Ender's Game Theme Essay

Ender made a choice to go to battle school because Graff talked him into going like on page 22 when Graff tells Ender “that no one wants a third”, and he was smart enough to win the war against the Buggers on page 296 when Mazer said to Ender “Ender you never played me. You never played a game since I became your enemy.”. He wanted to win the whole war not just one fight because on page 19 Ender said “knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they’d leave me alone.” Because of the decisions Ender makes he becomes a hero and a soldier. This has to do with us because we will probably have other wars and there will be soldiers who train and fight for us much like Ender trained and fought for the world. Ender at the beginning of the book is weak and not a leader. By the middle of the book Ender was strong and almost the leader of an army. By the end of the book Ender is a hero and the leader of a

Most of the time he is a shy young man. Ender is a very nice person if you don’t mess with him he will be nice to you. But if you be mean to him and hit him for no reason we will hurt you. If you keep hurting him. Ender stands up for himself he doesn’t let people really boss him around.

After Ender’s important battle, they tell him that all of it was real and that he had actually defeated the buggers. Ender thinks to himself, “Real. Not a game. Ender’s mind was too tired to cope with it all. They weren’t just points of light in the air, they were real ships that he had fought with and real ships he had destroyed. And a real world that he had blasted into oblivion. He walked through the crowd, dodging their congratulations, ignoring their hands, their words, their rejoicing” (Card 297). When Ender realizes that they have been lying to him and using him as a weapon, he becomes angry. Ender yells at Graff and Mazer, “‘ 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!’” (Card 297). If Ender would have known that he would have killed people and creatures, he would not have gone to battle school in the first place. Death is very hard on Ender and he does not know how he can live with such a burden. Ender’s change in character is due to him being a victim of

     Another character that best show the theme life is a game is Bonzo. Bonzo is Ender’s adversary. His life was also a game because he is an enemy, he has the advantage and he dies. Bonzo hated Ender the minute Ender stepped into Bonzo’s platoon. Right then and there Bonzo became Ender’s enemy. In many combat games there is an enemy who is trying to make it more difficult. Bonzo who is an enemy wanted Ender gone because Bonzo was jealous of Ender’s winning streak. Bonzo hated him and he was furious. On page 205, Crazy Tom questioned, “That some of the older boys want to kill you?” This quote refers to Bonzo and other soldiers. They are Ender’s enemy and they wanted to annihilate him. Every enemy’s goal is to destroy their victim and Bonzo tried with an advantage. Advantage is also another reason why life is a game. While playing games somebody always has the advantage. In this case Bonzo brought other soldiers to confront Ender. Page 207, bottom paragraph describes how seven boys were watching Ender in the showers. This example demonstrates the advantage that Bonzo has over Ender. Whether it is two against one or fighting soldiers without any weapons. Advantage is a contributing factor in games and that portrays how Bonzo’s life is a game. With an advantage a person might think you are going to win, but Ender thought differently. Ender overcame the odds and

The death of Stilson was caused by Ender wiggin, which could have been avoided and handled better. Ender could have avoided the fight completely or could have just left after knocking him down but he kept kicking till stilson died. “And

He becomes so reckless he doesn’t even realize he’s hurting someone until after they are on the floor, “It took Ender by surprise he hadn’t thought to put Stilson on the ground with one kick” (7). What Ender doesn’t realize is that he doesn’t even comprehend what's going around him until he see’s the damage. Just like Peter, Ender never leaves anyone without any pain when they are angered. Filled with hatred towards Ender, Peter never leaves a chance to physically hurt Ender, he hurts him so much that Ender repeats the same anger and ruthlessness towards others.Funny thing is that even Ender knows that he has Peter in him and that in reality, he’s not really the innocent kid his sister and family thinks he

In the following quote, Ender is taking a shower when Bonzo and six of his friends walked in and attempt to beat him up. Instead Ender insults Bonzo’s honor by calling him weak to bring six friends to a fight. By doing this Ender was able to fight Bonzo one on one. “All Ender could see, though, was the way Bonzo looked as Ender kicked upward into his groin. The empty, dead look in his eyes. He was already finished then. Already unconscious. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t thinking or moving anymore, just that dead, stupid look on his face, that terrible look” (212). By fighting smartly Ender won the fight with no injuries and ended up stopping the hatred against him. Later Ender heard Bonzo is to be iced, but in fact Bonzo was killed by Ender during the

