasons, and that shows he is a good person.

Ender takes many journeys throughout the book, his literal, and most obvious, being his trip to the battle school. In the battle school, he learns many valuable lessons such as, when to stand your ground. He applied this when he fought his bully in the bathroom and killed him by accident. During his journey, he played a game that simulated situations based on the information gathered on the player. Ender’s mental health begins

“He kept sitting out on the army practice sessions, and kept working hard on his own, with Petra in the mornings and his friends at night.” (Card, page 92) Ender is determined to learn as much as he can and become a good soldier. He doesn’t care what people think of him when he practices with his former Launch group. He wants to become a soldier that someone would actually use instead of sitting out on practices and games. Although Ender went into Salamander army knowing nothing, he took initiative to acquire skills to be a good soldier. Ender also improves by studying Salamander army while they practice. “If he couldn’t drill as a soldier, he could study Bonzo as a tactician.” (Card, page 84) When Ender goes to Rat army, he can use this to his advantage to defeat Bonzo’s army. He can also get better by watching the way they fight in order to obtain the techniques he needs in battle. Ender proves Bonzo wrong that he can be a good soldier when he turned a loss into draw. “Before anyone knew what was happening, he froze three of the soldiers who were about to press their helmes against the lighted corners of the door. Then some of the others spotted him and fired—but at first they only hit his already-frozen legs. It gave him time to get the last two men at the gate.” (Card, page 94) Ender used some of the things he learned, for example, using his legs as a shield, to save his

“When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him.” Graff and the I.F. are trying to persuade Ender, and the population of Earth that a third invasion is imminent. Ender is sent to Battle School when he was just a little boy, but he was smart, the I.F. had in him all they ever could ask in a commander. Through years of extensive and grueling training, Ender is ready to go to Command School, but it hasn’t been easy. And the admirals and colonels in charge of Battle School are worried that they wore him out, Ender starts to question his motives. Many questions nag at his mentality, many of whom cannot be answered to him, or else the I.F. would lose a high value commander. So everything is kept secret from Ender. Even his closest friends keep their knowledge enclosed from him, but Ender can’t help but to wonder.

Ender has created new and effective battle strategies which have allowed him to win limitless games. As time progresses, all of the enemy teams that Ender faces slowly began to adapt to Ender’s strategies. Despite all this, Ender does seem to worry. Instead, “Ender persuaded himself to accept them as another form of praise. Already the other armies were beginning to imitate Ender. Now most soldiers attacked with their knees tucked under them.” (187) This quotation shows that his strategies and tactics are very effective and assisted many people in their victory during the team battles. It also shows Enders ability to create new tactics that benefit him and his teammates, and how the others are incompetent compared to Ender since they are not clever enough to come up with an effective strategy to win. Another example that shows Ender has gained an insurmountable amount of respect is when Ender was in the Battle room training and he “watched the young kids in Petra’s army, fresh out of their launch groups, watch how they played.” (139) This quotation shows how the kids are interested and fascinated in what Ender is doing, inside the Battle Room, since Ender was one of the Toon leaders before he became the commander of the Dragon army. When Ender is being watched by the kids, he feels proud of what he has

Ender does not play the game like everyone else does. He tries to cerebrate of different, ingenious ways to play. Ender demonstrates his ingenuity when he created a fake profile on the desks. “Ender hadn't cracked the teachers' security system yet, so he couldn't pretend to be a teacher. But he was able to set up a file for a nonexistent student” (p 49). He is clever and ingenious. Ender thought of an action that no other student would have thought of. His conception was so creative and devious that no other student could figure out how he did it. When Ender was playing the mind games on his desk, he was faced with a difficult situation. He could never win when he reached the caliber with the Giant’s drink. It seemed as if every alternative led him to unsuccess. Conclusively, Ender determined that there was another way to vanquish the Giant. “And instead of pushing his face into one of the liquids, he kicked one over, then the other, and dodged the Giant’s huge hands as the Giant shouted, “Cheater, cheater!” He jumped at the Giant’s face” (p.64). Ender thought of a creative tactic that would allow for him to surmount an “impossible” level. Bean isn’t proximately as creative or pristine as Ender. Ender uses his ingenuity, creativity, and originality more than Bean. The International Fleet Battle School is in great need of a Battle Commander who uses their