Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

Have you ever been looking for someone that did not even know? In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card uses conflict between Ender and his siblings and classmates to show why Ender was chosen for Battle School. In the book, the government is searching for the perfect child to someday become the military leader and defeat the buggers. The leader has to have brutality but also have empathy. One household has their first child named Peter. Peter is monitored but he turns out to be too brutal and has no empathy for his actions. Valentine is the household’s second child, but she does not make the cut because she is too empathetic and has no aggression. Because the first two children of the household were almost perfect, the government granted permission

In the book, after Valentine asks Peter where the parents are, Peter sharply replies to Valentine, “Mom’s out. I’m in charge.” (Card 10) Because Peter is older and bigger in size, he has the upper hand in controlling his younger siblings. Ender and Valentine know what he is capable of and are very nervous whenever he takes control of things. Later in the excerpt, Peter tells Valentine to, “Keep your fat face out of it, fart mouth.” (11) This characterizes Peter as hateful because of his rudeness towards his own sister. When Peter pins Ender on the ground during a game of ‘Buggers and Astronauts,’ he tells Ender, “I could kill you like this. Just press and press until your’e dead. And I could say that I didn’t know it would hurt you, that we were just playing, and they’d believe me, and everything would be fine. And you’d be dead. And Everything would be fine.” (12) Peter has almost too much brutality that I characterize him as a psychopath that is willing to murder his own brother for his enjoyment. Because Peter was too controlling, hateful and brutal, and lacks any signs of empathy, Peter is not selected to go to Battle School which puts a distance between him and Ender because his brother was

This child was named Ender. Ender is characterized as empathetic, passive, and brutal by the events that he takes part in. When Ender was playing the ‘Buggers and Astronauts’ game, he put on the mask and showed his empathy when he thought about the buggers and how they lived. “Ender put on the mask. It closed him in like a hand pressed tight against his face. ‘But isn’t this how it feels to be a bugger?’ thought Ender. ‘They don’t wear this face like a mask, it is their face. On their home worlds, do buggers put on human masks and play? And what do they call us? Slimies, because we’re so soft and oily compared to them?’ ” (11) Towards the end of the game, Peter becomes angry at Ender for taking off his mask while he was in pain. “Ender began to take off the mask. Peter put a toe against Ender’s groin. ‘Don’t take off the mask,’ Peter said. Ender pulled the mask down into place, and took his hands away. Peter pressed again with his foot. Pain shot through Ender; he doubled up.” (12) Because Ender doesn’t fight his brother’s commands, he is seen as passive. Later when Ender got into a fight with his classmates after he got his monitor removed, Ender told Mr. Graff that, “Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they’d leave me alone for