“Hey third, we’re talkin to you, Third, hey bugger lover, we’re talkin to you.” (Card. 6). In the beginning Stilson (a bully) comes up to Ender with a group of guys. They surround him and start to bully him. At first Ender takes it, then Stilson swings at him, and we see Ender break out of his shell. Ender not only beats him, but we find out he killed him. This is where we see Ender realize what he is capable of. After the fight, we see Ender go back to his quiet self. “Again a blow to the head. Go away Ender thought.I didn’t do anything to you.” (Card. 32). Another group of boys start

Ender Wiggin was a timid boy who wanted to have his brother and parents to love him. Prior to joining the Battle School, Ender did not have the belligerence that he would soon possess. He did not want to be like Peter, so

Now we are at the climax of the story, where Ender and his commanders have to take a final test. It is a very hard test and many important people are watching. This battle either makes it, or breaks it. They take the test and barely win their battle against the buggers that they thought were fake. Later, they learn that the battle was actually real, and they won the battle against the

Ender is the most innocent-looking, sweet little boy ever. But he is more correctly a genius, bad to the bone soldier that could ever be chosen for the program. As for Peter, Ender’s brother, he’s a terrifying monster… until he thinks no one’s watching. One night, after tormenting Ender, he thought the little boy was asleep. “I’m sorry,” He said. “I'm sorry, I know how it feels. I'm sorry, I'm your brother. I love you.” You really can’t judge anyone in Ender’s Game by what they do, you need to know more because they always turn around and do something completely out of their character. I also learned that your best friends are the one’s you can count on one hand. Ender trusts so few people, and he’s right to. His sister Valentine, his Launchy friends Alai and Shen, and his Salamander Army friend Petra are Ender’s trustworthy friends. Those are only two of many different lessons one can learn from Ender’s

He was under order from adult officials, he wasn’t even aware he was actually committing genocide, and his Ego would prevent him from not committing the act. This is a quote from Ender’s Game “I don’t want Ender being comfortable with the end of the world.” (Card 86). This proves that the officials who are involved in training Ender aren’t looking out for him, they’re shaping Ender to be the next commander. They put Ender through various tests to prove his loyalty, commitment, and perseverance, all which put a toll on Ender.

When Ender is at the battle school, it is evident that the training and harsh atmosphere is taking a toll on him, “Since becoming commander, he never slept more than five hours a night…Sometimes he worked at his desk…straining his eyes to use the dim display. Usually, though, he stared at the invisible ceiling and thought” (Card 174). Later, he is not even able to get a joke, “therefore Dr. Device. It was a joke.’ Ender didn’t see what was funny about it” (Card 273). When Ender discovered he was tricked into destroying the entirety of the buggers, he became depressed thinking about the genocide that he had just committed, “Real. Not a game. Ender’s mid was too tired to cope with it all. They weren’t just points of light in the air, they were real ships that he had fought with and real ships he had destroyed. And a real world he had blasted to oblivion” (Card 297).

One theme that I noticed throughout the novel is how something small can represent something so big like the game that they played in Battle School was a simple game but it was everything they had so it meant so much to them. Another example of this theme is when Ender was in Command School working on the “simulator” and Ender viewed the game as child’s play when in reality

The officers took note that Ender seemed happier after the letter. Graff had prepared rigged battles for Ender, so see how he would deal with them. Ender was taken to his new quarters as a commander. He got an army named “Dragon Army”, which was said to lose 2/3 of their battles. After meeting up with his troops and organizing everyone into their bunks, they all headed to the battle room. He taught them how to fight in a different style, where they used their knees as shields and orientate themselves so the door would be downwards. During the session, Ender picked on a small kid named Bean. Ender gave the kid a similar treatment to how Graff treated him. Bean demanded a toon, and Ender gave him his standards and expectations on how to be