Ender then sets out on a journey to find a new home for the buggers where they can live in peace. The detail within the book, along with the greater influence placed on characters other than Ender within it, make the novel better than the movie. Three of the most important points in Ender’s game are how Ender was selected for battle school, how he overcame each challenge he faced as he tried to be moved up to command school, and how he tried to make things right at the end of the story with the bugger species. Ender’s parents were selected to have a third child, something that was not permitted by the government.
Ender doesn’t like hurting people much at the beginning but towards the end he becomes a soldier and a killer. Ender leaned his head against the wall of the corridor and cried until the bus came. I am just like Peter. Take my monitor away, and I am just like Peter. This quote shows that Ender doesn’t want to turn out violent like his older brother, but the government forced him to.
This quote comes directly from Colonel Graff, who ultimately monitored Ender the most. Thus, they knew that he would most likely agree to going to battle school. Another example of manipulation from early in the book is when Ender beats up Stilson, who bullies him. Unbeknownst to Ender, Ender actually beat Stilson to his death. The I.F. selectively does not tell Ender this information.
Kessel says that this is all used to by Card to make the reader sympathize for Ender. This allows him to be portrayed as a killer who commits mass genocide, yet is innocent because he has good motives. Kessel goes on to
Chapter 4. “I am not a killer, Ender said to himself over and over. I am not peter. No matter what Graff says, I’m not. I was defending myself.”
During the flight to the Battle School, he showed everyone that he is brilliant by explaing the law of gravity. However, Graff isolated him from the other students. Ender started living with his recruits, Launchies. When they went to the battleroom, Ender figured out how to move around in zero gravity with another member named Alai. Alai helped Ender to fit in with the rest of the group and that way Ender ended his isolation.
Did I join in? Just stood there, watching, like a teacher” (Card 140). Ender grows increasingly callous toward his close ones as a result of his friends' refusal to include him in their friendship. Ender realises that he has been played in the hand of Graff whereby he has been isolated from all his emotional attachments to make him a fighting machine he is planned to be made into. By the time Ender becomes the commander of “Dragon” army, he has a build up of anger and frustration.
In Orson Scott Card’s book Ender’s Game, Ender is continually set up against impossible odds by the International Fleet, which is part of a plan to train Ender to fight in the Third Invasion and end the bugger wars forever. Ender’s trials are portrayed more convincingly in the book, as the book shows him struggling with the expectations placed upon him more so than in the movie. An important theme in Ender’s Game is that Ender is continually kept in the dark about the events happening around him. This theme is prevalent throughout the book, and sets the stage for the book’s climax, the Third Invasion.
The first major event that showed Ender enduring some troubles was when he woke up in the middle of the night and found that “there was blood” on his bed, and he had been “gnawing on his own fist” (285) in the middle of the night, in his sleep. This revealed to the reader that the strong and powerful Ender might be beginning to crack and show a
"…she squeezed his knee…where he had always been most ticklish. But almost at the same moment, he caught her wrist in his hand. His grip was very strong, even though his hands were smaller than hers and his own arms were slender and tight. For a moment he looked dangerous; then he relaxed." () Unknowingly Ender has surrendered to the virtuous boy he once was in exchange for the arduous adolescent he is now, confirming what the Battle School destined him to become.
This was one of the reasons why he was the perfect choice to be the commander. He also had a tremendous amount of guilt after (unknowingly) killing all the buggers and the pilots he and the squad leaders had controlled. This guilt would only be resolved when Ender finds a purpose as Speaker for the Dead and finding a safe place for the egg to
After going into space for battle training, he becomes isolated from the other students immedetaly. Ender overcoming challenges finally begins to be accepted by the other students, only to be transferred and isolated again.
However, the majority of the battles he fights are constructed and orchestrated and controlled by the Adults. Ender lives in a military archetype which assumes humans are compliant, flexible, controllable pawns, tool to be used for the benefit of others. Ender’s insecurities,doubts and fears, as to why he is so isolated, how he is becoming more like petter, how he is an ostracized genius, all that sets him apart– make him diligent, sympathetic, preservant, resilient, flexible, and above all pliable, impressionable, malleable, qualities far more common in children. Supporting quote: “‘So what do we do now?’ asked Alai.
After all of the trauma, heartbreak, and mental abuse that the Battle School put Ender through, he has finally broken down. Over the course of a few years, Ender’s human endurance has been pushed far past his limits. Once again, he had to force himself onto another as an act of self-defense. Although he did not wish to harm either of his past attackers, Ender did not want to be killed either. After his fight with Bonzo, Ender no longer has faith in the Battle School.
Therefore tricking the commander and the squadron leaders was the only choice mankind has against forces that may destroy humanity. Another reason why the command school authorities kept the truth away from Ender especially is because Ender’s personality is a combination between Valentine’s and Peter’s. Basically a mix between good and evil. If his compassionate side gave in, then the buggers might take over the world. Although his kindness might cost the destruction of his world, his killer instinct might take rash decisions.
