Manipulation and Deception in Ender's Game

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

“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

The IF and teachers graduated Ender on to Commander School. Before he actually goes to Commander School, he spends three months on Earth, during which he decides he doesn't want to continue going to school. Graff decides to use Valentine to manipulate him into going back to school. "We meant his leave to last only a few days. But you see he doesn't seem interested in going on with his education. Oh so I'm therapy again" (Card 233).

  First, the exposition introduces us to the setting which is a future Earth under attack from aliens called Buggers and also to the protagonist, Ender, a boy who displays both intelligence and a potential for violence. Ender is an ordinary boy who lives with his mother and father who lives in the futuristic world where the earth is under attack from aliens called Buggers. When Ender self-defends himself from bullies, people notice intelligence and violence in him. For this reason, the higher-ups recruit Ender to Battle School where he is trained for the Bugger Wars. This background

Ender lives in 3 major homes all of which contain the cornerstones of home for Ender. Ender’s first home is earth where he is constantly faces peters lies and is alienated for being a third with his only friend being his sister who is “ ‘his monitor now’, said Peter. ‘You better watch him, day and night’ ” (Card 13). This friendship is abruptly removed when Ender goes to Battle School, where “There aren’t any vacations from battle school. No visitors, either. A full course of training lasts until you’re sixteen” (Card 21). While in Battle School, Ender adopts it as his home because it exhibits the building blocks of what home is for Ender through Ender’s constant isolation and the lies from every teacher made Battle School home for Ender and Ender “wanted to go home, back to the Battle School, he only place in the universe where he belonged” (Card 225) even though during his first night at Battle School Ender felt “the ache was there, thick in his throat and the front of his face, hot in his chest and in his eyes. I want to go home” (Card 44). This exhibits the extent to which Ender’s isolation exists because even when he manages to feel at home, while completely disconnected from Earth, he is suddenly forced to leave and go to Command School. Command School “was hopeless … the ceilings were too low for the width, the tunnels too narrow. It was not a comfortable place” (Card 257). Through this constant changing of the location of Ender’s physical home the foundation of home for Ender is always

He believes Ender is naive compared to him. This quote from the book talks about how even the teachers are manipulators and liars, Ender realizes this and shuts himself out to everyone but his closest friends and Valentine. Finally, Ender

Almost everyone will be manipulated throughout their life, it might of already happened, and the time might of not come yet. In the book Ender's Game, Ender is the protagonist who is very intelligent and successful just at the age of six. Ender is considered an outcast because he is a third kid where in a fictional universe it is embarrassing to have three children. Ender is manipulated for being a third. Enders characterization reveals the theme that manipulation leads to destruction.

In Ender’s Game, written by Orson Scott Card, manipulation and ruthlessness are common themes in this novel. Peter is the big brother of Ender and Valentine and is gifted with sharp thinking and an extreme lack of compassion. Being a ruthless character who is driven solely by power, Peter eventually takes over the world and establishes himself as Hegemon, the leader of the world. Manipulative by nature, Peter also uses other’s weaknesses to his own advantage. Although he is driven by evil motives, Peter’s genius along with being ruthless and manipulative are the traits that eventually allow Peter to be Hegemon and establish world peace.

Ender’s rocky journey to becoming a great commander can be broken into three specific periods; separation from everything he was familiar with as a child, initiation into his new life to school in space, and the life he lives after the final battle.

Ender is constantly thinks about turning out like Peter and he does not want to fall into Peter’s evil footsteps as he is heartless. There is no part of him that desires control, and when he has it, he wishes only to avoid the abuses that he sees others commit. But Ender learns that in life we are sometimes forced to play games that we would rather not play, and that sometimes winning must be second to nothing else. Still, he manages to retain his humanity and his compassion wins out in the end, as he sets out to repay his debt to the buggers. The government plays all sorts of schemes like manipulation to acquire success. The government manipulates Valentine, the students of the battle school and especially Ender (SparkNotes). The narrator says, “He toyed with the idea of trying to be like the other boys.” (Card 121). Most of Ender’s identity problems come from his worry that he’s a bully and a killer, like Peter.

He was asked to be a commander of his own army. They still wanted more, they put him in an army that has been discontinued for 4 years. Of course, he was given a group of people that didn’t know what they were doing, no veterans either. Ender has to start this team from stage one. He had to think out of the box. Ender was given a little kid named Bean, he saw potential in him because it reminded him of himself. He wanted him to be as successful as himself. Ender used all of the skills his was taught, and retaught them to his army. He thought differently than other army’s. He began having battles, he had the best

All that Ender does in the book shows that he cares about others, no matter what. Ender is cursed but blessed at the same time. What I mean by this is that when he fights all of the fights in the book from Stilson to Bernard to the Buggers, he beats them all senselessly to ensure that there are no future conflicts between them all. It says “Ender kicked him again, viciously, in the ribs. Stilson groaned and rolled away from him. Ender walked around him and kicked him again, in the crotch.”(6). As you can see, he beats up Stilson extremely bad, but then feels sorry for it. After the fight with Stilson, it claims that “Ender leaned his head against the wall of the corridor and cried until the bus came.”(6). Second, Ender is a dynamic character with different levels of characteristics that describe him in different situations. When he is fighting the giant in chapter 10 of Ender’s Game, “he burrowed into the eye, climbed right in, burrowed in and in”(51). He found a way to beat the giant without losing the game to the cheap programmers. So, this shows that Ender is a witty hero. Lastly, Ender is a very smart character. He very early figures out the adults at camp are trying to manipulate the kids to fight and destroy. Ender also figures out how to “counter” bullies that were trying to hurt him all the time. Not only can he counter-attack, but he can now take that skill and use it

He is favored by the sergeant. This may sound favorable but as the next quote shows, it isn’t. “When the sergeant picked on you, the others liked you better. But when the officer prefers you, the others hate you”(Card 26). When the sergeant openly showing favor for ender it ends up making him a target for bullying by the other recruits.

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

Ender himself is a figure of Christ, not only does he come from a religious family, but he also relates to Jesus. Ender represents the good in humanity and comes as a savior for humanity. Relating to Jesus, he’s all alone, and he’s put through great physical suffering, during which even he begins to doubt himself. Ender even has his own “disciples” when he is given his own army, and he enlightens them with information just like Jesus had done.(Card,1985,163) Jesus had been lied to by Judas his very own disciple, someone he communed with. Ender was lied to by Graff, Mazer, and the whole International Fleet; he trusted them and they backstabbed him. He died within himself all lost of every innocence he had left, he died for the sake of humanity.